Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold

92 reviews

booksandlattesaddict's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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beebeewin's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

As someone who had heard of Jack the Ripper all my life, it is a sad realization that until this book I hadn't thought about who his victims were. We embrace him as this thrilling mystery who deserves to be remembered, while the victims of his crimes are just demonstrations of his prowess. This book flipped that narrative on its head. With poetic writing and unflinching honesty, Rubehold gives voice to the five women and the society, with values that are eerily similar to modern society values, that put them in harms way. It was a society that failed to see them as anything but prostitutes deserving of their fate, something still echoed today. As said by Rubenhold, "By embracing him [Jack the Ripper], we embrace the set of values that surrounded him in 1888, which teaches women that they are of a lesser value and can expect to be dishonored and abused. We enforce the notion that 'bad women' deserve punishement and that 'prostitutes' are a subspecies of female." Allowing ourselves to paint over the fact that these women were complex mothers, friends, wives, lovers, and humans, gives Jack the Ripper the power once again over women who were already powerless. "Insisting Jack the Ripper killed prostitutes also makes the story of a vicious series of murders slightly more palatable." We get to ignore that these were human beings who were poor, disenfranchised, and misunderstood, to instead "gawp at and examine this miracle of malevolence... by figuratively stepping over the bodies of those he murdered, and in some case, stopping to kick them as we walked past." It was heartbreaking to here the story of Annie, Kate, Elizabeth, Mary Jane, and Polly and know that many women today like indigenous women, sex workers, trans women of color, are judged in the same fashion with violence against them being unnoticed or ignored. I will never see Jack the Ripper the same. I would say my biggest complaint was keeping all the names, dates, places, etc. straight. I almost wish there were more figures, timelines, or maps to help with context. I think for such a researched and thorough book it would have helped me absorb and understand more easily. That said I would definitely recommend this book to those true crime lovers, history buffs, and those looking for an informative yet tragic read. Your perspective will be forever changed.

Othe great quotes:

Shein anyone???- "Poor women's labor was cheap because poor women were considered expendable..."

One women, Elisabeth, was reported to police as a sex worker so she had to weekly strip and have her body searched for STIs along with other women, in public, and in the cold. "For a young women who had been raised in a religious community... the indignity of this experience would have been shocking. However, as Elisabeth was pregnant with a illegitimate child, is is likely that she, like so many women of her era, would have internalized the punishment as a justifiable one. Society and the church would have her believe she sinned against her parents, her community, herself, and God." Barf.

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jacs63's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This is a stunning book for so many reasons.
It gives a face, a name and a voice, to the 5 victims of JtR.
We so often only hear about the perpetrator, and not the victims.
The book discusses the fact that thru the falsehood and misinformation spread by the Metropolitan Police and journalists at the time, it was convenient for us all to think that JtR only killed prostitutes.
Only 2 of the 5 were actually known to be sex workers.
There is no evidence that the other 3 were sex workers at all, but I for one believed the misinformation that was spread.
One thing that all 5 women shared was that they are all alcoholics.
I wonder why??
Maybe because cheap alcohol was the only thing that dulled the pain, if only for a while, of the poverty; the hunger; the homelessness; the early death of family members, including their own spouses or their own babies/ children; the death sentence that they were given if their spouse died and left them, and their children, destitute; their treatment as a woman with no legal rights; the living hell that was the 'Workhouse'; the lack of education for woman; the disease; the filth and vermin; the lack of medicines; the lack of clean water and sanitation; the violence; the lack of hope, respect and dignity etc etc etc.
Basically the treatment of women/girls in the 1800's.

It's full of interesting and informative historical facts about what life, and death, was like, for women in particular, in the Victorian 1800's.

It's sad and horrific and devastating. It's a book that won't leave me for a while, I don't think.
Probably not a book to read if you are depressed or feeling melancholic.

We will never know who JtR was.
But we can know who his victims were.
These women were daughters; sisters; wives; lovers; mothers; friends.
May they never be forgotten.
RIP and love, Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Kate and Mary Jane.

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greatexpectations77's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

4.25

I really appreciate how intensively this was researched, and I think it's a really important idea. I could definitely see revisiting this and reading it again in small pieces. It tells such an interesting story about just women in general during this time period in England, and I think it's fascinating how so many ideas that were standard then are still hanging on today.

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emilo's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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oceanwriter's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

Behind Jack the Ripper is the lives of his victims. Given the illusiveness of this particular killer, the women he slayed tend to be swept aside. This book gives them a voice.

Each section of the book discusses each woman: Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate, and Mary Jane. We learn about their lives leading up to their murders rather than the murder themselves. Along with the story of their lives, the author provides a detailed history of life in England at the time.

I was initially surprised by the fact Jack the Ripper was hardly mentioned, but I think I ultimately enjoyed the book more because of it. It was incredibly insightful and put a lot of things in perspective. I will say that this was about 60% general history and 40% the five women. While interesting, this did cause the narration to drag at times. It’s worth wading through the slow bits. There is a lot to take in.

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