The Five

Narrator did the best she could with what reads almost like a textbook. While it's an interesting angle it gets to be a bit long and there are lots of names and date that are hard to keep straight. This may have been easier to follow if there was a visual timeline / visual family trees included.

Author breathes life into each woman by telling her personal story in relation to the social constructs of the era in which she lived. Author concludes by linking the past to the present, illustrating the pervasive lenses of misogyny with which many people view both the past and the present. Smash the patriarchy, dammit.

The Five mostly reads like non fiction with smatterings of more lyrical prose, but despite the interesting subject matter and the impressive amount of research the author did in piecing the lives of women together who would have faded into obscurity had they not been the victims of a serial killer, it took me a while to get into the book because of the narrator’s mostly dispassionate delivery. I did end up really enjoying the book and feel haunted by Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Kate, and Mary Jane’s stories, but felt that the narrator only did the author’s obvious passion for her subject justice in the conclusion at the end.

loved it .. tells the real life struggles of women in the 1880s .. men less and penniless ... parallels with homeless women of today.. crazy similar .. love the performance voice .. so relaxed and genuine

Too often ripperology becomes an exercise in requoting earlier claims and takes. This book takes a fresh, and well researched take on the subject. Add in a top notch narration and this is well worth listening to.