All About Books discussion

Please discuss our winner here.

Just bought the book on audible, looking forward to listening to it.

Good choice. I look forward to the discussion.

I really enjoyed this book, look forward to the discussion.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

A depressing and yet very important story about the victims of the Whitechapel murders (aka Jack the Ripper). Good grief - the murderer is so sensationalize that my phone autocapitalizes Ripper.

These women remind me of our current missing First Nations women. The cycles of poverty, oppression and addiction. Incredibly hard to hear at times.

I read this while also reading A Christmas Carole: Dickens' Classic Illustrated by Ronald and the two complemented each other to provide a picture of the time.

This book does struggle with the same issues as Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas which deals with the oppression of the civil actions in the Americas. The stories are repetitive and depressing. The conclusion is very strong and helps the book retain its 4 ⭐️ rating.

And important work in women’s history.

I’ve started reading this. Hubby bought it when it first came out and encouraged me to look at it but I thought it would be too depressing. But it’s really not what I expected at all.

Read this earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was impressed with the degree of research that went into this book. Things change so much and yet so little.

I just got this on my Kindle! Thanks for the reviews so far that it was worth the read.

This sounds so interesting. If it’s available on audiobook. I will read it.

Or listen to it. Obviously you don’t read audiobooks lol

Jade wrote: "Or listen to it. Obviously you don’t read audiobooks lol"

It is.

Oh good, when it comes to most books, I rely on audible as I just don’t have the attention span for most books. Always a lot easier when the narrator is reading the book out to me so I can do other things like play candy crush or colouring.

I have just bought it on audible, already stuck in to reading / listening to it lol

I will share my thoughts here when I am done, just don't expect a five star review haha. I am just not one for writing book reviews.

My library had the audio through hoopla

Took a break to finish Dombey and Son but so far I feel the author is trying stretch the sources she does have very thinly. I feel if I were to present this as an essay. It wouldn’t get great marks.

Jade wrote: "Took a break to finish Dombey and Son but so far I feel the author is trying stretch the sources she does have very thinly. I feel if I were to present this as an essay. It wouldn’t get great marks."

I am glad I am not the only one who thought that. Felt like the author was trying so hard to change this perception so many people have had of the victims with very little evidence.

I am 2/5 through and so shocked by how much was known about the two women and their families who were killed first, neither of whom were likely ever prostitutes but were quickly given this label to maybe try and make sense of something so horrific .

Just finished this this morning and have posted a brief review which in no way does justice to the book! In the end I could not put it down and feel deeply moved by the stories of these long dead victims. However, as Rubenhold clearly shows, setting aside the cruel nature of their deaths, the five women symbolise the victim hood of countless C19 women helpless or almost helpless in the face of the prejudices and social attitudes towards women of the time condemned to a life of drudgery and childbearing, highly vulnerable when faced with the death or loss of a father or husband or other male protector and often suffering multiple bereavements and abuses for which alcohol may often have seemed the only way to escape for a little while.

Six of my own family... great grandparents brought up their families in relative poverty in London in the last quarter of C19and first dozen years of C20. Rubenhold has given me a deeper dive into the strata of lives of the period and its many vulnerabilities. My maternal grandfather was taken in as a border, aged seven, when his ex soldier father died, to a military school around 1890 and refused to leave when his mother turned up two years later with another man in tow. He had shoes on his feet and was being cared for and educated. The school also encouraged his latent musicality which gave him such joy throughout his life. Such a school is described by Rubenhold as one of the victims attended it.


The book is a powerful social history and it is deeply ironic that these five women, through the macabre association of their deaths, provide such a broad and contrasting glimpse into the lives of the countless forgotten women of the era.

Just finished this, despite my, well I wouldn’t call it confusion or worry but I was hesitant to give it a try as it felt like the author was trying to stretch the sources. It’s usually in those times, records were poorly kept unless you were rich or royalty.

I did end enjoying this book, I liked that the author attempted to give the victims back their identity as they were obviously much more than a name and a statistic to their families and friends. I’m glad I listened to this book as it helped give me more insight to these women.