Jade Violet's Reviews > The Five

The Five was fucking awesome! This is my first Lily White read and it was everything I could've wanted and more - an awesome mystery, a dark and gritty path leading to a nice massive mindfuck thrown in and a whole lot of filthy and poor judgement in between. It was simply it's own thing and what a blessing that is!

The Five centers around Rainey Day, what most would call a white trash girl, living with her single mom. At the beginning she's 17 and moving into yet another slum, Clayton Heights. Little does she know the day she moves in how much of an impact the Connor family next door will have on and in her life. Five men - the father and his four sons, the youngest being Rowan, the first she lays eyes on.

But to even get to the start of Rainey's life in Clayton Heights and her involvement with the Connors we start with a psychologist brought in by the police because Rainey is the sole survivor of a party where the other 4 people were brutally murdered. Rainey seems to be murky in her memory of events and the police want to know what the hell went down and also whether Rainey is capable herself of physically harming others. Thus we meet Justin, the psychologist that is assigned the case and spends his days at Rainey's home trying to pluck the details from her mind. But Rainey won't go there, she insists for him to understand, he must first hear her story from the day she moved to Clayton Heights five years ago and her relationship with the Connor men. The scenes go back and forth between Rainey telling her story of the past and Justin reacting and trying to pull more out of her.

Rainey's story packs a whole lot of punches. Her story is truly horrendous. Born with a siren's body and aura, she has suffered sexual abuse as a child but she also makes terrible choices as a young adult and allows herself to be used over and over again. Her self esteem seems to be nil. A lot of the story she recounts is graphic, degrading and she seemingly thinks there's nothing wrong with it as that is all her self worth is. The Connor men are all pieces of work outside of the youngest, Rowan. In Rainey and Rowan was an impossible love story that she still holds dear to her heart even after he died in a car crash.

All of this she recounts to Justin, including much much more than stated above. She seems to know her station in life and accepts it and that's hard for the psychologist in Justin to hear:

“I guess I have to think that things can’t get worse than they already have been. Rock bottom is the lowest a person can go, right? Well, I was born there.”

As the time ticks by and Justin files his daily reports, he becomes twisted up in Rainey's story while trying to rush her to skip to the end and the night of the party. He also finds himself attracted to her and tries to give a wide berth to stay professional.

With all that being said, the above is just the tip of the iceberg. Who is Rainey really? Is she the totally used girl who allows abuse because she's used to it? Is she the young woman Rowan insisted she was although she always denied it? And what is the meaning of the five? You see, Rainey has 5 tally marks on her inner arm and Justin knows they signify the biggest clue. But what exactly are the 5 when so many different things add up into fives in this book?

The slow unravelling of every little detail, every ugly demeaning part and every little slice of beautiful is absolutely delicious. Trying to figure out what it all means is hypnotizing and Lily White takes you through a maze of a journey into Rainey's mind to come to the ultimate truths. And when she does, Wow, just Wow! Mindfuck central!

I loved this ending. I probably shouldn't have but without saying anything to give it away, I did absolutely adore the ending and that probably makes me one sick puppy but I'm owning it and reveling in it. This book rocked from start to finish and I was addicted from page one to the very end, I literally could not stop to take a break. And the ending? So totally worth it even when I didn't see it coming.

So 5**** totally twisted stars for a book that will go down as one of my faves!