The Five

by Hallie Rubenhold | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 147354226X Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingLittleSuzwing of Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on 2/17/2021
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingLittleSuzwing from Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Wednesday, February 17, 2021
A really interesting and important book in Ripperology and the rest of the true crime genre: telling the tale of the victims rather than the perpetrator. I've read a few books previously about Jack the Ripper and the women he killed were treated as passive objects. This book fleshed out their lives, and showed them off as the fascinating, complex women they all were. Their backgrounds were far more varied than I'd ever realised, but all contained significant elements of tragedy. Learning about them as women allows their murders to be seen in a new light. I'd never heard it suggested that the Ripper killed his victims whilst they were asleep before, and it's an electrifying theory. It gave me a few prickles down the spine if I'm honest.

Sadly, even despite the author's researches, there remain huge blanks in the women's lives, and this is where my problems with the book come in. Rubenhold has tried to fill in these blanks with a novelist's imaginative leap into their probable actions and emotions. This made the book a lot more readable, but at the loss of its reliability as a nonfiction book. At times I found myself getting lost between the layers of what is evidenced fact, and what Rubenhold had hypothesised as a result about the women and their personalities. I would, to be honest, have preferred a straighter style which acknowledged more of the mysteries behind these lost individuals.

Hopefully this book might lead to more consideration of crime stories, true life and fictional, with victims at the forefront rather than in the background.

Journal Entry 2 by wingLittleSuzwing at Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom on Friday, April 9, 2021

Released 2 yrs ago (4/9/2021 UTC) at Edinburgh, Scotland United Kingdom

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Sent to Poodlesister as a rabck.

Journal Entry 3 by wingPoodlesisterwing at Walthamstow, Greater London United Kingdom on Monday, April 12, 2021
Thanks very much for the two wishlist books and the postcard. This book has been recommended to me by many people.

Journal Entry 4 by wingPoodlesisterwing at Walthamstow, Greater London United Kingdom on Sunday, April 24, 2022
This is a book I have already recommended to a friend. If nothing else it tells the stories of working class women who are often overlooked by historians. What struck me what how the five were not at all atypical. They were just women trying to survive in difficult times and when the odds were stacked against them.

Released 1 yr ago (4/30/2022 UTC) at Wishlist tag, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom

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A wishlist tag book going to Sparkish with some other books. I’m hoping to hand it over at the London Meet Up.

Join UK Bookcrossers at the Newcastle Unconvention from 29th-31st July 2022

Journal Entry 6 by wingSparkishwing at Fleckney, Leicestershire United Kingdom on Saturday, April 30, 2022
Thank you for this wishlist book. Great to see you today.

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