The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack the Ripper in The Book Vipers

Nov 13, 2019 Navi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, biography, nonfiction, true-crime, victorian

This book completely took me by surprise. I thought I would enjoy it but did not think that it would be a new favourite. Hallie Rubenhold does an incredible job fleshing out the lives of the women that were killed by Jack the Ripper. I was taken aback by how emotionally invested I was in each of the woman's stories. Even though I knew how their lives would be tragically taken, I found myself still rooting for them. As someone who enjoys reading True Crime, this book really put things in perspect ...more

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Nov 06, 2019 Karen Mace rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, Mary Jane. Names we should all know considering their place in crime history, but many of us don't as more focus is placed on the perpetrator of the crimes against them than the actual victims. But in this staggering work, the author has set about redressing the balance so we can get to know more about the women who were brutally murdered in London in 1888 by Jack the Ripper.

The attention to detail throughout is staggering and I can only begin to imagine how l Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, Mary Jane. Names we should all know considering their place in crime history, but many of us don't as more focus is placed on the perpetrator of the crimes against them than the actual victims. But in this staggering work, the author has set about redressing the balance so we can get to know more about the women who were brutally murdered in London in 1888 by Jack the Ripper.

The attention to detail throughout is staggering and I can only begin to imagine how long it must have taken the author to put this work together. Each woman is given their own section so that their story can be fully told through painstaking research into family trees, newspaper reports and police statements from family and friends, and it just makes for such absorbing reading. It gives you a real glimpse into life in those times, the bleakness, the struggles and the human side of these women who were dealt a rough hand throughout their lives, only for them to be ended in such horrific ways, and then their characters talked down after their deaths.

But this book gives these women a voice, so we learn of their upbringings, the family history and they all came from different backgrounds so there's so many interesting things to learn about life in the past - the attitudes of society, the family dynamics and the devastating effects of addiction are brought to the front and your heart just bled for these women. However they tried to improve their cirumstances, there was always something just around the corner to bring them down once more.

What I also found most profound was the list at the end of the book which was which items the women had on them at the time of their murders. Very poignant and really hit home of just how tragic their lives were.

Mixed in with the local news at the time, the good(well known) and the bad (much less reported!), this book does a magnificent job of transporting the reader back in time and I found it truly astonishing and enthralling. A must read and one of my books of 2019! ...more

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