Audiobooks Like The Five

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Louise Brealey narrates The Five with a gravity that refuses to let Hallie Rubenhold's subjects remain victims — her voice insists on personhood across 10 hours of meticulous Victorian social history, and the effect is quietly corrective, a reclamation performed one life at a time. The production earns every difficult moment. Four of these ten recommendations also feature Brealey, and for listeners who have fallen for her particular quality — precise, emotionally present, never ornamental — the list is essentially a curated tour through her best work.

10 audiobooks for fans of The Five

  1. 1
    After the End cover

    After the End

    by Clare Mackintosh

    Narrated by Louise Brealey, Matt Reeves, Nathalie Armin

    ★ 4.05 ABR Score (30.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.03 Goodreads (29.8K) ★ 4.45 Audible (319)
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    Multiple narrators embody the parallel timelines perfectly here, letting you experience both versions of Max and Pip's impossible choice simultaneously. It's emotionally devastating in the best way.

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  2. 2
    How to be Famous cover

    How to be Famous

    How to Build a Girl • Book 2

    by Caitlin Moran

    Narrated by Louise Brealey

    ★ 4.02 ABR Score (9.0K ratings)
    ★ 4 Goodreads (8.8K) ★ 4.65 Audible (151)
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    Louise Brealey perfectly captures Johanna's manic energy as she navigates 1990s rock journalism while desperately chasing celebrity friendships.

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  3. 3
    How to Build a Girl cover

    How to Build a Girl

    How to Build a Girl • Book 1

    by Caitlin Moran

    Narrated by Louise Brealey

    ★ 3.92 ABR Score (37.7K ratings)
    ★ 3.71 Goodreads (36.9K) ★ 4.36 Audible (724)
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    Fourteen-year-old Johanna reinvents herself as a London music critic after humiliating herself on local TV, and Louise Brealey captures her manic self-creation.

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  4. 4
    The Correspondent cover

    The Correspondent

    by Virginia Evans

    Narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Mark Bramhall, Petrea Burchard, Robert Petkoff, Kimberly Farr, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, Peter Ganim, Jade Wheeler, Various

    ★ 4.78 ABR Score (383.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.53 Goodreads (364.9K) ★ 4.8 Audible (18.3K)
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    Through discovered letters, the life story of a remarkable woman unfolds across decades of love, loss, war, and artistic passion. This epistolary novel examines how written words preserve and transform our understanding of both ordinary and extraordinary lives.

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  5. 5
    The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell cover

    The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

    by Robert Dugoni

    Narrated by Robert Dugoni

    ★ 4.65 ABR Score (253.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.45 Goodreads (230.8K) ★ 4.67 Audible (22.7K)
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    Born with red pupils that make him a target for bullying, Sam Hell navigates childhood with the help of two fellow misfits and family faith. Author Robert Dugoni narrates his own touching story.

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  6. 6
    The Road to Tender Hearts cover

    The Road to Tender Hearts

    by Annie Hartnett

    Narrated by Mark Bramhall

    ★ 4.54 ABR Score (64.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.35 Goodreads (61.9K) ★ 4.78 Audible (2.2K)
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    A lottery winner embarks on a cross-country quest to find his high school crush, collecting orphaned kids and a death-predicting cat along the way. Bramhall perfectly balances the story's dark comedy with its surprising warmth.

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  7. 7
    When Crickets Cry cover

    When Crickets Cry

    by Charles Martin

    Narrated by Charles Martin, Adam Verner

    ★ 4.43 ABR Score (74.7K ratings)
    ★ 4.38 Goodreads (72.3K) ★ 4.61 Audible (2.3K)
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  8. 8
    Chasing Fireflies cover

    Chasing Fireflies

    by Charles Martin

    Narrated by Adam Verner

    ★ 4.42 ABR Score (45.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.42 Goodreads (44.1K) ★ 4.61 Audible (1.7K)
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  9. 9
    Say Goodbye for Now cover

    Say Goodbye for Now

    by Catherine Ryan Hyde

    Narrated by Nick Podehl, Teri Schnaubelt

    ★ 4.36 ABR Score (29.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.37 Goodreads (27.5K) ★ 4.55 Audible (2.3K)
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    Nick Podehl and Teri Schnaubelt bring richness to Hyde's story of outsiders finding belonging in 1950s Texas—their dual narration deepens the emotional weight of a love and friendship that society forbids.

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  10. 10
    Long Way Gone cover

    Long Way Gone

    by Charles Martin

    Narrated by Adam Verner

    ★ 4.35 ABR Score (21.6K ratings)
    ★ 4.38 Goodreads (20.2K) ★ 4.59 Audible (1.5K)
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    A failed Nashville musician's journey back to his Tennessee roots unfolds with Adam Verner's warm narration perfectly matching this story of redemption and second chances.

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How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

Read our full ranking methodology →