Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

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

6 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. 

---

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

mrsdarcylynn's review against another edition

5.0

What a wild story! This book is so important to read, especially when understanding the evolution of women’s rights, mental health history, and legal processes surrounding “dependents”. This story was hard to stomach, but well worth the listen! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, and Misogyny

nerdglasses08's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad

4.5

---

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

maidmarianlib's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

Powerful biography of an individual woman but also a lot of context for women's history.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Mental illness, Confinement, Torture, and Emotional abuse

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Abandonment