This is based on a true story.
The main character is very well developed. The book is written so well. It is a slow build but it was such a good work of historical fiction

I love being given the opportunity to update our school library which is a unique space for both senior students and staff to access high quality literature. This is definitely a must-buy. It kept me absolutely gripped from cover to cover and is exactly the kind of read that just flies off the shelves. It has exactly the right combination of credible characters and a compelling plot thatI just could not put down. This is a great read that I couldn't stop thinking about and it made for a hugely satisfying read. I'm definitely going to order a copy and think it will immediately become a popular addition to our fiction shelves. 10/10 would absolutely recommend.

This is a fabulous historic book, that starts out slowly and gains traction as you continue reading. It's very beautifully written and certainly full of thought provoking language. However, I found myself struggling to truly get into this book and it took me a very long time to finish reading it, which I found a shame. Great title, gorgeous cover.

Silly and boring. It took me 3 months to finally give this novel some type of sense in my mind because I finally realized that I profoundly disliked Nellie Bly....

I'm very sorry but it was a total failure as far as I'm concerned...

Madwoman, which is based on a true story, reads as a very modern account. There are hints of scandal in an institution - the asylum on "Blackwell's Island" in New York - and an intrepid investigative journalist sets out to penetrate the establishment and expose the truth. It gave me something of a jolt to recall that this was taking place in the later 19th century, when women were far from established in journalism, and sympathy for those with mental health problems was nascent at best.

Indeed, the story is very modern in several senses - Nellie Bly sets out with hopes of righting wrongs and exposing abuse, but a century of institutional scandals will warn the early 21st century reader that little is likely to be done. We should not be too judgemental of our Victoria forbears, perhaps.

More widely, Nellie herself is drawn as a fascinating character. A determined young woman, who has survived crisis after crisis following her beloved father's sudden death and her mother taking up with an abusive man, she is a survivor - who perhaps however sees herself reflected rather too clearly in the Blackwell's inmates. Nellie has already shouldered her way into journalism in provincial Pittsburgh, before making her way to New York in search of bigger stories and more freedom. The Blackwell's Island "stunt" is her attempt to make her mark, for Nellie herself is on her uppers, almost penniless and shut out of the male sanctums of the city's papers. Her ambition is at best tolerated, at worst seen as unfeminine, wrong, in some sense, bound to lead to trouble and perhaps indicative of an unsound mind. It's easy to see how Nellie's plan could go badly wrong.

What she is doing - having herself committed to the asylum - is a deeply serious step and Nellie finds conditions worse there than she could have imagined. Abusive and vicious staff, scant and poor food, freezing conditions and hideous punishments rapidly take their dehumanising toll - and even worse is threatened. Treger's story, which in its first half explores and interprets Nellie's early life diligently, really takes fire in its second part as it touches on what Nellie might have been thinking and feeling as she was locked all night in a rat-infested cell; forcibly dunked in filthy, cold water; or half strangled by a vengeful nurse after speaking out about conditions. One quickly realises how high the stakes were for Nellie and how ingrained the ill-treatment of inmates was.

It's a fascinating story which resists any temptation to sensationalise, treating all the inmates of Blackwell's Island with sympathy and humanity and bringing these people - who really lived, a century and half ago, and, many of them, died, in that place - back to life to speak to us. The coda describing Nellie's later life is a fascinating glimpse of an intrepid and brave woman.

The audio itself is deftly performed by Laurel Lefkow, who reflects Bly's newspaper vocation, giving the text just a hint of one of the big stories being read out from that day's paper. 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. It's the perfect pairing of affect and content.

“‘Welcome to Blackwell’s island,’ one of them said. he cleared his throat and spat. ‘once you get in here, you’ll never get out.’”

I fairly leapt at the chance to read Louise Treger’s fictionalised narrative of Elizabeth Cochran who wrote under the pseudonym of Nellie Bly, having always been fascinated by her remarkable story.

Credited as being the world’s first female investigative journalist, in 1887, Nellie had her self committed to the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York City in order to expose the alleged abuses occurring there.

