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

 The Five: The Untold lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper

Review by Andrea

Rating: 9/10

This is the first book that I have read about Jack the Ripper that doesn't focus on the murders or the murderer, but more on the 5 chronological women that lost their lives at his hands. This book concentrates more on the past lives of these 5 women before they met their untimely ends. I have been studying the Ripper for the last 10 years or so and in that time I never knew that much about their past lives. This book to me was so helpful and really informative. 

The book is split into 5 different sections for each of the 5 women. It starts from when they were born, how they grew up, if they got married, any children, any family issues and then when they fell on hard time just before they died. Nearly every book and Ripperologist will say that all these women were prostitutes, but upon reading this book you realise that this wasn't the case and this book turns what everyone believes upside and shows a different side to what every get taught, as that's what I was taught and led to believe when I first started studying the Ripper at school. 

When I read this book it changed everything I thought I knew about this 5 poor women and made me realise that they weren't just victims and that they were just normal women who led a normal life. When I did some posts based on the Ripper towards the end of last year I used this book to help write them and to give a better insight into the last lives of these women and not just go on about their murders. 

Before I read this book I saw that there was some back clash about it due to the fact that Halllie  Ruben hold had gone against the facts that we knew and for antifeminits they were against what the book was all about and written by. But for me this book opened my eyes and changed my views on what I believed I knew about these 5 women and the Ripper. From reading it, it has taught me so much more and has made me want to learn more. 

Out of all the books that I have picked up and read about the Ripper this has probably got to be one of the best for me. This is due to the fact that all the other books just follow what happened to these women on those 5 dreadful nights. Where as this is the opposite and sheds more light onto information that I never knew or what we thought was lost. 

This is book is definitely worth reading if want to know more about the back story to the 5 victims of Jack the Ripper and not just how they died. I will try to read it again, but when I do I will take more time toet everything sink in just thst little bit more. I also want to try and find out more about their lives as these were just 5 unfortunate women that were just in the wrong place and the wrong time. For me when I read this book it made Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary Jane jump from the pages and gave them back their lives.