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Its about a real life figure of history who is one of the most remarkable women of her time

An investigative journalist and the story takes place in 1887 so things were very different then. However many things were not.

She gets herself admitted into an asylum to get the inside story.

What a story and so well told. Highly recommended!!

Based on the true story of Nellie Bly, a pioneering newspaper journalist, who spent ten days incarcerated in Blackwell asylum to highlight the horrific conditions there.
The story starts with Elizabeth Jane Cochran’s childhood, her father is a judge & her mother loves to tell her stories which combine to give Pink (a nickname due to the pink dresses her mother puts her in) an interest in journalism (a profession that wasn’t common for women at that time).
She moves from writing for the Pittsburg Dispatch, under the pseudonym Nellie Bly, to New York to try to further her career which is where she ends up with the risky idea to prove her journalistic ability to the editors at The World.
Her story was serialised & most importantly the horrific conditions & treatment she reported provoked an investigation into the running of Blackwell’s asylum.
I really enjoyed this book (I haven’t read the true account so can’t comment on whether it is true to the real story but it certainty makes an interesting read).
5/5 stars

"Madwoman" by Louisa Treger isn't your average novel about a mad lady in a Victorian asylum but something so much better than that, an investigative journalist undercover in a New York female asylum. I'd never heard of Nellie Bly until I read this book but what a wonderful, brave lady. Having had a traumatic upbringing, she is determined to make a life for herself as a female journalist. Her determination pays off as she is taken on at a local newspaper but after a while ambition gets the better of her and she tries her luck in New York. What follows is a truly harrowing account of life in a female asylum which very nearly costs Nellie her sanity. Brilliantly informative.

Wow i flew through this book in one sitting. I was gripped to the book as the story of Nelly Bly unfolded, following her journey to achieve a dream that few if any women had ever thought possible. I lived in her fear as she endured the confined of the asylum in order to shine a beacon on the treatment of women . She was a true revelation to someone who he’d never heard of her and i hope that the book is picked up for a movie so that more people can see the struggle women have faced and are still facing today . Bravo the author

I loved this book! I devoured it in two nights as I desperately needed to know how Nellie was going to get out of the asylum and what might happen to her while she was in there. I'm ashamed to say I didn't know anything about Nellie Bly before reading this but I was sold on it just from the blurb.

As a student (a long time ago) I studied the sociology of mental illness and read The Yellow Wallpaper and Girl, Interrupted and more recently Stone Mothers by Erin Kelly and Nathan Filer's fiction and non-fiction. The treatment of people with mental health issues has such a dark and disturbing history and I still think there are many lessons to be learned about the way we treat people now.

I thought this was fascinating and moving and I'd now like to read Nellie's own words and everything else Louisa Treger has written.

Highly recommend.

What an absolutely stunning read this was and many congratulations to Louisa Treger for writing such a wonderful historical novel with such compassion and feeling .
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.
It’s a brutal and heartbreaking story but at the helm we have the courageous Nellie who is determined to get justice for these unfortunate people even risking her own sanity to get the truth out in the open. I was completely fascinated by Nellie her sheer determination to change the way women were treated in both the institutions and work places it shone through and she was one hell of a feisty woman.
I flew through the book it’s not an easy read due to the content but it’s an important read we owe it to all those poor unfortunates know just what hell they went through.
So I loved the book it made me sad but it also gave me hope in that people like Nellie are still around today and are as caring as she was, please read the book it really is worth it.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (Uk &ANZ) for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I only recently learned about Nellie Bly so was very excited to read this book.
It was a very slow start as the book started with Nellie as a very small child. The first 40% of the book was about her childhood and mother’s marriage. I must admit that I found this part of the book to be a bit boring as the book promised a compelling story and I wasn’t expecting almost half of it to be about her childhood. I understand but that it helped to build the character but could have been condensed. The book started picking up the pace after 40% and was very compelling while she was in the asylum. My heart broke for her and the inmates.
The ending was so quick and I wish that some of the setup could have been taken out in order to prevent a speedy ending. I had so many questions that I hoped would be answered and they were but it just felt rushed
I didn’t enjoy the romance in this book but maybe it happened in real life. If it did then I can’t really be mad about it
This was an ok book, a 2.5 star read. I just think that the start of the book ruined it for me

