If Looks Could Kill
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Two starred reviews!
An instant New York Times bestseller!
From Printz Honor–winning and New York Times bestselling author Julie Berry, a true-crime-nail-biter-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 thing: 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jack the Ripper isn't the only monster stalking the streets of 1888 New York City in this overstuffed but inventive Greek mythology-infused thriller from Berry (Lovely War). Eighteen-year-old Tabitha Woodward leaves Troy, N.Y., for the city, joining the Bowery chapter of the Salvation Army intending to make friends and help people. Instead, she and her peevish, pious roommate, Pearl Davenport, spend long days inviting disinterested saloon customers to worship gatherings and hawking newsletters to the disenfranchised. Pearl refuses to deviate from their assigned mission—until a teenage girl is swept up by a brothel madam and Pearl insists on mounting a rescue. Meanwhile, things in London are getting too hot for Jack the Ripper after he commits five murders, so he relocates to N.Y.C. to continue his work. Little does he know, a metropolitan sisterhood of Medusas seeks vengeance for the women he's killed. Berry intersperses Tabitha's first-person narration with third-person chapters from Jack and Pearl's perspectives, their stories and fates entwining in tandem. Lengthy setup mires initial pacing, but witty banter, intrepid female characters, and thoughtful meditations on faith reward readers' patience. Primary characters cue as white. Ages 12–up.
