Hi. Today I’m reviewing Five by Ilona Bannister. Quite a cover, isn’t it? Kind of gives you a feel for the tone of the book, which is interesting, both slow and fast in a sense. You get to learn about five people. I’ll just read you the back cover text.
“Five lives, five stories. Five minutes until the London bound train pulls into the station and one is gone forever. Who would you choose to die?”
Judgey much? Who would you choose to die? Interesting how we talk of somebody who didn’t deserve to die, as if anyone gets what they deserve. Am I right? We all die in the end. Let’s face it. There’s another thing about this. Everybody in this book is proof. Well, not proof, but it is a wonderful demonstration of how eyewitness testimony is so unreliable. Why it is so unreliable.
Because everybody has a point of view and a lot of times what they perceive is not exactly the whole truth or even accurate. And the things they remember. You’re not going to notice every detail. You’re not going to be able to give a completely accurate first sketch, on being first asked, “What does this guy look like? Did you notice the color of his eyes? Did you notice what color tie he was wearing? Was he wearing a tie?” Things like that. Anyway, I’m just not going to bang on about that, but I will say that this is a very, very good read. Wonderful character studies of the different characters. And then just the most breathtaking finish at the end. I literally had to, when I was finished, I just had to catch my breath.
It is so gripping. And I have to say that I wasn’t surprised at the choice of who died on the whole. But it was a very satisfactory sort of ending.
And yeah, you make your choices, you perceive things a certain way, things come out, maybe the way they should. Sometimes they don’t. That’s life. “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” I think that’s what John Lennon said. Something to that effect. Yeah. Good book. Excellent. Excellent. With an ending that will just gut you a little bit. Did for me anyway. And I was breathless there at the end. And just like, “Oh my God, I have to find out if it’s who I think it is. “ And I won’t say that I absolutely predicted it, but no, not predicted so much as thought “Possibly? Definitely? Maybe?” That’s it. I enjoyed this book very much. So until next time, be seeing you. Take care.
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PS: Yep. I can hear the whistle … 🙂
