The Five, a review

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold is a non-fiction book about the women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper. Instead of focusing on the murderer, however, we focus on the women. Their lives. Their histories. And how they ended up in the slums of London.

Hallie Rubenhold is a historian, so this is very well researched, with endless references at the end of the book (which I love!) and I can’t even imagine just how many hours went into researching this book.

Mary Ann Nichols. Annie Chapman. Elizabeth Stride. Catherine Eddowes. Mary Jane Kelly.

These are the women who came from middle class comfort, from the slums, from Sweden, with families that loved them, or being totally alone in the world.

I loved this book. So so much. We really delve deep into these women’s lives and the lives of their families. We learn exactly how all of them ended up living in their destitute situations and how they were making their living.

These women are often all portrayed as prostitutes and sex workers. Of course there is nothing at all wrong with this, but in Rubenhold’s research she could only find evidence that one of the women worked in this profession. It seems as though the Victorian’s couldn’t imagine a women living in the slums and not being “morally reprehensible” and so they decided that they all must be prostitutes.

Whilst in the modern day we know (or at least I hope you do) that there is nothing wrong with being a sex worker, it’s simply factually incorrect to state that this was these five women’s linking factor. That isn’t why they were murdered. They were women who unfortunately were deemed as easy targets. They weren’t able to find a bed for the night. They were homeless on the streets.

As you can see, I’m pretty passionate about this after having read this book. And I read this months ago! I really do recommend that you pick this up. It reads very well so should be perfectly accessible to those who aren’t keen on non-fiction books usually and is utterly fascinating to just learn about the day to day life of various women in this time period.

CAWPILE isn’t the best measure for non-fiction books (or at least it wasn’t in 2021, G has updated it for 2022) so I just wrote in the scores to give this book a 5 star rating! But I did make a note to give “enjoyment” a 10/10 score.

This is a fantastic read and in my opinion totally worth the hype that it suddenly got all over bookstagram. I hope you do pick this up and I hope you enjoy it!

September Reading Wrap Up

This has been a helluva month!!

Not only have I been moving things down in dribs and drabs to my new home 100 miles away with my partner (thank you dad for all the driving), but I also did 10+ interviews for various jobs, and I’m moving job as well! And on top of all of that? I prepared for possibly the most ridiculous BookTube thing I’ve ever done (announcement tomorrow) and read a load!

But you’re here for the books, so let’s dive in!

First up is Cathy’s Book by Stewart, Weissman, and Brigg which has arguably been on my tbr for around a decade at this point. I’ve finally read it!!

The Maleficent Seven by Derek Landy was my next read, chronologically, a short story following one of the side characters within the Skulduggery world. I loved the backstory that we got for them!

Sticking with the Skulduggery Pleasant theme I finished up the Armageddon Outta Here anthology by Derek Landy, I’ve been slowly reading this as the stories slot in with the main books so this has taken a few months. Glad to be able to tick this one off!

Going for a rare bit of Sci-Fi here, next I picked up Paradox Lost by George Mann which is a Doctor Who book, the last of 3 that I own. This was probably my least favourite of the three, but I did still enjoy it!

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold was absolutely amazing. This is a non-fiction read about the women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper. It looks into their history, their lives, their families, and their situations. It’s a very well written book and I recommend it to anyone.

The Last Stand of Dead Men by Derek Landy was the “actual” Dead Famous Readalong book for this month, and it was a damn good one! Possibly one of my favourite rereads so far? (not including the first book #obvs)

I can’t believe that it took me this long to pick up Sabriel by Garth Nix but I absolutely fell in love and I need more in this series right away!! This is a book about death, a theme I love, which also has fantastic character development and a really interesting magical system! Someone should’ve made me pick this up sooner!!

Finishing up a book I’ve been reading for a few months now, I finished Labyrinth by Kate Mosse finally on the 18th September. This was a really interesting historical fantasy, I like how the two time periods were woven together and I’m looking forward to reading more books in the Languedoc series.

The big one. It’s finally done!! War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is finally finished!! Me an Olivia did a big final push to get through this before the end of the month. I have to say that the end chapters were… uninspiring to say the least. Tolstoy was just talking at the reader as though his points are 100% factual and correct, even though they’re opinion, and having a privileged white man whine on at you for however long isn’t enjoyable. I did, however, really enjoy the fictional parts of the story and fell in love with Natasha, Pierre, Mary and Andrew! I just wish we had a bit more of a conclusion to the story!

And my final read of the month was The Cauldron of Life by Caroline Logan, the second book in The Four Treasures series. I adored this book so so much, the found family dynamic is beautiful and I love the character development. The plot pacing is fantastic and I am so ridiculously excited to read more in this series! I could live on books like these!

And there you have it, my September reads! Just a few 😂 I managed over 3000 pages this month (only including the parts of W&P etc that I read within September) which is pretty decent, and hopefully I can continue that in October! Although… somehow I’m doubting it #busy

What’s your favourite book you read in September? I can’t choose between The Five, Sabriel, and The Cauldron of Life!!

Sticking on the theme of finishing big books, I finished War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy! 😱 The momentus day itself being the 28th September 2021. I’ve been reading at least one chapter of this every single day since the 1st January this year!!

Then I had a DNF. After trying to read Double Cross by Malorie Blackman for 10 days and instead sinking myself into a massive slump, I decided to put it on hold. This was a reread for me, and to be honest I just couldn’t bring myself to read about teens /f.wmng

Onto more positive notes,

First Lines Friday! #24

It’s time for another First Lines Friday! Hosted by Wandering Words!!

What if, instead of judging a book by its cover or its author, we judged the book by its opening lines?

Here is how it works:

– Pick a book and open to the first page.

– Copy the first few lines without revealing which book it is.

– Reveal the book!

So… do these first lines entice you?

There are two versions of the events of 1887. One is very well known; the other is not.

The first version is the one printed in most history books. It is the one that those who lived through the age wished to recall, the version they recounted to their grandchildren with a wistful smile.

Scroll down to reveal the book!

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

Do you know how many places I’ve seen this book??!? I’m so so excited to read it! And those first lines? So this is a non-fiction read. Those first lines lead me to believe that this is going to be written in a really readable manner rather than like a textbook and I’m very excited for that. Have you heard about this book before? Are you interested? Let me know!