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

by Hallie Rubenhold
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper cover
Good Books rating 4.67
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  • ID: 2595
  • Added: 2025-10-15
  • Updated: 2025-10-16
  • Formats: 3
  • Reviews: 3
Reviews
Dana Huff's Blog · Dana Huff · 2023-04-08
graceful 5.00

The author handled the story of each woman with grace and conducted extensive research into their lives. The book is a great tragedy that sheds light on these often-overlooked women.

Dana Huff praises Rubenhold for her graceful handling of each woman's story, noting the wealth of research that went into uncovering their lives. She emphasizes the great tragedy of these women's stories and how the book brings their experiences to light. Huff appreciates how Rubenhold challenges the traditional narratives and gives voice to these marginalized figures. The review highlights the book's emotional impact and its significance in historical literature.

Quick quotes

    Hallie Rubenhold handled the story of each woman gracefully.

    She has done a wealth of research into these women's lives.

    The great tragedy that these women's lives were cut short is a poignant reminder of the societal issues of the time.

Cannonball Read · FaintingViolet · 2020-04-16
insightful 4.50

The book challenges the established scholarship on Jack the Ripper and his victims, offering a fresh perspective on their lives. The reviewer appreciates the thorough deconstruction of the traditional narrative.

FaintingViolet's review highlights how Rubenhold spends three hundred pages thoroughly challenging the established, predominantly male, scholarship on Jack the Ripper and his victims. They appreciate the fresh perspective the book offers, focusing on the lives of the women rather than the sensationalized aspects of the killer. The reviewer finds the book's deconstruction of the traditional narrative both insightful and necessary, providing a more humane and scholarly approach to the subject.

Quick quotes

    Rubenhold spends three hundred pages absolutely thrashing the established, predominantly male, scholarship on Jack the Ripper and his victims.

    It's a moving book. It's humane, it's scholarly, and it challenges, from a feminist position, a whole library of books on Jack the Ripper.

    The book offers a fresh perspective on the lives of the women, giving them the voice they were denied in history.

The Guardian · 2019-12-01
devastating 4.50

This book is a scrupulous account that exposes the misogyny at the heart of the Jack the Ripper myth. It challenges the traditional narrative surrounding the victims.

The Guardian's review highlights how Rubenhold's work is a devastatingly scrupulous account that shifts focus onto the lives of the victims rather than the infamous killer. They emphasize how the book exposes the deep-seated misogyny that has long surrounded the Jack the Ripper myth. The reviewer appreciates how Rubenhold challenges the traditional narrative, giving voice to women who were often reduced to mere footnotes in history. This book is seen as a powerful corrective to the sensationalism that typically dominates discussions of Jack the Ripper.

Quick quotes

    This devastatingly scrupulous account of Jack the Ripper's victims exposes the misogyny at the heart of the myth.

    Rubenhold challenges the assumption often made about the Whitechapel murders, that Jack the Ripper targeted prostitutes.

    It is a profoundly sad book, but it is also a necessary one.

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