Reviews - The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women

4.73k reviews for:

The Five: The Lives of Jack the Ripper's Women

So freakin' good!!! An absolutely fascinating read about these women's incredible yet ordinary lives. Rubenhold does an incredible job of writing a history through narrative and drama like no one else I have ever read. I highly recommend to anyone!

sarah517's review against another edition

3.5

dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

cmucce01's review against another edition

5.0

Brilliant history of Jack the Ripper’s five victims. Through census, parish, and workhouse records the lives of these women are tracked across England. I was struck by how precarious their lives were before they were ended by The Ripper — while only one was a prostitute, all of them fell out of the working class through some misfortunes (particularly the loss of their spouse, either through abandonment or death) and alcoholism. While Victorian England viewed their poverty as a moral failing, reading this now makes me wonder just how easy it is for a few wrong steps today to send someone into the same dark spiral that would make them an easy target for a vicious, misogynist killer.

4nna_01's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

ccneary's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

aindrila's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Some of the most vivid and sad reconstructions of the lives of 5 women history decided to ignore and villainise just because they were women. I don’t think I’ve read a non-fiction that had be gripped and so emotional over these historical accounts. They were just girls :(