Lee-Anne

This book has completely changed how I'll view the Jack the Ripper story going forward. There's actually a line in the conclusion that puts it best: "In order to gawp at and examine this miracle of malevolance we have figurativbely stepped over the bodies of those he murdered, and in some cases, stopped to kick them as we walked past".

And, man, is that ever true.

This is also something that this book tries to address. By turning its attention away from teh killer and instead opt5 to focus on the lives of his victims, it compeletely reframes the narrative. It charts the journey of each of the five victims' lives, from birth to death, as best as possible, and by doing so gives us some idea of who they were as people independent of their iconic deaths. Their lives were often tragic, but ultimately pretty relatable, particularly given the times. This makes the fact that they are so often reduced to their deaths that much more galling, in my opinion.

In essence, this book asks us to not blindly trust the "official records"—which in many cases were either based off third-hand gossip, or so thoroughly twisted as to be completely useless. Instead, it asks us to look past those sensational myths and to finally grant these women the dignity and understanding they have been denied for well over a century.

This was such a magnificent read. An easy five stars with no notes for me. I'll probably circle back and actually write out my thoughts in more detail eventually, but for the moment I need to let this percolate a bit. There's just so much to unpack.

...but damn, that ending was massively cathartic.