If you read one book this weekend, make it this - it's already our favourite book of the year
Five people on a platform with five minutes until the train arrives - and one person is promised to die. But who will it be?
If you're fresh out of books and looking for a new read to see you through the weekend, you're in luck. Our Books Editor, Zoe West's, book of the month is all everyone is talking about. And it's soon to be the book you won't be able to forget. Let us introduce you to Five by Ilona Bannister.
It won't take you more than one line to be hooked on Five. The story, a tense moral experiment, introduces you to five people standing on a train platform, whilst the narrator promises you that just one of them will be dead in a matter of minutes when the commuter train to London arrives on its morning route.
The rest of the book is an almost unbearably tense countdown, minute by minute. Ilona Bannister's unique narrator makes us not only become complicit in the outcome, but weigh up each character morally, choosing who we would rather die. It sounds grim, and there's no escaping that it is. But it's also gripping. I defy you not to devour it in one weekend and declare it one of the most unforgettable reads of the year.
Zoe's Book of the Month: Five by Ilona Bannister
Zoe's quick sell on why it's her book of the month: Propulsive from the start, this gripping drama proves almost impossible to put down. We are quickly invested in five, vividly drawn strangers gathered on a suburban platform at 7.01am with minutes until the 7.06 train to London Victoria arrives - and the chilling promise that one of them will die. As a child, a mother, a businessman, an elderly woman and a gambler reveal their tangled histories, tension mounts. Nine character study than straightforward thriller, it's an original conversation-starting choice that's perfect for book clubs.
There are countless reasons to love Five, but one of the most striking is the narrator's habit of breaking the fourth wall. Throughout the novel, they address the reader directly, even acknowledging that this might well be your book club pick (they knew exactly what they were doing). The narrator anticipates our judgements, questions, hopes, and assumptions, creating an unusually intimate reading experience.
It's a storytelling device that feels both compelling and slightly unsettling. Rather than simply observing events unfold, you're drawn into them, challenged by them, and occasionally forced to examine your own reactions. Long after you've turned the final page, you'll likely find yourself questioning what you believed, who you trusted, and whether the ending meant what you first thought it did.
You'll undoubtedly have your own theories, frustrations, and interpretations, so here are some questions to spark discussion as you read.
What to think about while reading Five
The first question we all asked each other was: who did you hope would be the one on the tracks when the train came? It's a horrible question to hear and discuss, but with the inevitable outcome further down the line (pardon the pun), we all have to pick the people we want (and perhaps think deserve) to be saved more than others. I won't give the game away with who I was hoping, but it's who the narrator suggests you hope for at the end.
Do your opinions of the characters change as the story progresses?
Each chapter delves into more details about the five on the platform. In some instances, the more you know, the more you care about the characters. In others, the more you know, the more you wish you didn't know. Each person will sympathise with central characters differently, but was their one you cared about the most at the end.
The novel explores motherhood in several different forms. Which portrayal of motherhood did you find most compelling or challenging?
Motherhood sits at the heart of Five, but not always in the way you might expect. Rather than presenting a single idealised version, the novel explores mothers who are loving, flawed, self-sacrificing, resentful, and protective. This question sparked some of our most interesting conversations because it forced us to consider how much we expect from mothers and whether we're harsher in our judgement of them than we are of other characters. Which mother's choices did you understand, even if you didn't agree with them?
How did the structure of the novel affect your reading experience? Did the pacing or unfolding revelations work for you?
One of the reasons Five is so compulsive is that it doles out information with exquisite restraint. Each chapter reveals just enough to make you rethink what you thought you knew, and more than once I found myself revising my predictions entirely. The structure mirrors the novel's central question: how can we decide who matters most when we only know part of the story? Did the gradual revelations keep you hooked, or did you find yourself impatient to get back to the platform?
The title Five carries symbolic weight throughout the novel. What do you think it ultimately represents?
On the surface, the title refers to the five people standing on the platform, but by the end of the novel it feels as though it means much more than that. Not only does it also represent the five minutes that we have until the train arrives, the number becomes a shorthand for chance, consequence, and the impossible choices that shape our lives. We spent a surprisingly long time discussing this one in my book club. Is Five simply a reference to the central dilemma, or is it a reminder that every person carries an entire world of stories, relationships, and possibilities within them?
Were there moments where you felt frustrated by the characters' decisions? Did those frustrations make the story more believable?
If you made it through Five without wanting to shake at least one character, you're a more patient reader than I am. Several of the novel's biggest emotional moments hinge on decisions that are messy, impulsive, or difficult to understand from the outside. Yet that's also what makes the characters feel real. People rarely make perfect choices, especially when they're scared, grieving, or desperate. Which decision frustrated you most, and could you imagine yourself acting differently in the same situation?
Did you feel the novel had a clear “villain,” or is it more interested in moral complexity?
One of the cleverest things about Five is how reluctant it is to sort its characters neatly into heroes and villains. Just when you think you've decided who deserves your sympathy and who doesn't, the novel complicates matters. Everyone has reasons for behaving the way they do, even when those reasons don't excuse their actions. By the end, did you think the book was asking readers to judge its characters, or to understand them?
If the novel were adapted for television, which scenes or themes do you think would translate especially well onscreen?
It's impossible to read Five without imagining it as a prestige television drama. The central premise is inherently cinematic, but so much of the novel's power comes from the emotional tension beneath the surface: the secrets, regrets, and private motivations that slowly come to light. Which moments could you picture most vividly? And would a screen adaptation enhance the story, or lose some of the intimacy created by the narrator speaking directly to the reader?
What emotions did the ending leave you with? Did it feel satisfying, ambiguous, hopeful, or devastating?
The ending is the question that lingered after our discussion finished. It will change depending on which character you were most invested in and what you hoped would happen. Some readers will find it devastating, others oddly hopeful, and many will probably feel both at once. After spending an entire novel weighing lives against one another, what did the final pages leave you feeling, and did your reaction surprise you?
The woman&home team have five down as our favourite book of the year so far and, even if you're not into psychological thrillers, its sheer uniqueness will stay with you. So, grab a glass, get comfortable, and enjoy your weekend reading. I can't wait to hear what you think.
