This book was so good. Like I know I say that about most books but this one was really good. I know it's a popular book and stuff but it was also so unique. It was like, wow, YA but also historical fiction? Yes please thank you very much. 
*This age recommendation is only my opinion. Some younger people might feel comfortable reading this book, and some older people might not. That's fine, either way. Warning for sexual references, murder, violence, lots of gore, disturbing themes and potentially upsetting themes.
There were so many things that I liked about this book but I can't really type/think properly at the moment because I'm in the middle of a music prac lesson so my friends are all playing instruments around me hahahahaha. All I can say front up is that I'm very glad that there's more books in the series! I actually don't have the next book though so I'm hoping that I can go buy it tomorrow (I did not. I still have not bought it).
I really need to read more historical fiction. Despite the fact that I’ve always really liked historical fiction, I haven’t really read that much of it. Not gonna lie, reading Stalking Jack the Ripper had me yearning for The Infernal Devices.
I really liked how Stalking Jack the Ripper included a lot of historical information and detail (I think, I’m not an expert on the Victorian period). I found it really interesting how things like the names of the victims stayed the same as they were in real life. That definitely added to the historical vibe. And the cool photos and stuff from the actual 19th century! Like sometimes there were old pictures of things from the story. My favourite was the Tubercular Leprosy Guy. The photo of the From Hell letter was also super cool and eerie though, although I kinda felt like a year five teacher trying to decipher a student's handwriting and spelling...
Ok so I must admit that when I marked this book as "read" on Goodreads, I got an email with heaps of 1-star reviews of the book from other people. This always happens to me 😠like why, Goodreads, why? Anyway, my point is that I was super excited about this book because I really enjoyed it and then an email comes up saying "SOMEONE HATED THIS BOOK".
As I said before though, I've never read anything like this before so I really liked it. I feel like I'm going through a really-low-level-scary-but-still-creepy stuff phase at the moment and this book definitely fit in with that.
This is random but like... what's up with this book and The Lunar Chronicles? I mean, Cresswell? Blackburn? Sometimes I couldn't take those characters seriously because their names are literally also from another series which in a way is kinda the opposite of Stalking Jack the Ripper.
The mystery in this book was obviously really cool. I really enjoy books where you have no idea who the killer is so you make heaps of predictions in your mind and heaps of your predictions seem outrageous so you think, "no way they aren't the killer" and then they do turn out to be the killer. That was very badly explained but I hope you know what I mean. I feel like I half-knew who the killer was for a while so unfortunately the "plot-twist" wasn't the most plot-twisty but at the same time when the killer and their motives were revealed I was like "wow that's certainly something". I must admit that I did think it got a tiny bit unrealistic at the end, which always seems to happen in books. Am I supposed to like it when stuff gets unrealistic? I don't know. But the ending was also pretty sad.
One thing that I really liked about this book and its main character was Audrey Rose's complicated relationship with religion. Sure, that's sorta kinda an "I'm not like other girls" thing but I did feel like I could relate to her with that. I think I've spoken about this too much, but I have a very weird relationship with religion due to stuff like religious ocd, but I'm surrounded by a lot of Christian people because I go to a Catholic school. I just feel like Audrey Rose was in a bit of a similar situation in a way (I'm not spoiling and saying why) but probably more extreme. So yeah I felt like I related to her in that way.
Speaking of Audrey Rose, she is super cool and badass. I know she's very stereotypical-YA-protagonist in some ways but I still like her. She isn't one of my favourite book protagonists by any means and I don't feel like I connect with her as much as I do with other characters (except the religion thing). Sometimes I did find her a little annoying and lacking depth? But I found it hilarious how her life dream is to, like, cut dead people open. I don't know why.
Something that really annoys me is the fact that the girl on the book's cover, who is presumably supposed to be Audrey Rose, has brown hair. But in the book, her hair is described as black, I'm pretty sure. Didn't she say she has "raven" coloured hair or something? I don't know. The book cover is super cool but that one detain annoys me so much.
Thomas is also a pretty cool character. I sometimes felt like I was more interested in his story than Audrey Rose's. I feel like there's still a heap of potentially sus stuff that I don't know about him and I really want to know more about his life and stuff. He's also very funny at times -- I really enjoy sarcasm hahahahaha.
So yeah. I'm actually writing this review several days after I actually finished the book so I'm not so enthusiastic about it I guess. I also stopped halfway through writing the review so sorry about that... I have not been blogging as much as usual.
But I really did like the book! Stalking Jack the Ripper is a really cool title by the way. I'm very interested to see where the story will go in the next book.
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco, 14+* ★★★★.5
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