Retelling The Ripper

In the foggy streets of Victorian London, a killer is lurking, and Audrey Rose Wadsworth is determined to find him. In a time of satin ball gowns and fanciful tea parties Audrey, a highborn young lady, studies the art of forensic science against the wishes of her protective father and the judging eyes of society. Her skills as a forensic pathologist soon drag her into the path of one of the most infamous serial killers in history, Jack The Ripper. As her investigation leads her closer and closer to The Ripper, Audrey soon realizes that Jack might have been closer to her than she realized all along.

Stalking Jack The Ripper is an imaginative look into the mysterious case of the Victorian serial killer Jack The Ripper. Throughout the years, many movies, books, and TV shows have been made based on the unsolved Ripper case, but what sets this novel apart from the rest is its genre. Stalking Jack the Ripper is a part of the Young Adult (YA) genre instead of the crime drama or detective story genre.

Knowing this book would be different from most Ripper novels, I was automatically drawn into the story by the amazing descriptions of Victorian London. Everything from the cobblestone streets to the lavish Victorian gowns are described in a way that makes it easy to picture yourself walking down the foggy gaslit streets of London, looking over your shoulder for Jack himself. That, in my opinion, is one of the best parts of a good book. I also love how the author includes photos that are relevant to the story, like a copy of one of the letters sent from Jack to the police during the investigation. She also includes an author's note at the end that lets the reader know where she took creative liberties with the story, so we don't get them confused with the facts.

On the other hand, there are a couple of areas in which I feel like the book is lacking a bit. The first place is the romance aspect of the story. Since this is a YA novel, I expected romance to play a bigger role in it than what it did. I feel like the relationship between Audrey and Thomas was poorly developed and just left at the end of the novel. I also feel like the climax, or the point of highest action, of the story was very bland. There was all this build up to the reveal of Jack, and then just blah. I found the whole scene to be very anticlimactic.

All in all, I thought it was a pretty good book. There were certain elements of the book that I truly loved and enjoyed. And I'll be honest, I do love a good Ripper tale. I think the fascination comes from the fact that the case is still unsolved and probably always will be that way. This retelling was like no other I've ever seen or read and from a point of view that is an entirely new spin on an old story, and that is what I like most about it.

What are you reading right now?

XOXO Kayla