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

5.0

I think that this is one of my favorite non-fiction books ever. I always find non-fiction to be fairly dry reading and hard to get through. The way that this was written made it very easy to really picture what was happening. The author took one of the most famous serial killers and really did something that not many people have done, made the victims the focus, and barely mentioned the killer. I'll admit that I had never really thought about the victims other than prostitutes who were unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought that because that is what is the prevalent opinion is about them. In news, movies, and tv shows, they are always presented as prostitutes. This book really made me see the Jack the Ripper case in a whole new light and wonder if maybe the police at the time hadn't assumed that the women were prostitutes and had actually taken a look into their lives, then maybe he would've been caught. If the police had gotten that huge fact wrong, what else did they get wrong? What else did they overlook?