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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
Incredibly thought provoking as it goes into a lot of detail about how women were viewed and treated in Victorian times. Deals respectfully with the five women's stories.
The level of research is evident which I really love.
Non-fiction but very easy to read once you get to the women's stories. I struggled a little more with the introduction.
The level of research is evident which I really love.
Non-fiction but very easy to read once you get to the women's stories. I struggled a little more with the introduction.
This could not hold my attention. I would like to say that I wasn’t in the mood but I’m in the midst of another historical non-fiction read filled with lots of detail, also bleak, and it holds my attention beautifully. I think “The Five” lacks a narrative. Good intentions do not make a good book. My limited experience reminded me of kale. I love kale when it’s prepared correctly, when care is taken to impart flavor and compliment the attributes of kale. Lacking that you have a healthy food that is a chore to digest despite the laudable health benefits. I think this book is the careless version of kale.
UPDATE: This was a selection for my book club. Out of 6 people I knew who were reading the book, 1 finished. She didn’t particularly care for it. Everyone else DNF’d. We’ve had other books mostly not enjoyed but we all still read to completion. Everyone has different tastes for sure but I smell a rat in the 5 star reviews for this book, reminiscent of people who gush over their foul-tasting, miserable, healthy-eating. Not to disparage healthy-eating but we all know some people who do it more for how virtuous it makes them feel rather than the enjoyment derived from eating something delicious.
UPDATE: This was a selection for my book club. Out of 6 people I knew who were reading the book, 1 finished. She didn’t particularly care for it. Everyone else DNF’d. We’ve had other books mostly not enjoyed but we all still read to completion. Everyone has different tastes for sure but I smell a rat in the 5 star reviews for this book, reminiscent of people who gush over their foul-tasting, miserable, healthy-eating. Not to disparage healthy-eating but we all know some people who do it more for how virtuous it makes them feel rather than the enjoyment derived from eating something delicious.
informative
slow-paced
An insightful look into the lives of the victims of the infamous Jack the Ripper. For most people we only knew the fate of these poor women. Some people don’t even know their names, only that Jack killed five women. Women who most likely were prostitutes. A fact that was probably not even truly a fact. For the most part these women were just poor unfortunate women down on their luck in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Their deaths are horrible but their lives were not great either. In a time when the only thing a woman could hope for in life was to be a wife and mother, to deviate from that path, even slightly, would be the end of ones life essentially. The women were not perfect but they went through immeasurable hardships before their untimely deaths.
It was very interesting to read a book about the victims rather than Jack himself. How many retelling have been written that always focus on trying to figure out who the Ripper was? But how may have you read that actually cared about who his victims were? I can’t say I’ve seen many. These women, whose lives got cut short, deserve to have their story told too (even if those stories are incredibly sad). Rebenhold tries very hard to keep an accurate telling of who these women are, which is hard to do when most of the information we have is from newspaper stories. There were a few times in the book that the author states something like “She would feel a failure” or something like that despite the fact we don’t really have any clue what the woman actually felt.
A woman who had lost her husband (and with him, her children) to another woman. A woman who had lost herself to alcohol. A woman who lost everything to illnesses and lies. A woman who lost a promising future to the life and death of lower-class life and an abusive husband. A woman who lost her identity to her profession. All the victims were women who had separated from their husbands or male companions for one reason or another. There were multiple times I had to put the the book because the way women were treated in during this time upset me. If times had been different, if women were allowed to hold jobs with livable wages, get divorces, drink and live with a man out of wedlock without being seen as a failed woman, maybe these women would have lived. All the women were known drunks. I wonder if the Ripper targeted, not prostitutes, but rather alcoholic women. No matter the reason they did not deserve to die. They were victims not just of the Ripper but of the time and customs of when they lived.
Their deaths are horrible but their lives were not great either. In a time when the only thing a woman could hope for in life was to be a wife and mother, to deviate from that path, even slightly, would be the end of ones life essentially. The women were not perfect but they went through immeasurable hardships before their untimely deaths.
It was very interesting to read a book about the victims rather than Jack himself. How many retelling have been written that always focus on trying to figure out who the Ripper was? But how may have you read that actually cared about who his victims were? I can’t say I’ve seen many. These women, whose lives got cut short, deserve to have their story told too (even if those stories are incredibly sad). Rebenhold tries very hard to keep an accurate telling of who these women are, which is hard to do when most of the information we have is from newspaper stories. There were a few times in the book that the author states something like “She would feel a failure” or something like that despite the fact we don’t really have any clue what the woman actually felt.
A woman who had lost her husband (and with him, her children) to another woman. A woman who had lost herself to alcohol. A woman who lost everything to illnesses and lies. A woman who lost a promising future to the life and death of lower-class life and an abusive husband. A woman who lost her identity to her profession. All the victims were women who had separated from their husbands or male companions for one reason or another. There were multiple times I had to put the the book because the way women were treated in during this time upset me. If times had been different, if women were allowed to hold jobs with livable wages, get divorces, drink and live with a man out of wedlock without being seen as a failed woman, maybe these women would have lived. All the women were known drunks. I wonder if the Ripper targeted, not prostitutes, but rather alcoholic women. No matter the reason they did not deserve to die. They were victims not just of the Ripper but of the time and customs of when they lived.
informative
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
dark
informative
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
As well as being a completely gripping read, this is a necessary book advocating empathetically for a group of women that have been mistreated and attacked, both in their physical living forms and in our collective memory of them.
informative
reflective
sad
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced