Everyone should know what Nellie Bly did for the women in Blackwell’s Asylum and should all take a leaf from her book when it comes to believing in yourself and standing up for what is right! She studied at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music, and worked as a freelance orchestral player and teacher.

When I was 10 or so I read a biography for children about Nellie Bly, and it was much more engaging than this plodding book.It made me angry, it made me sad, it made me proud… Nellie Bly was an exceptional woman and it makes me happy to know that she fought for those women who didn’t have a voice. An extraordinary portrait of a woman way ahead of her time, Madwoman is the story of a quest for the truth that changed the world. Having paved the way for mental health facilities around the country, Nellie was a trailblazer in creating a new type of journalist, an undercover.

We're reminded that, in piecing together Bly's history, Treger's first resource will have been her printed articles: this is a woman who found her voice and her freedom through a modern medium, the crusading newspaper, one of the first to do so.There’s a line to the effect of “mens narratives determine women’s fate” which I thought was very powerful but at the same time, not necessarily portrayed through the characters. I’ve read other books about Nellie Bly’s life, but this is the first I’ve read that delve deeply into the time she spent in the asylum, a place she goes of her own accord to experience first hand what was happening inside those institutions and expose the atrocities. A HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES**___________________________'A moving story' SUNDAY TIMES, Best historical fiction books of 2022'A must read!

Thus, she is encouraged to form her own opinions and later to gather information for him as she has a knack for asking the right questions. The women fighting to survive beside Nelly each day are memorable and compelling and I especially enjoyed her friendship with Sofia.This is the kind of novel that makes you want to jump on the internet and find out a whole lot more about everything you’ve just read. Nellie Bly is a fascinating historical figure who I knew shamefully little about: a brave pioneer of investigative journalism way ahead of her time. We are told through the perspective of Nellie of the ways that men abuse their social standing to punish women. She wrote harsh but true articles and then moves to New York where she feels she can really start writing about the hard stuff. This was a time where women could be deemed insane for simply falling in or out of love or having the wrong opinion, and once you were behind that locked door you were usually left to rot.

Having already read Louisa Treger's earlier books, 'The Lodger' and 'The Dragon Lady', I was really looking forward to 'Madwoman'.Women are meant to get married and have children and, if for some reason or other they really have to go out to work, then there are underpaid jobs in housekeeping or factories. While the subject matter is worth reading, the presentation lacked for me, especially in the first half of the book. The story is based on a true one of Nellie Bly who was an amazing figure in her time,breaking boundaries and faking insanity to expose the harrowing lives of women ( and men ) who were incarcerated in horrific conditions accused of being insane.