Is there truly a better feeling than picking up a new book by an author who you think just might be a genius? Friends, I am starting a journey with Julie Berry’s newest book If Looks Could Kill. Many moons ago, I LOVED my time with Lovely War, felt all kinds of things with All The Truth That’s In Me and The Passion Of Dolssa. Now Berry turns her impressive storytelling abilities to Medusa and Jack The Ripper. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but knowing Julie Berry she’ll pull it off.
So, you just might be wondering, what is this book about?
From Printz Honor–winning and New York Times bestselling author Julie Berry, a true-crime-nailbiter-turned-mythic-odyssey pitting Jack the Ripper against Medusa. A defiant love song to sisterhood, a survivors’ battle cry, and a romantic literary tour de force laced with humor.
It’s autumn 1888, and Jack the Ripper is on the run. As London police close in, he flees England for New York City seeking new victims. But a primal force of female vengeance has had enough. With serpents for hair and a fearsome gaze, an awakened Medusa is hunting for one Jack.
And other dangers lurk in Manhattan’s Bowery. Salvation Army volunteers Tabitha and Pearl discover that a girl they once helped has been forced to work in a local brothel. Tabitha’s an upstate city girl with a wry humor and a thirst for adventure, while farmgirl Pearl takes everything with stone-cold seriousness. Their brittle partnership is tested as they team up with an aspiring girl reporter and a handsome Irish bartender to mount a rescue effort, only to find their fates entwine with Medusa’s and Jack’s.
The book opens with a prologue from Jack The Ripper’s perspective and it’s dark, right. He’s justifying what he does by saying these women are bad and are inherently struggling, so he’s doing them a favor by taking their lives. Then we move into the perspective of Tabitha who has newly arrived to serve in the Salvation Army at the Bowery. Tabitha has been paired with a roommate that she hopes will someday be in her wedding, but the reality is that her roommate Pearl comes off as true believer annoying. They’re trying to save souls, apparently. And well, that is as far as I’ve gotten. However, I can tell right from the jump that this is going to be amazing and given my experience with Berry’s previous books, I don’t doubt it’ll make my top favorites of the year.
If you like historical fiction with a fantastical twist, books that are complex and that do things that when you say it out loud it shouldn’t make sense, but as you read you think — yes — yes, that totally works, then I think you start reading If Looks Could Kill With Me.
Available via Amazon, B&N, Bookshop, Libro.FM, Audible
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