Search This Blog







2025 Cover Lovers Reading Challenge (hosted by Yours Truly)

2025 Literary Escapes Challenge
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas
- California (6)
- Colorado (3)
- Connecticut
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (1)
- Georgia (1)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho
- Illinois (1)
- Indiana (1)
- Iowa (3)
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine (2)
- Maryland
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan (2)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico
- New York (7)
- North Carolina (3)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (1)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (1)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (1)
- Utah (1)
- Vermont (3)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (1)
- Washington, D.C.* (1)
International:
- Australia (3)
- Canada (3)
- England (14)
- France (2)
- Italy (1)
- Japan (1)
- Norway (1)
- Puerto Rico (1)
- Scotland (1)


2025 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge



2025 Build Your Library Reading Challenge









Monday, January 30, 2017
YA Jack the Ripper Novel Just Okay
2:00 AM
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Audrey Rose hides a secret desire behind her high-born Victorian facade. The 17-year-old is fascinated by science, specifically forensics, the science of crime and death. As often as she can, Audrey Rose sneaks away from the home she shares with her paranoid father and protective older brother to her uncle's laboratory. An unofficial apprentice, she watches and learns all she can from her Uncle Jonathon's study of recently-deceased bodies. Disguised as a young man, she even attends his lectures on forensics at a local boy's school.
When Jonathon starts receiving the corpses of women brutalized in similar ways, it becomes apparent that a serial killer is on the loose in London. With the help of a handsome schoolmate, Audrey Rose is determined to find the killer. To her shock, the clues lead her in the one direction she doesn't want to go ...
I find books about forensics, especially in the earliest days of the discipline, intriguing, so naturally I wanted to give Stalking Jack the Ripper, a debut novel by Kerri Maniscalco, a go. What did I think? Well, it tells a compelling story. Familiar, yes. Predictable, yes. But I still found myself engrossed. Even though I could tell where the plot was going, I wanted to know how it all wrapped up. My biggest problem with the novel was with our heroine, Audrey Rose. A wealthy Victorian young woman flitting off to a bloody lab and gory crime scenes frequently without raising many eyebrows seems extremely far-fetched. The fact that she cares nothing about her reputation or family name means she risks little by dabbling in the "dark arts," making her story less tense and urgent than it could have been. Audrey Rose also seems more interested in science than humanity, which makes her difficult to empathize with at times. Considering all this, I didn't end up enjoying Stalking Jack the Ripper nearly as much as I thought I would. It kept me reading, but in the end, it was just okay for me.
(Readalikes: Reminds me a little of A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), violence, and blood/gore
To the FTC, with love: I bought a copy of Stalking Jack the Ripper from Changing Hands Bookstore with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger. Ha ha.
1 comment:
Comments make me feel special, so go crazy! Just keep it clean and civil. Feel free to speak your mind (I always do), but be aware that I will delete any offensive comments.
P.S.: Don't panic if your comment doesn't show up right away. I have to approve each one before it posts to prevent spam. It's annoying, but it works!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(Atom)


Reading
Rabbit Rabbit by Dori Hillestad Butler and Sunshine Bacon

Listening
The Morning House by Maureen Johnson


Followin' with Bloglovin'

-
The Double Play5 hours ago
-
Sunday Post/Sunday Salon5 hours ago
-
Witchkiller7 hours ago
-
You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Sutanto10 hours ago
-
July Linkity Needed That Long Weekend10 hours ago
-
Sunday Salon: July 6, 202510 hours ago
-
-
A Week of Summer Dinners for July15 hours ago
-
Monthly Wrap Up June 202518 hours ago
-
-
Bookish Quote of the Day!!!1 day ago
-
Week in Review #271 day ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Clean teen books for Summer5 days ago
-
Books read in June5 days ago
-
-
-
-
No Roundup this month2 months ago
-
-
Sunday Post #5682 months ago
-
-
February 2025 Reading Wrap Up3 months ago
-
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery4 months ago
-
-
-
I'm Still Reading - This Was My October7 months ago
-
Review: The Duke and I10 months ago
-
Girl Plus Books: On Hiatus11 months ago
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?1 year ago
-
6/25/23 Extra Ezra2 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?2 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-

Grab my Button!


Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ► 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ▼ 2017 (157)
- ► 2016 (157)
- ► 2015 (188)
- ► 2014 (133)
- ► 2013 (183)
- ► 2012 (193)
- ► 2011 (232)
- ► 2010 (257)
- ► 2009 (211)
- ► 2008 (192)


2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge
2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction
2023 - Middle Grade Fiction
2022 - Middle Grade Fiction
2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction

I have a hard time with these types of books. While it would have been nice for a women to get herself involved in solving crime back then without anyone caring, it's just too hard to swallow knowing it wouldn't have been possible. Plus since they never caught Jack The Ripper I hate reading books about him. Leaves me unsatisfied.
ReplyDelete