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A review by cayenne503
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold
dark
informative
5.0
Overall: 5/5
Excellent account of the lives of the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper. I was surprised that there was so much information about them, and saddened that it isn’t usually included in the story. It also made me think about the lives of women in general in the Victorian era and how difficult it was for them, especially in poverty.
Research and Accuracy: 5/5
Admittedly I’m taking the author’s word in the information presented but it does seem well researched. When little to no information is available, or is of questionable accuracy, the author does a good job of calling it out and suggesting multiple interpretations.
Characterization: 5/5
The women in this book do not feel like names and dates and nothing else, which is how they are often presented in other media about the Ripper case. They are real women with lives, families, desires, and struggles. While it should have been obvious in hindsight, the fact that they are usually reported as simply prostitutes is a disservice to their memory (and untrue, in most of the cases).
Bias and Perspective: 5/5
Difficult to rate this category. The author absolutely has an agenda/goal for the book: humanize and detail the victims. This inherently requires some amount of bias, otherwise it wouldn’t be very persuasive. However since this book is a reaction against the common perspective of the victims, a fact the author does not try to hide, I think that bias is appropriate and the new perspective she provides is compelling.
Impact: 5/5
I am guilty of enjoying true crime as entertainment—both contemporary stories and historical ones like Jack the Ripper or HH Holmes. It’s ghoulish and macabre to find fascination in these terrible crimes. We sensationalize the killers and their crimes, do deep dives into their lives and the investigations surrounding them. The absolute least we can do when telling these stories is remember the details of the victims’ lives and not just their names and how they died.
Narration: 5/5
I can’t say how much of my enjoyment of this book came from the fact that I listened to the audio version rather than reading myself. The narrator excels at using emphasis and inflection in the right way to keep what could possibly be dry information more interesting. (Amusingly, I listened to another book with the same narrator a month ago in a completely different genre. I thought I was going crazy thinking all narrators sound the same—nope, it really is the same person. She did a good job in that book too.)
Excellent account of the lives of the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper. I was surprised that there was so much information about them, and saddened that it isn’t usually included in the story. It also made me think about the lives of women in general in the Victorian era and how difficult it was for them, especially in poverty.
Research and Accuracy: 5/5
Admittedly I’m taking the author’s word in the information presented but it does seem well researched. When little to no information is available, or is of questionable accuracy, the author does a good job of calling it out and suggesting multiple interpretations.
Characterization: 5/5
The women in this book do not feel like names and dates and nothing else, which is how they are often presented in other media about the Ripper case. They are real women with lives, families, desires, and struggles. While it should have been obvious in hindsight, the fact that they are usually reported as simply prostitutes is a disservice to their memory (and untrue, in most of the cases).
Bias and Perspective: 5/5
Difficult to rate this category. The author absolutely has an agenda/goal for the book: humanize and detail the victims. This inherently requires some amount of bias, otherwise it wouldn’t be very persuasive. However since this book is a reaction against the common perspective of the victims, a fact the author does not try to hide, I think that bias is appropriate and the new perspective she provides is compelling.
Impact: 5/5
I am guilty of enjoying true crime as entertainment—both contemporary stories and historical ones like Jack the Ripper or HH Holmes. It’s ghoulish and macabre to find fascination in these terrible crimes. We sensationalize the killers and their crimes, do deep dives into their lives and the investigations surrounding them. The absolute least we can do when telling these stories is remember the details of the victims’ lives and not just their names and how they died.
Narration: 5/5
I can’t say how much of my enjoyment of this book came from the fact that I listened to the audio version rather than reading myself. The narrator excels at using emphasis and inflection in the right way to keep what could possibly be dry information more interesting. (Amusingly, I listened to another book with the same narrator a month ago in a completely different genre. I thought I was going crazy thinking all narrators sound the same—nope, it really is the same person. She did a good job in that book too.)