Book Talk | Stalking Jack The Ripper

 

Title: Stalking Jack the Ripper
Author: Kerri Maniscalco
Page Count: 326
Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction, YA
Goodreads Rating: 4.0
My Rating: 5.0
Book Cover Rating: 5.0
Bad Book Review: I do not have very good deduction skills.
Review Type: Spoiler free


Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

 ''Roses have both petals and thorns, my dark flower. You needn't believe something weak because it appears delicate. Show the world your bravery.''

The story
Where do I even start? I love this book so much that I've read it twice in one year. After reading it a second time now, I realised that it's actually one of my all time favorite books. This story is so incredibly thrilling that even the second time around I could not put it down. You constantly find yourself trying to solve the case alongside the main character Audrey Rose and her companion Thomas, and I kept going over all the details of the case over and over again.
Thomas has great deduction skills, I most certainly do not haha. Oh how wrong I was about Jack the Ripper over and over again. Every time I thought I had figured out who Jack was I turned out to be so terribly wrong and I never saw the end coming (which I'm obviously not going to talk about). Honestly that only made the book better.

I also really loved the historical aspect of the book. As most of the people who read this book probably already know: I love history and Victorian England just so happens to be one of my favorite historical periods. I loved seeing the time period come to life in this book and Kerri did an amazing job making it as accurate as possible, or at least that's how I felt, and it really brought this book to life. It was very interesting to see how Audrey Rose was constantly being judged for simply being a woman, as was normal during that time.

The characters
I always think that the characters and really make or break a book, even if the story is great. The two most important characters in this book made this already great story even better.
Let's start off with Audrey Rose. As I already said before she is constantly being judged by men for simply being born a woman. She literally does not care, which I really liked. I love books with strong female characters and Audrey Rose is no exception. She dives straight into a world of men and doesn't care about what anyone thinks, just so she can do what she loves doing (what just so happens to be cutting into corpses but alright, you do you). Another thing I loved about Audrey, or more the way she's written, is that she still feels her emotions very strongly, which kept her very human. Sometimes in books I find that authors create this perfect character, which just doesn't feel very real to me.

Thomas is the Audrey Rose her companion during this case and together they make such a great team. In the beginning of the book I thought Thomas would be your standard ''I'm amazing and arrogant look at me'' kind of character, but I was so wrong about him. Yes he does have a pretty high opinion of himself, though I do believe that his cockiness is also to hide his real emotions. But honestly, I thought his funny comments and self loving gave this book just the funny twist that it otherwise would have missed. And once you get to know Thomas as a character, he turns out to be hiding so much, which really makes you realise there is more to a person that they might show.

The romance (this could be seen as a spoiler? idk...)
There is also a (to me) great romance in this book, simply because it's not really a 'romance'. The chemistry between these characters is so strong, yet Audrey doesn't really act to and Thomas keeps making comments that are hilarious and sweet at the same time. All of this only made me ship them more tbh. I can't wait to see what the next book will bring.

I know I didn't describe any negative things about this book, but honestly that's just because I couldn't find any. I'm sure there are people who have some sort of critique about the story or the characters, but this novel contained everything I love in a book: a thrilling storyline, likable characters, an amazing romance and it also happens to be written very well.

★★★★★