Treger begins her story in 1870 when Elizabeth is a child living a comfortable life in rural Pennsylvania. The daughter of a judge, ‘Pink’ as she was nicknamed by her family, was encouraged to be curious and learn about a range of subjects, including those generally thought to be unsuitable for women at the time. Inspired by her father Pink plans to eschew marriage and pursue a career in law, but his untimely death when she is fourteen curtails her ambition.

Sux years later, working in service to help support her family, an editorial in the Pittsburgh Dispatch revives her aspirations, and she convinces the paper to publish a series of articles, adopting the nom de plume, Nellie Bly. The articles are popular but attract controversy from advertisers, and when she is relegated to writing about the arts, Nellie decides to move to New York.

The New York newspapers are uninterested in Nellie’s previous success, women journalists are not welcome on Park Row. Nellie however refuses to accept no for an answer and somewhat recklessly promises Colonel Cockerill, managing editor of The World, an insider’s story on life inside the notorious insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island.

Though I’m quite familiar with Nellie’s stint on Blackwell’s Island, much of Nellie’s past was unknown to me, so I appreciated learning more about her family life and what led her to her career in journalism during a period when women were actively dissuaded from higher education and white collar work. Nellie’s tenacity was admirable, all the more so for the obstacles she faced.

Blackwell’s Island Asylum was a vile institution. While the asylum housed women with genuine mental illnesses, it also served as a convenient way for men to rid themselves of problematic wives, sisters, and mothers. Once declared insane it was nearly impossible to be declared cured and released. Patients were ill-fed, regularly subjected to torture by the untrained staff, and received very little, if any therapeutic care. Treger ably exposes the cruel treatment and the bleak lives led by the inmates, and the challenges facing Nellie.

Unfortunately, though I find Nellie’s story fascinating and Treger’s details appear accurate, I felt the narrative of Madwoman was simplistic and flat, failing to evoke atmosphere or strong emotion. The third person viewpoint removes the reader from events, I wanted to walk with Nellie, not observing her as a reporter might.

Nellie Bly was a remarkable woman, smart, brave and resourceful, her exposé of Blackwell’s Island Asylum led to important reforms, though the institution was closed seven years later. Madwoman is an avenue to learn more about Nellie Bly and her accomplishments, but lacks Nellie’s passionate spirit.

Absolutely stunning. Beautifully written and thought-provoking...and at times sad and scary. Highly recommended.

Both an exciting story and a thought-provoking exposé

I learnt such a lot from this book: about the way ‘lunatics’ were treated in 19th century American, and no doubt in the UK, too; about the psychiatry of the times, as talking cures were emerging; about Nellie Bly herself. What a brave, ambitious woman. She overcomes prejudice, her own misgivings and a troubled homelife to forge a new career, and not just for herself – that of campaigning journalist.

So-called lunatics were, of course, often either women who fell through the cracks of an inadequate support system, after suffering serial miscarriages in one example, or were consigned to the asylum for breaking social taboos, such as adultery.

I found myself reading out interesting factoids to my husband, and have started recommending it to friends as soon as I read the closing sentence.

And as a story it works so well. It romps along and, while we know that Nellie must eventually escape the asylum, there is a strong sense of jeopardy. Will the bullies and those who turn a blind eye get their comeuppance? Will Nellie be browbeaten by the experience?

I have no hesitation in awarding this novel five stars and am about to read it all over again!

I loved this book, so engaging and what a story! Based on the true exploits of Nellie Bly and spun into a truly intruiging tale of what life was like for women in an asylum in 1887. Nellie is an amazing character and we feel all her emotions as she makes her way in the world, from chaotic family beginnings to her aim of becoming an investigative journalist in New York. Her plan to fake insanity in order to have herself committed was indeed an extraordinary move. Of course, once inside she really did experience the full horrors of the treatment of the women inside and she saw how things were altered and covered up when visitors were expected. Whilst it may not seem a cheery subject the writing is so absorbing, the book just flies along and is hard to put down. I highly recommend!

I think I read a book featuring a story similar to those of Nellie Bly told in this novel. I think it was a mystery and I was fascinated at that time.
This book is even better as it's the story a pioneer of investigative journalist, an interesting woman who risked for investigating aslyum life.
Ms Treger did an excellent job and the characters are realistic and interesting. The plot flows and the historical background is vivid.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

In 1887, Nellie Bly arrived in New York determined to make a name for herself in journalism, not in the accepted female range of journalism, of theatre reviews and flower arranging, but as a serious reporter covering social issues and inequalities. She'd had some success in her home town of Pittsburgh, but New York proved a harder nut to crack. In desperation she came up with a plan to get admitted to the asylum on Blackwell's Island and uncover the treatment of the patients there. What she found was beyond her most horrific expectations.

Madwoman follows the true story of pioneering journalist Nellie Bly, her internment in a mental health facility, and the cruelty and oppression she found there. Although I wasn't aware of Nellie's story, I had heard of the appalling treatment of mental health patients in the days of 'lunatic asylums', and of many cases of people wrongly incarcerated. As such, much of the dreadful treatment didn't come as a shock to me, and I found the writing style also distanced me from the horror; for my preferences, it was a little too much 'tell', not enough 'show'.


Not a book you'll 'enjoy', but one which many may find informative and shocking.

‘Madwoman‘ is based on the true story of Nellie Bly, the world’s first female investigative journalist and is one of my favourite books so far this year.

The reader first meets Pink, as she’s called back then, when she’s nine years old. Pink is somehow getting the best of two worlds. An education via her father, who’s a judge, and stories fuelling her imagination by way of her mother. Growing up, Pink would very much like to be a lawyer, often helping her father collect facts for his cases, but a career like that isn’t available to women. 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. They really can’t or shouldn’t hope for anything better. But Pink does.

Unfortunately, Pink’s life changes dramatically when her father dies. Her dream of a career in law lies in tatters, her mother’s second marriage is a disaster but all these experiences will shape her character and her future. It’s clear from the beginning she’s a determined and intelligent young lady, not intent on being outdone by her brothers in any way, and with her sights firmly set on a better life in which she need not be dependent on a man.

The law career might not be happening but maybe journalism is an easier door to get a foot into. Pink writes an article about the injustices women in the workplace face, which is published by the Dispatch in Pittsburgh under the pseudonym of Nellie Bly. Her articles are a success but the advertisers aren’t pleased and threaten to pull out their money. Nellie decides to pack her bags and head to New York, where surely people are more progressive and happy to hire a woman as a reporter. Desperate to prove her worth to the owners of The Globe, she comes up with a rather dangerous plan : to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum on Blackwell’s Island, where she will work undercover to expose the horrid conditions the patients live in.

Needless to say the circumstances in the asylum are truly horrendous. The staff consists of criminals and prostitutes who could not care less about the patients if they tried, and have had no training whatsoever. The doctors are apparently blind as bats or equally uninterested in what goes on. It’s all quite devastating and sometimes pretty uncomfortable to read about. Many of these women weren’t even “insane”. Some were put there by their husbands because they were in the way of a new love affair, for instance. Or that infamous “hysteria” illness so many women seem to suffer from. Basically, an asylum was often an acceptable way of dealing with inconvenient women, and nobody cared as long as the insane, real or not, were hidden away out of sight.

Will Nellie ever be able to get out of the asylum though? Will she be able to write her story and bring about changes about how vulnerable people are treated? How will she be affected and will she ever be the same again?

I must confess I’d never heard of Nellie Bly but I’m glad I picked up ‘Madwoman‘ and got to know her. 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. ‘Madwoman‘ is based on Nellie’s life but, as tends to be the case, there are gaps the author has had to fill in herself. It all sounded perfectly plausible to me and I wouldn’t be able to tell you what was fact or what was fiction. I very much appreciated that Louisa Treger didn’t just focus the entire novel on the asylum but gave me, as the reader, the opportunity to get to know Nellie from a young age and watch her grow into the woman she would ultimately become. The one with the tools to do what she did. Nellie really was ahead of her time and she deserves to have her story told.

