Stalking Jack the Ripper was written by Kerri Maniscalco. Genres tied to it are Young Adult, Horror, and Romance.
WOW. This book messed me up and left me breathless and wanting to cry. It is extremely dark in nature and the entire book is mildly creepy. There is an underlying romance, as well, and I am a sucker for any kind of romance!
Set in 1888 Victorian London, the story follows Audrey Rose Wadsworth, who is working with her uncle (behind her father’s back) to study forensics. She decides some of the corpses have some similar facts and sets out on finding out what’s going on. She meets Thomas, who works under her uncle, and he tags along on every adventure Audrey goes on. She travels around town, talks to quite an assortment of people, has some rather gruesomely terrifying experiences, and ultimately, learns a great deal. There is a ton of witty flirtation between Audrey and Thomas, and although she may not want to admit it, she’s totally enjoying it!
Honestly though, my favorite relationship in this story is the relationship between Audrey and her brother, Nathaniel. He’s so sweet, kind, protective, and caring toward Audrey and they are simply the best of friends. You can tell that they are incredibly close and that there’s no one she trusts and cares for more. Audrey looks up to her brother in a way that is sure to melt your heart.
I feel as if I have some similar characteristics with Audrey. We are both curious young girls, we don’t always fit in with what’s “typical,” and we both have a very interesting fascination with macabre situations. She thinks as though I do, such as on page 269 of this book, when she is faced with a corpse that she finds out has been “found cut to pieces.”
The paragraph states, “I was both sick with worry about who’d been murdered, and fighting the dark curiosity of wanting to know what remained of the woman. How had she been cut up? Did the reporter mean her throat was slashed, or were there actual pieces of her flesh missing? I shouldn’t want to know those morbid details. But, oh, how I couldn’t control those unseemly questions from springing up like new blades of grass in my mind.”
The details of this book are amazing. If you read it a second time, you read an entirely different book. Trust me. If you’ve read this book, or if you are going to read it, I hope you did not/do not have the ending spoiled because it (the ending) will wreck your world. That’s all I’m saying about that.
This book is not for the faint of heart. It’s sinister. There are some quite gruesome details and some quite spooky situations. I would recommend it to anyone who has a fascination with macabre, Jack the Ripper, or spooky/creepy stories in general. It is well written and is an overall great story. Kerri took the liberty of diving into the legitimate facts of Jack the Ripper, so that it’s that much more authentic. I rate it 5 stars!
Throw Out The Box 