“Five” by Ilona Bannister
“Readers are a little bit shocked by some things. They find some things a bit dark in the story. They might be confronted with their own judgments about people… That’s the whole point. The whole point is to judge them and to ask yourself, ‘why?’”
In the interest of full transparency here, we feel we must start by saying that we’re not at all confident that this blog post will properly capture just how profound, thoughtful, and gripping this story is. Our interest was immediately piqued by the concept of Ilona Bannister’s Five, but nothing could have prepared us for how invested we’d become in this narrative, Ilona’s writing strategies, and the thematic depth.
Did we start this off a tad dramatique? Honestly, no. You need to know that we’re prepared to shout out about this one from the rooftops, even if the nature of the story, the dark humor, and the tense reading experience earns us a few sideeyes.
Beyond the book, the insights Ilona shared with us on Narratives & Nightcaps just endeared us even more to her personal journey and storytelling process. So, let’s venture to the train platform to explore the intricacies of Five, and how and why Ilona crafted this suspenseful thriller.
The narrative: about Five
Five lives. Five stories. Five minutes until one of them dies.
On a train platform awaiting the 7:06 London Victoria, five people will be forever changed by the upcoming tragedy. Four will survive, but one will be gone forever.
Dear reader, you’re fully aware this this is going to happen — that one of the five will cease to exist in just a few minutes, as the snarky narrator invites you to explore every sense on the platform.
As the minutes tick by, the backstories of each person are unveiled. There’s Emma, the mother you’ll be quick to judge based on how she and her son, Gideon, behave. You’ll meet Mrs. Worth, the old, cranky woman who’s fallen on the platform. Liam is the successful one percent, the man we all (or most) can’t stand today. And there’s Sonny, a young man who has all but gambled away everything.
In this urgent and chilling story, we’re confronted with the complex judgements we pass about strangers in seconds or minutes and the raw reality of the stories behind strangers.
The nightcap
With five main backstories in this narrative, Ilona looked to one for our nightcap pairing this time. You’ll find it within the pages of Liam’s chapter when you meet his mother, Doreen. Their story, along with Liam’s brother and Doreen’s other son, Danny, takes place in the 1980s, and a trendy fortified wine of the decade was Doreen’s favorite – Dubonnet. Famously, Queen Elizabeth II made the Dubonnet and gin cocktail, garnishing it with a lemon slice. So, “In honor of Doreen and the Queen,” we’re mixing this simple, sweet apéritif, which also serves as a perfect balance to the chilling edge as the five minutes countdown at the train station.
In the episode
Get to know Ilona in this episode of Narratives & Nightcaps. We chat about:
The “lightning bolt” moment that sparked the idea for this story while on the top deck of a bus, and the events that quickly followed and “moved” Ilona to shape this story.
Breaking the fourth wall — how the snarky, dark voice came to be and changed how the events on the platform would unfold, driving the tense, urgent moments.
Ilona’s background as a lawyer/solicitor contributes to her research and character development today. She says, “… there’s something about how you learn to put a case together, how you learn to convince and to argue and to defend. So, my characters are almost like clients that I’m creating a case for, and my job is to make you as the reader believe that what I’m telling you is true. But of course, it needs to be true or close to the truth for it to feel plausible to you.”
Plus, which multi-dimensional character was the most challenging to develop, her career transition (and balancing life as a spouse and mother of two), and the pleasant surprises she’s uncovered about the book community and herself since she started writing.
Fans of psychological, suspenseful thrillers won’t want to miss one! If we had to give any sort of warning, it’d be just how emotionally connected you might find yourself to these characters, making the stakes feel even higher and the suspense more intense, combined with the deep sense of self-reflection and hard questions you may (hopefully do) end up asking yourself.
Listen to the full author interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
Purchase your copy here.
Connect with Ilona!