‘Madwoman‘ has everything I look for in historical fiction and I flew through its pages like a woman possessed. There are some truly chilling moments, there were times I felt quite emotional and I found myself incredibly invested in Nellie’s life and later on the circumstances she and her fellow patients found themselves in at the asylum. The writing is top-notch, the pace spot-on and the characters are unforgettable. This is the kind of novel that reminds me of why I love historical fiction so much, the kind of novel that makes me wonder why I don’t read more in this genre, the kind of novel that stays with me for days or even weeks, raging at the injustices and the knowledge that, not so long ago when you really think about it, the voice of one young woman brought about change as she made her mark in a man’s world. Highly recommended.

I had never heard of Nellie Bly before, but wow - Louisa Treger brings her to life in this thrilling novel that takes the reader deep into an asylum, hand in hand with the bold and brave Nellie Bly. Dangerous, dark and fully of mystery, Bly's journey is one that kept me hooked - a fascinating meditation on how women were treated in the late 1800's, and just how difficult it was for a woman to be taken seriously. Compelling and hugely recommended

It's hard, and sad, to believe this was based on a true story. I felt the start of the book was slightly too slow in pace, it took a while to get going, But I really enjoyed it once Nellie arrived in New York. Nellie is a wonderful character who really gripped my attention right to the end of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advanced copy.

Madwoman by Louisa Treger is a fictionalised account of 19th century, trailblazing female journalist, Nellie Bly as she undertakes her most dangerous and bold undercover assignment, as an inmate of the infamous Blackwell’s Island Asylum in Manhattan. The treatment and living conditions of asylum patients until then had been shrouded in mystery and often the people incarcerated there were simply ‘out of sight, out of mind’. In a desperate attempt to secure herself a job at a prestigious New York newspaper, Nellie sets out to live life as a woman detained in the asylum, but as she quickly realises, the easy part was getting in, how will she ever regain her freedom?

This was a fast-paced journey through the life of a truly fascinating historical figure, Nellie Bly is determined not to bow to social pressures and be a wife and mother, she will not be dependent upon anyone else but herself and pursues a career in investigative journalism, a field which is thought to be unsuitable for the delicate constitutions of a lady. I enjoyed this book, and it is clear Louisa Treger has carried out her research as she brings Nellie Bly to life, she is such a strong and pioneering character that I just couldn’t help but like her. It’s common knowledge that asylum patients were treated appallingly but the vivid descriptions of Nellie’s experiences throughout made me feel as though I were there as well, watching it all unfurl. The treatment of patients suffering with poor mental health was truly terrifying and even more shocking that it was also deemed an appropriate route to be rid of wayward women. Overall, this is an stark, eye-opening read which is perfect for fans of historical fiction. I had unfortunately never come across Nellie Bly before this book and I will be doing some further reading up on her now, she was a brilliant figure who needs to be remembered. Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for a digital copy for review.

3.5 stars

This really is a stunning read. I’m sure the reviews are likely to focus on Nellie Bly’s voluntary incarceration in the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island – undertaken in an attempt to draw attention to the plight of the inmates and the wider social issues, but also to secure a post as a journalist with The World in New York. But I was equally fascinated by her early life – the young Elizabeth Cochran, her father (unusually for the time) encouraging her aspirations for a career using her talents, her mother’s more limited horizons for her daughter, the traumatic experiences that followed her father’s death, and her determination to forge a successful career in the male-only world of factual journalism. When she leaves her childhood nickname of “Pink” behind, she adopts the pseudonym of Nellie Bly – and, having moved from Pittsburgh to New York, comes up with an idea for a story that will ensure The World’s owner and editor take her seriously.

It proves astonishingly easy to convince the authorities that she’s insane – perhaps not too surprising when women are frequently locked away for simply failing to conform with society’s norms. But when she finds herself at Blackwell’s Island, the regime she experiences – appalling cruelty, “carers” drawn from the criminal classes, the constant edge of danger – takes her perilously close to the edge. With the support of the sole sympathetic doctor, she realises that having faked madness to gain entry, she then must fake sanity to have any chance of discharge – but that’s also dependent on the newspaper’s backing and intervention, and there are times she fears that her mission has been forgotten and that she’ll remain there to the end of her days.

