megnut's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

4.25

An incredible story... but (as warning) with many warnings of the sexism & misogyny that controlled women's lives then and still affect us today. 

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ocoury23's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

*Review based on experiencing the book as an audiobook 

This book was incredible to listen to and learn from, but also was incredibly long. Elizabeth Packard was a name I had never heard before, but her story is inspiring and I would highly recommend this for book for any adult-level readers (due to the sensitive content that is discussed). Truthfully, my main drawback to this was the length - I’m not sure if I would be able to work my way through this again without taking my time. 

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cmbohn's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative sad slow-paced

4.5


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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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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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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

I feel like everyone needs to read this book. We owe so much to this woman. I am both inspired and buoyed by this woman and appalled and disgusted even further by weak men. The amount of research the author must’ve done is impressive, but even more so is the way she wrote this story.

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plumpatio's review against another edition

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informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.5


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kld2128's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5


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katiemack's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced
I’m not sure what to rate this. The story itself is compelling; Elizabeth’s writing is so sharp and perceptive, and she’s an incredibly brave and intelligent figure in history. Kate Moore’s writing, though, gets too bogged down by small details and novelistic flourishes—I admire the amount of research she did for this book, but there’s only so much I can read about the weather or the amount of time Elizabeth spent on sewing.

This book did make me want to read Elizabeth’s works, though, which are apparently all available on hoopla (shameless library plug). 

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ohlala_kaylala's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0


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alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

overall, i really enjoyed this book but it lost a star due to the length. i think it would have really benefitted off of being edited down quite a bit because it became very drawn out

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