The Five is a fascinating, well-researched book about the lives of the five canonical victims of the infamous Jack the Ripper serial killer. Enjoying a book like this is inappropriate given the grim subject matter, but I can say that I appreciated this book and found it extremely interesting. This is not a book about Jack the Ripper. Rather, Rubenhold honors the lives of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly by seamlessly piecing together their lives and the circumstances that eventually culminated in their lethal encounters with whoever that sick fuck was.

The lives of the victims are centered here, with little regard given to the serial killer that murdered them. Gory details of their murders are not given, which I liked, since we are so often exposed to true crime media that is salacious and sensational. (Humans have never changed imo). A critical eye is laid upon the societal expectations, assumptions, and systems of oppression that have contributed to how the murders were perceived during their time and how they're still viewed today. I felt like I got to know all five of the women highlighted in this book; I got to understand their motivations, their hopes, personal failures, and dreams. There are parts where Rubenhold goes into great detail about life in Victorian-era England/London. I live for the minute, mundane details of history and how people lived, so I was all about it, but I can see how that could be an element of this book that some readers may find boring. Overall, this is a very well-done book of research that I would recommend to anyone interested in diving deeper down into the Jack the Ripper Rabbit Hole, or learning more about the lives of working class Londoners.

**I can't bring myself to give this book five stars because of the underlying negative implications about sex workers. The author asserts the argument that four of the five women were not, in fact, sex workers. This very well may be true, it may not be true, but it definitely doesn't matter. Yes, Rubenhold aimed to humanize these five women by showing readers their personalities, lives, etc. but throughout the book I felt like the author was implying that these women were more deserving of sympathy BECAUSE they were not involved in sex work. The victims were people, and I hope that most modern readers don't need a moral justification for sympathizing with someone who is engaging in sex work to make a living. It's not the 19th century anymore.**