And then there’s the afterwards, every bit as compelling – she might have achieved a level of fame and influence, shown what a woman is capable of achieving, driven an appetite for change that will improve the system beyond recognition, but she then needs to adapt to life in the world outside, mourning those she lost, taking up the opportunities that she risked so much to achieve.

That’s all about the story itself – one which would be totally irresistible to any author. But I loved the way the author used her raw material – first creating empathy and building engagement with her heroine, then following her through the vividly described hell to which she was subjected. Because of the subject matter, it’s never an easy read – but it’s certainly a thoroughly gripping one, absorbing and immersive, and all the more horrifying because you can feel the visceral authenticity of the account and the depth of research that underpins it.

There are moments from Nellie’s time at Blackwell’s Island that have seared themselves into my memory – the vicious attacks, the gratuitous cruelty, the sheer inhumanity, the cold and hunger, but also the incongruous “treats” like the moving pictures in the pavilion and the fairground ride. And if Nellie herself is sustained by the knowledge that her stay will (hopefully…) be a limited one, the stories of other inmates, the circumstances that brought them there, and the absence of any hope for the future are truly heartbreaking. But equally, Nellie’s own determination to shine a spotlight on their plight is absolutely inspirational – her life might have been changed by the experience, but the impact of her actions can change things for others. The author doesn’t simply tell her story – she does so in a way that enables you to experience every injustice, recoil at every wrong, rise to anger at every horrifying act, but also to will on her courageous protagonist and hope beyond hope that she will achieve the outcomes she strives for.

This really is an extraordinary piece of work, and it moved me deeply – it’s far more than an account of a largely forgotten heroine, considerably more than a well-researched and beautifully written piece of historical fiction. Totally unforgettable, and one of my books of the year.

(Review copied to Waterstones' site, but link not yet available - and will copy to Amazon UK on publication day)

3.5* rounded down

The blurb of this book really drew me in and I wishes the opening had held my attention in the same way the ending did! We know it's all leading up to the (true) story of Nellie Bly, newspaper journalist, going undercover to get one of the most fascinating exposés of the times about what happened to women in asylums. It's great to have background too but it did take quite a while to really get going.

We start with the lead character's childhood and again what women had to ensure in those times. It becomes evident that "Pink" (as she is known back then) is more intelligent than her peers and has expectations is education and career, typically reserved for men. It's when she New York in a bid to further her career and comes up with the idea to throw herself into possible peril and document it that things start to get really interesting and a form of investigative journalism is born.

I ended up doing independent research on Nellie Bly and her work, which is always a good sign with a book, however I do think the dramatic stakes could have been increased at the start of the novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What is promised by the blurb and what is delivered are two very different things. Nearly 40% of Madwoman is spent in winding up to Bly entering the asylum, by which point, it's almost impossible to care. If I hadn't read so far into the story, I would have marked it as DNF.

The writing style is quite naive and the dialogue is laughable in places. It was very stunted and unnatural. There seems to have been an effort made at using language from the period, but Treger hasn't managed to successfully pull it off. It would have been better to not use an authentic voice because it means the voices the reader receives sound contrived and other worldly.

I'm in the minority with my view on this book but for a topic that could have been an instant hit, this was a miss.

I have reviewed Madwoman for book recommendations site LoveReading.co.uk
Please see the site for the full review, I have chosen Madwoman to sit as a Liz Robinson Pick of the Month.

Madwoman is based on the true story of Nellie Bly, world's first female investigative journalist, who fakes insanity in order to report on an asylum from the inside.

The book has quite a slow beginning, and the parts about her childhood just didn't grab me; I found myself skim reading to get to the later chapters. However, once she becomes a journalist, I found the story much more interesting. By was clearly an incredibly brave and determined woman. The descriptions of what happened in the asylum were fascinating, but also absolutely horrific, and at times the book is quite painful to read. Treger definitely gets across how awful those places were, and the horrors that were committed against people.

Despite the slow start, this book is evocative and moving. A difficult read, but worth it. What separates the sane from the insane? Who decides who is insane? How can someone who is declared insane ever prove that they are sane? There is definitely a lot to think about here.

3.5 stars.