Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

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

45 reviews

megnut's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide

ocoury23's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide and Excrement

cmbohn's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Minor: Eating disorder, Slavery, Suicide, Excrement, and Suicide attempt

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

fkshg8465's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

plumpatio's review against another edition

informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

kld2128's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, and Violence

katiemack's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

ohlala_kaylala's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment