Woman 99

January 1, 2019
A young woman sneaks into a California insane asylum to rescue her sister in Macallister's (Girl in Disguise, 2017, etc.) third novel.Charlotte Smith, the 20-year-old daughter of a San Francisco shipping magnate, is about to be thrust, for her parents' convenience, into a marriage she did not choose; the groom's identity is not immediately revealed. Arguably worse, the Smiths have committed Charlotte's beloved sister, Phoebe, who suffers from what today might be classified as bipolar disorder, to Goldengrove, an asylum for the "curable insane." What's a sheltered, finishing school-educated debutante to do? Follow Nelly Bly's notorious example and infiltrate Goldengrove under an assumed identity, that of a suicidal vagrant, while her parents think she's off on a six-week sojourn in Newport, Rhode Island. The novel's backstory unspools in flashbacks, revealing that Charlotte has a crush on Henry Sidwell, the son of her father's chief investor and creditor. The present-time action focuses on Charlotte's search for Phoebe while chronicling life in a mental institution, which, though progressive for 1888, seems to assign treatment regimens according to class. Goldengrove is controlled by the Sidwell family, and the branch least concerned with inmate well-being has been left in charge, with the result that the asylum's mission morphs from therapies (albeit some very primitive ones) to contracting out the patients as slave labor. Although insights about the limited choices afforded women of all classes, and suitably gothic plot twists, keep us reading, too many improbabilities disrupt the narrative flow. The Smiths are portrayed as overanxious yet allow Charlotte to embark unchaperoned (and without luggage) on a supposed cross-country journey and make no effort to inquire about Phoebe's welfare. Since suspense is plentiful there is no need to postpone certain disclosures, such as the identity of Charlotte's fiance. Withholding information is particularly problematic in the first-person narrative of a protagonist as self-reflective as Charlotte. The denouement, with its concessions to period conventionality, removes any hope that this novel will deliver on its feminist leanings.A gripping melodrama that may leave readers feeling gaslighted.

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February 1, 2019

In late 19th-century San Francisco, socialite Charlotte Smith has the world at her feet, but when her parents commit her older sister Phoebe to Goldengrove Asylum for what would now be considered bipolar disorder, Charlotte is determined to set her free. While pretending to visit relatives in Newport, Charlotte fakes a suicide attempt and gets herself committed to Goldengrove. Naïvely, she believes that she will find Phoebe and explain that neither she nor Phoebe are insane, and both will walk away unharmed. It's not that simple; Charlotte realizes she's not the only sane woman in Goldengrove; many of the inmates are there because they are inconvenient to their families. It occurs to Charlotte that she must do more than rescue Phoebe--she must rescue all the women who don't belong there by exposing the practices at Goldengrove. First, she has to get out. VERDICT Macallister follows up The Magician's Lie with a novel of the power of sisterhood, shining a spotlight on the barbaric treatment of the mentally ill in this period as well as society's view of women who don't fit the "traditional" mold. Readers will become engrossed in Charlotte's journey of self-discovery as she fights to free herself and her sister from a rigged system. [See Spring Editors' Picks, p. 20.]--Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2019
Charlotte and Phoebe Smith lived pampered lives in bustling San Francisco, filling their days with shopping, social calls, and galas. But although the Gilded Age had much to offer the sisters when it came to high society, the era's ideas and treatments of mental illness were sorely lacking. When Phoebe is committed to the infamous Goldengrove Asylum, Charlotte realizes that she's the only one with the power to bring her back. After faking a suicide attempt and denying her true identity, Charlotte finds herself committed to the same institution as her sister. Though her original plan now seems exponentially harder to pull off, Charlotte knows that she's Phoebe's only chance at a life outside the asylum. Exploring sisterhood, trauma, and the power of shared experience, Woman 99 is an undercover glimpse inside a late nineteenth-century treatment facility. Macallister fearlessly probes the dark corners of the era, exposing barbaric treatments and backward thinking surrounding mental illness. Fans of Yara Zgheib's The Girls at 17 Swann Street (2019) and the novels of Anne Tyler will appreciate Macallister's strong narrative style.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)