This book is based on a notorious hospital for psychiatric patients in Traverse, Michigan in the 1880s. The story centers on Amy Underwood, a seventeen-year-old whose father and stepmother have her institutionalized due to a history of "erratic behavior." We go back and forth between her perspective at the hospital and the perspective of the head doctor, who of course truly believes that the treatments he prescribes will work and are humane. 

I have mixed feelings about this book. I feel like it was trying to communicate powerful and necessary messages about the barbaric nature of psychiatry treatment (both in the past and today), how women's valid reactions to horrible trauma were (and still are) pathologized as insanity, and how often medical advancements occur through the exploitation of vulnerable populations and condescension masquerading as charity. It's interesting to see how the head superintendent thinks his hospital is far superior to other hospitals in terms of its humane treatment of its patients, simply because his attendants are slightly less physically violent and aggressive with the patients. But all of these messages don't come all the way across, and I felt like I had to fill in the blanks for myself. This is a heavy book - trigger warnings galore - and it felt like it moved slowly for me. It's definitely well written, but kind of feels like a history book. The bright spot was definitely Amy's friendships with those on the ward, and the power they found with each other.

Thank you to NetGalley and Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, for Central Michigan University Press, for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review!