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Happy Tuesday bookish people! I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Mad Woman by Louisa Treger from the author and today I am sharing with you my review of it. If you’re interested in getting a copy of this book yourself it’s publication date is the 9th June 2022.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and write a little bit about each one. I will do my best to not include any spoilers. I hope you enjoy my book review.

Mad Woman Plot:

Mad Woman is an historical novel based on the true story of Nellie Bly. Going into this book I will be honest, I had heard of Nellie Bly but I didn’t know anything about her or what she did. The first page of this novel drags you into the mysterious depths of the book by starting in what seems to be a dangerous situation and you as a reader have no idea how or why the character has ended up there. I loved how this book began because I became emotionally invested in the character immediately, then you slowly learn her backstory interspersed with emotive, sensory descriptions of the situation she is in now. It is hard to talk much about the plot because there’s so many secrets that come to light throughout and I don’t want to spoil anything for another reader because I honestly enjoyed every minute of this book. One of my favourite things about this book was it’s bleak truthfulness, it didn’t shy away from the extreme descriptions and it didn’t ignore the very real consequences of what Nellie Bly goes through.

Mad Woman Characters:

As I said before, Nellie Bly is the main character. She is a woman with determination and big ambitions in a world full of people who want to obstruct her. I really felt for this woman because she wanted to bring a voice to the people who didn’t have one: women, the poor, the ‘insane’. I felt each moment of hardship and because of the power of the story I also felt the anger and the despair that Nellie Bly was feeling.

Mad Woman Writing and Dialogue:

This book is incredibly well written, I sped through it because the writing kept up with the pace of the story and it was brutal and honest in the way it was told. Even the chapters about the character’s childhood and family were told in the way that look, here is what I went through and this is how it made me. I thought it was very powerful writing.

Mad Woman Overall

I gave this book four stars overall because I felt it was a powerful and important read and I really enjoyed the experience.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Based on a true story, a spellbinding historical novel about the world’s first female investigative journalist, Nellie Bly.

In 1887, young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take.

But life in the city is tougher than she imagined. Down to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous plan: to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum on Blackwell’s Island. There, she will work undercover to expose the asylum’s wretched conditions.

But when the asylum door swings shut behind her, she finds herself in a place of horrors, governed by a cruelty she could never have imagined. Cold, isolated and starving, her days of terror reawaken the traumatic events of her childhood. She entered the asylum of her own free will – but will she ever get out?

An extraordinary portrait of a woman ahead of her time, Madwoman is the story of a quest for the truth that changed the world. 

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!