hacksaw_nick 's review for:

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

DID NOT FINISH: 20%

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I stopped reading at page 75 not because the subject matter wasn’t important or harrowing. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of this story before, and its historical significance is undeniable. However, the writing style made it difficult to stay engaged. It felt like a collection of college-level essays awkwardly stitched together for a larger project, with poor transitions and a lack of cohesion. The frequent shifts between historical records and first-person antecedents, combined with abrupt changes in tense, created a jarring experience that pulled me out of the narrative. While the content is vital, the execution fell short of doing justice to the weight of the topic.