Well, this was a horrible story. I honestly don't know what I thought it would be. I guess I had hoped it would have a happier ending than it did, but it's a story about Jack the Ripper, so I made the wrong assumption. The story woven by Alan Moore was a brilliant one that I would believe. A little Wikipedia research showed that there were many Ripper suspects, but me being partial to Free Mason conspiracy theories sees truth in this one if nothing else.
That being said this book was not an enjoyable read and not just because of the subject matter either. Anytime Sir William Gull was on the page the text was going to be mind numbing. He was insane and he had insane out of body experiences that lasted 10 pages at least. The last victim he killed in her home and having the time and privacy to do more to her he would have flashes of teaching in a surgical theater or of strange men calling him a different name. His ramblings were very existential and so so boring. I tried so hard to appreciate what Moore was telling through this character, but it was a little too much to hold my interest. That certainly doesn't make it bad writing it just doesn't make it entertaining writing.
I was surprised though that I found a character that I liked. Inspector Abberline was a very human character to juxtapose with William Gull's transcendent ambitions. He hated Whitechaple, felt out of place with his middle-class wife and wanted to catch this killer. His psuedo-romance with one of the victims was sad and touching at the same time. The parts of the story that focus around him were the parts that actually entertained me because they happened in real time, unlike Gull's out of body experiences.
Though Abberline wasn't the hero of the story-because no one was- you understood and accepted the decisions he made and sympathized with him all the same.
I'm happy to be able to check this book off my list it's made me feel accomplished if nothing else.