Nellie Bly is a fascinating historical figure who I knew shamefully little about: a brave pioneer of investigative journalism way ahead of her time. This fictional account of her exposé of Blackwell's asylum in 1880s New York stays faithful to the biographical detail, harrowing and emotive without ever getting too sensationalist. Treger shows the same care for the stories of these silenced women that Bly did all those years ago.

Madwoman is a captivating historical novel that shines a light on a remarkable true story.

I felt that this took a little while to get going, but once it did, it soared.
A really shocking tale that doesnt hold back in the deep asylum world. Nellie is a feisty female in a male world with a point to prove and a story to tell.
Descriptive and surprising, this captures the real woman brilliantly.
Fascinating insight,

Madwoman by Louisa Treger is a historical fiction novel, set in the late 19th century America, and it’s based on a true story. I was immediately drawn to the title, cover and premise - I knew it was a perfect book for me. The story of Nellie Bly, a young woman journalist who fakes mental breakdown and goes to an asylum undercover, is fascinating and brutal. It’s about the women who were wronged by the system and the women trying to fight it. It’s also about power of words. It’s raw, but Treger wrote it with such care; she gave the women their stolen voices and showed us how those institutions were really like.

I very much enjoyed getting to know Nellie as a child - called Pink - and loved the family dynamic, her mother telling her stories and her father encouraging her to chase her dreams in the world where women were not allowed to have jobs and careers. My only dislike was the romantic part of the novel which I found hard to believe, but it was not that important to the overall story and its message.

Madwoman is a gripping and inspiring tale and a great novel. Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury UK for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Based on the true story of Nellie Bly who sets out for New York and a career in journalism, this is an absolutely compelling novel. Treger writes beautifully, and the pace of the novel seems designed to keep the reader absolutely captivated. Brilliant. Bly's plight is both moving and fascinating. This is a novel that deserves to do well.

A great read - especially since it’s based on a true story! The writing was gritty and realistic (sometimes too realistic - poor Nellie) but that is something I look for in books set in this time period.

This book tells the true story of Nellie Bly, a woman living in America during the 1880s. Nellie was an advocate for change and she challenged society and the way women were expected to behave at this time in a powerful attempt to make a life for herself, other than being a wife. She paved the way for women by becoming the world’s first female investigative journalist and I felt heartbroken, shocked and disturbed by the things she endured in order to get there. I really recommend this to anybody who enjoys books with themes of feminism and social justice - I finished the book feeling very proud of her strong female character.

Madwoman is based on a true story about ‘Nellie Bly’ when she spent 10 days in Blackwell Asylum. The first part of the book takes us through Nellie’s childhood and shapes her to pursue journalism despite it not being a woman’s job. We see the struggles in her home life as well as her work life. The next part, Nellie takes on New York and presents The World with an offer they can’t deny: she will get herself admitted into the asylum to tell the truth.

I was hooked from the second I read the prologue. I did think the beginning was a bit slow because I just wanted to get back to where the prologue left off - but it was essential to learn about Nellie’s earlier years. Once inside the asylum, my skin was crawling from the descriptions and my heart hurt for the women inside. It was awful. I really liked the parts with Dr Ingram because it offered a little break from the reality. I felt I could relax when Nellie was talking with him as I was tense throughout the rest of the book. Nellie’s determination was so strong even when there was little hope.

This was such a captivating read, made even more so by the fact that it was based upon a true woman and her story. I likedthe writing, the story and I loved the setting, as well as really taking Nellie Bly into my heart. this book was so good and is well worth a read.