Woman 99 by Greer Macallister
I've always been interested in non fiction accounts of mental institutions. In high school I read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, and then Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel. It kind of went from there. Woman 99 is a fictional account of asylums during that time period, but it didn't make it any less interesting.
Phoebe cannot behave as a young socialite woman should, so one night her parents ship her off to a "genteel" mental asylum catering to both the rich and the destitute. Her younger sister, Charlotte, decides to rescue Phoebe by getting herself anonymously committed to the same institution. But getting out isn't as easy as she thought it would be ... for either sister.
I liked this a lot. A few of the plot points were implausible, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief because I was invested in Charlotte and the relationships she made as she navigated the asylum. There are a lot of dubious "treatments" that were once norms in these institutions, and you really get a sense of how mistreated many patients were during this time. That said, this isn't a grim, depressing book! I would recommend it if you're interested in historical novels about mental health and the treatment of women, or if you just like a good story about sisters.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
Phoebe cannot behave as a young socialite woman should, so one night her parents ship her off to a "genteel" mental asylum catering to both the rich and the destitute. Her younger sister, Charlotte, decides to rescue Phoebe by getting herself anonymously committed to the same institution. But getting out isn't as easy as she thought it would be ... for either sister.
I liked this a lot. A few of the plot points were implausible, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief because I was invested in Charlotte and the relationships she made as she navigated the asylum. There are a lot of dubious "treatments" that were once norms in these institutions, and you really get a sense of how mistreated many patients were during this time. That said, this isn't a grim, depressing book! I would recommend it if you're interested in historical novels about mental health and the treatment of women, or if you just like a good story about sisters.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.
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