Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore

8 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.25

This book was great. However, I really wanted to like it even more - I wanted to give it five stars. Ultimately I didn’t because occasionally it would devolve into histrionics. The story was so powerful that literary flourishes were unnecessary and distracting. 

That said, Wow. What a book. How is it that Elizabeth Packard is not a household name? She was extraordinary. Committed to an insane asylum because her husband found her outspokenness troublesome, she worked for three years to be freed, then worked the rest of her life to achieve equality for women, safety for mental patients, and the right of a mother to have custody of her children. 

The author relies on diaries, letters, newspapers, and trial transcripts. Everything she writes has been thoroughly researched. Her work here is exceptional. 

Having found Radium Girls equally important, I hope that Kate Moore continues to write. Her works are essential to understanding the history of the ordinary American in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Excrement, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Bullying, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Classism, Physical abuse, Torture, Medical trauma, Racism, Sexism, and Violence

ohlala_kaylala's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Confinement, and Domestic abuse

znvisser's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

3.5

This was an interesting, inspiring and infuriating story at the same time and I am thankful for Kate Moore for narrating it. I do love narrative nonfiction so I lost myself in this story very quickly, but unfortunately I did find out as quickly that the applied style of storytelling was actually not my cup of tea.

In one of the many tidbits after the actual story the author elaborates on how she intentionally added "reveals for dramatic purposes".  I wish she didn't, because those were my biggest annoyance about this book; the reveal method made me distrusting of her as a storyteller, ruining my reading experience at times. I don't mind myself a surprise or twist, but I do mind reading for tens of pages and made believe explicitly one way, only to be consequently patronized with a "the joke's on you because meanwhile everything else was different!" That's just a waste of words and there certainly are more elegant ways to achieve mystery or suspense. In fact in this case, I think the plot was entertaining enough in itself and didn't require the manipulation applied at all. 

Elizabeth was a very interesting character, both intellectually and socially, but I couldn't understand how those two things interacted. How did such a brilliant woman keep making the mistake of trusting the same villains again and again? Afterwards I'm still curious if that paradox was a narrative choice as well, or her actual character. Because I do believe Moore did her research elaborately, I may have to believe the latter. All in all, in between the manipulating I did enjoy reading this story and getting an insight in this piece of history I had no prior knowledge of. Radium Girls has also been on my radar, and I've seen reviewers with similar objections to this book appreciating that one nevertheless (but also some same complaints), so we'll see if I might still pick that up in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Excrement, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

matcha_cat's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Grief, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Excrement, Death, and Gaslighting

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

Elizabeth is a BAMF 
And we hate men

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Confinement, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Excrement, and Forced institutionalization

nerdglasses08's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Blood, Death, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

bethbarron's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

4.0

Wow. Just wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Torture, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Death, and Confinement

jamieleepilk's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This book is the very true story of Elizabeth Packard, a woman who was sent to an asylum by her husband when she was growing in her independence and (god forbid) forming her own opinions on women's rights and religion.

This is one of those books that will 100% stay with me for a very long time. I finished it last night and was left dumbstruck at how phenomenal it was. Kate has written an epically researched book that grips you and is so compelling that you can't put it down regardless of the horrors you are reading about. The writing is so vivid, beautiful and heartbreaking at times it often reads as historical fiction and my god do you wish it was fiction all the stuff this incredible woman went through.
This book will make you rage, scream and want to through the book at the wall (sorry) in anger at what Elizabeth (and countless woman) went through merely for wanting more independence.
Even with the horrors that happen within these pages what shines through is Elizabeth's hope and strength no matter what was thrown her way, no matter how hopeless things looked she took it and formed her new plans. Whenever she was on a mission you can feel yourself willing through the years to do it, to succeed and cheering her all the way. A woman who went through so much hardships but can out the other side determined to make a difference so the married women of America wouldn't again have to suffer similar fates. Even with this happening 160years ago women today are still called "crazy" to cut them down to size and belittle them, mental health is still not taken seriously in many cases and women's illness' are brushed under the rug.
The quotes in the book taken from real life documents are incredible, showing Elizabeth's immense skill as writer, she was a force to be reckoned with.
As I say this book will stay with me for a long while after finishing it, the postscript was a gut punch and a striking example of why we still need to fight. I am in awe of Kate's work here, her sheer amount of research in incredible and her writing is so elegant. One of the best books I've read this year and I can't wait to recommend it to every single person I know. Breathtaking, I wish I could give more than 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment