I ended up enjoying this book more than I thought I was going to, but it took me a little while to get there, probably about the half way point before it really took off. Charlotte throws herself off a pier to get herself committed to an asylum after her sister Phoebe (probably bi polar I from the way her symptoms are described in the book) has intervened to stop Charlotte's marriage to a man Charlotte doesn't love. Phoebe has embarrassed the family publicly multiple times and her mother finds sticking her in an asylum (a quite easing thing to do pre 1900) a convenient way to get rid of her so she can elevate their family's social status while erasing their debts with the other man's riches. Once committed, Charlotte finds all manner of atrocities taking place at this asylum and each hatched plan to try to locate her sister inside the warren of rooms leads to a new punishment or a new discovery of just how out of control things have gotten in the name of profit at Goldengrove. During her time there, she also discovers a shocking secret that could be the key to permanent freedom for both herself and her sister. In the flavor of Nellie Bly, this book really took off at the halfway point, and ended with a nicely tied off bow of happy endings for everyone. The first half kind of dragged and left me wondering if it was going to be worth the time invested, but it got better the more time I invested in it, and the characters really came into their own further into the book. Really well done.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! Woman 99 by Greer Macallister just exceeded my expectations and I was totally hooked from the first page. Many times books will sag at some point but not this one, every chapter was riveting. The author is so talented, her wording and descriptions make me wish I was a better writer.

Scoot this novel to the top of your Must-Read list.

Check it out:

When Charlotte Smith’s wealthy parents commit her beloved sister Phoebe to the infamous Goldengrove Asylum, Charlotte knows there’s more to the story than madness. She risks everything and follows her sister inside, surrendering her real identity as a privileged young lady of San Francisco society to become a nameless inmate, Woman 99.

The longer she stays, the more she realizes that many of the women of Goldengrove aren’t insane, merely inconvenient ― and that her search for the truth threatens to dig up secrets that some very powerful people would do anything to kep.

A historical thriller rich in detail, deception, and revelation, Woman 99 honors the fierce women of the past, born into a world that denied them power but underestimated their strength.

I knew very little about the mental health institutions of the 1800s so it was interesting to learn about them and how many women were committed and weren’t actually mentally ill. I enjoyed Charlotte’s personal transformation though she was always spunky, though not as much as her older sister. What she did to rescue Phoebe was brave and showed a true strength of character. After reading this book, I immediately downloaded another one of Greer Macallister’s novels.

Due out March 5 2019.

Great book. Macallister wonderfully and respectfully touched upon a sensitive subject in a time where both lack of knowledge and medical assistance was prevalent. You were painted a clear picture of how appalling conditions and treatment were in those days. The backstories of a few of the patients was halting, the reasons for their confinement disgusting and heartbreaking.

I admired the loyalty and love of Phoebe and Charlotte, their bond unmeasurable. The sacrifices each sister was willing to make and made for the other was affecting. The frostiness between the girls and their parents, especially their mother added to the plot and authenticated the girls.

I liked the ending and I found the build up to the end suspenseful, especially with extracurricular characters involved.

Touching story of mental illness of days old, love, loyalty, courage and the intense bond of two differing sisters.

This was such a captivating tale of women in an asylum in the late 1800s & the mistreatment that they all endured. WOW!! I was immediately invested in 9the characters. There was sadness, deceit, & at times abuse, BUT, there was so much strength, women supporting each other, love, passion, & last but not least, resolution. I LOVE Historical fiction, & this DID NOT dissapoint.

As someone who regularly spends time with strangers, men and women of all ages, races, religions, and backgrounds, I gravitate towards novels that put people of all lifestyles together and let each of them shine. That's what I had hoped Greer Macallister's book would do; unfortunately, I think I've gotten spoiled by watching Orange is the New Black for as many seasons as it has been on. There are well-rounded characters on that show whose life before prison and in prison have been fully revealed to the audience. Watching each of their stories and the way they interact with one another is what makes the show so unique. While Woman 99 novel is not set in modern-day North America, Macallister only skims the surface when it comes to character development and left me wanting to know more about the characters and their motivation behind each of their choices. Charlotte "bravely" tries to rescue her sister from Goldengrove, the city's mental asylum, but finds herself and friendship there. It moves slowly, but does wrap up in a way that readers can appreciate.

A Little Background
The real Nelly Bly is mentioned throughout this book, particularly as an inspiration to Charlotte. Bly was famous for her “stunt journalism” which included going undercover as a patient in order to investigate the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in New York in 1887. Bly’s initial desire was to find out for herself that “the most helpless of God’s creatures” were in fact being properly cared for in facilities of this type. What Bly discovers is that most of the women in the facility are not insane at all, but instead are just poor, indigent immigrants or women that are no longer wanted by their families for a variety of reasons. And the ones that did have mental illnesses were treated quite cruelly.

Doctors at the time assumed if you showed up on the doorstep of the asylum, for any reason, you were by definition insane. There was no diagnosis, no real examination. Insanity was assumed. Bly spent 10 days in the facility and her descriptions of the treatment of the women was appalling and shocking. She described everything from ice baths, sitting for hours on hard benches, spoiled and limited food, rough treatment, and brutal abuse including choking and beatings. After Bly’s exposé was published a grand jury launched an investigation into the conditions of the asylum; however, the asylum was given prior notice of the investigation and were able to prepare for the visit by officials. But they didn’t get their stories straight amongst themselves and the doctors and nurses not only contradicted Bly’s story, but also each other’s. In the end, some changes were made and more money was provided to improve conditions in the asylum. Examinations to determine real “insanity” were improved to ensure only the seriously ill were admitted instead of just “troublesome women” that families or society wanted to hide away.

Sadly, Bly’s exposé wasn’t successful as a remedy for the treatment of mental illness as a whole. It took many more decades before people with mental illnesses were treated as patients requiring medical care instead of inmates essentially locked up and experimented upon.

Woman 99
The author takes much from Nelly Bly’s experiences and develops it into a well-crafted story in Woman 99. Many descriptions of the treatment of women in the Goldengrove Progressive Home for the Curable Insane (the asylum in the novel) is taken straight from the experiences of Bly and is properly credited by the author in the Author’s Note.

Charlotte was an interesting character. She began as a privileged, protected, and naïve young lady with expectations of marrying well and turned into a courageous, strong woman willing to do anything to save her sister. I’m not sure Charlotte made very wise decisions regarding her plan to have herself committed. Unlike Bly, who had a definite escape from her situation, Charlotte just assumed folks would believe her when she finally revealed she was actually sane. But therein lies the crux of the story – her naïve assumption led her discover the fact that women didn’t have to be insane to be committed. Some just needed to be poor, inconvenient, or unwanted.

The story is ultimately one of courage, love, and strength. The ending was appropriate and satisfying.

I also particularly appreciated the introduction to Nelly Bly’s experience in the asylum since I’ve since read a lot about her specific observations (as is probably obvious with my history lesson above) since I finished Woman 99.

This is the first book I’ve read by Greer Macallister and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Sourcebooks Landmark for a free electronic ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book is touted as a 'vivid historical thriller' and was inspired by the famous investigative reporter, Nelly Bly who, in the late 19th century, snuck into an insane asylum to report on the atrocities occurring within its walls. Woman 99 is written in a similar vein, but I wouldn't call this a thriller. It lacked the tension and suspense of a thriller. But it is a solid historical fiction read with its focus on how mental health 'therapies' were inflicted on the female residents - many of whom found themselves there for reasons that had nothing to do with mental health.

The book had a good premise and but even with the atrocities that are described, there is a lack of emotion and depth to the subject matter as well as the characters' development. Charlotte was a bland main character who goes from total naïf to diving head first into her last-minute plans and getting by with an unbelievable amount of luck.

With a slow-moving plot, particularly in the beginning, and an ending that seemed to peter off, this book was a good but a much lighter read than I was expecting.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a story that will totally engage you as you go through the chapters!
Taking place in 1888, and in an asylum for the insane; what happens when you do not belong there and find yourself entrenched in this new world?
Phoebe speaks her mind. She has extreme high's and low's and finds herself suddenly placed in Goldengrove . Her sister, Charlotte wants to find and save Phoebe.
Charlotte lands herself in the facility following a "crazy" stunt and begins her mission to find Phoebe with the goal of releasing her.
You will read and cringe at times and yet, applaud both Charlotte and so many of the other women who have been deposited here not for insanity, but "wrong-doings"!
The punishments and so called "treatments" are pure torture!
Love, friendship, sisterhood, hardship and endurance are all in this book!
Excellent!

It’s San Francisco in the late 1880s. Goldengrove claims to be a peaceful place of healing for women who are mentally ill and in need of help. In reality, Goldengrove is a place for husbands and disappointed family members to conveniently discard their wives, sisters and any other female family members who are not "obedient" to family rules. Some of these rules consist of not getting an education, accepting an arranged marriage, and letting the male members think for you. San Francisco socialite, Charlotte Smith, has a sister at Goldengrove and she is determined to get Phoebe out. At what cost will Charlotte take trying to get into this asylum and what will happen if she is found out? I really enjoyed this book! Lots of twist and turns and mystery!

This creepy historical novel set in an asylum for women in the late 1800’s makes for good late-night reading. Phoebe Smith suffers from episodes that look like modern day Bipolar Disorder. Her family sends her to an asylum for the mentally ill and washes their hands of her. Phoebe’s sister, Charlotte, wants Phoebe to remain a part of her life and, inspired by the undercover journalism of Nellie Bly, devises a scheme to be admitted to the mental institution to retrieve her sister. While the institution supposedly treats patients with the most modern of treatments, not all of those treatments are humane. Some inmates, Charlotte discovers, do not suffer from mental illness at all, but were sent to the institution simply because they inconvenience the powerful men in their lives. The care given in the facility ranges from neglect to abusive quackery. Ultimately, the women who are able ban together to save themselves. This historical novel with a strong feminist bent carries a fast plot. I stayed up well past my bedtime and read this novel in a single sitting.

This was an excellent book, very well written. I felt like it was a true story even though I knew it was a novel. Mental institutions have always been know as horrible places. This institution lived up to all the rumors! The things that went on there were horrific. Couldn’t wait to get to the next page and finally the end to read how things sorted out.

Clear your calendar before reading this one. Truly. It is extremely hard to put down.

Greer Macallister’s third novel, Woman 99, will take your breath away, break your heart, put it back together again, give you an adrenalin rush and will leave you with a sense of community with all women who have come before.

In Woman 99, we meet Charlotte Smith, a young woman betrothed to a man she doesn’t much like in order to cancel her father’s business debts. It’s the late 1800s in San Francisco, and like other women of Charlotte’s society standing, her prospects for marriage include what will be the most beneficial business transaction.

Charlotte’s mother has decided to send her to her aunt’s house across the country to come to terms with her impending nuptials, and they make plans for Charlotte to be away for several weeks.

All the while, we learn Charlotte beloved sister, Phoebe, has been sent away to a private asylum for having what sounds to me like a bipolar disorder. By all outside accounts, the asylum, Goldengrove, is comfortable, has the latest treatments and is a safe, wonderful environment of healing.

Charlotte never believed Phoebe belonged in an asylum and concocts a plan to rescue her. She is inspired by reading about Nellie Bly, who famously had herself committed to an asylum to expose the horrific conditions inside. Instead of visiting her aunt, Charlotte decides to have herself committed to Goldengrove and will get Phoebe out.

Charlotte’s wild plan to get herself committed succeeds, and she begins to figure out how to find Phoebe and get her out. She learns perhaps she didn’t think her plan through and that things will prove to be quite difficult. She also learns the conditions inside are far from comfortable and safe.
We learn the asylum is full of “inconvenient women” who were tossed away because nobody wanted to care for them or claim them. It is watched over by cruel nurses and assistants. The inmates are hungry, abused, humiliated, forced to work and subjected to terrifying treatments such as being wrapped tightly like a mummy in freezing wet rags.

We meet several women who were committed because they upset a family member, were driven to prostitution to keep from starving and one who was sent to the asylum to cover up an attempt to murder her.

I’ll let you read and learn if Charlotte finds Phoebe and if the two ever leave the asylum. But, I will say this book is full of twists, turns, surprises, secrets, really lousy characters you love to hate and some very wonderful ones who feel like friends by the end of the book. These are characters you have a hard time admitting are fictional because you bond with them on their awful journey through the asylum.

And in the end, while I had a hard time letting go of my new book friends (even though I can and will “see” them when I read the book again), the book wraps up in satisfying, uplifting fashion. After reading this book, I felt proud to be a woman – to carry on a legacy of strength those before me have demonstrated, even when society told them not to.

The book left me with one pressing question though – Will there be a sequel?

I received a free advance copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

A fictional account of life in an insane asylum in the late 1880s. Inspired in part by the famous investigative reporting of Nellie Bly in 1887. Like Bly, our protagonist has herself committed. She hopes to rescue her sister. While there, she learns of all the difficult and inconvenient women placed their by their families as well as the horrible conditions. Overall, I found the book enjoyable, though Charlotte's behavior and actions were not very realistic to me based on her background and the time period. Still, an interesting historical fiction.

Woman 99 was a captivating thriller that drew me in from the beginning. I wasn't sure how I would feel about the book because the thriller/mystery genre is not one to which I'm typically drawn- however I'd say this is more dramatic than thrilling if that's a category? I love a historical drama and was familiar with the original experiment the book was based on which made me want to read it. I'm glad I gave it a try because the story was complicated and fascinating. The development of the characters and their relationships with each other immediately caught my attention and kept it. Some of the descriptions seemed unnecessarily long which made the story drag at points making it a four star read for me. This is a great book for someone who appreciates history, the social sciences, and the history of women's rights.

I received a complimentary advanced copy of this book from Sourcebooks through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Woman 99 by Geer Macallister.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy for my honest review.
Description
She's only a number now.
When Charlotte Smith's wealthy parents commit her beloved sister Phoebe to the infamous Goldengrove Asylum, Charlotte knows there's more to the story than madness. She risks everything and follows her sister inside, surrendering her real identity as a privileged young lady of San Francisco society to become a nameless inmate, Woman 99.
The longer she stays, the more she realizes that many of the women of Goldengrove aren't insane, merely inconvenient and that her search for the truth threatens to dig up secrets that some very powerful people would do anything to keep.


A historical thriller rich in detail, deception, and revelation, Woman 99 honors the fierce women of the past, born into a world that denied them power but underestimated their strength.
I di not find it a thriller but it was wonderfully written and the characters were so real Charlotte Smith‘s sister, Phoebe, has always been subject to rages of temper and bouts of giddiness. Charlotte has always considered that a facet of her personality and is utterly shocked when her parents choose to send Phoebe off to the secretly infamous Goldengrove asylum as Charlotte’s wedding approaches – something Charlotte blames herself for.
A Great read, very well written.

I really enjoy her books! I thought the characters were all likable and the entire story very believable. It’s sad to think that places like this were actually around.
I did think it started alittle slow but it ended with a bang!

Wow, very impressive historical fiction alert!

San Francisco 1888. Two sisters. Phoebe, fierce, outspoken, manic-depressive. Charlotte, calm, composed, obedient. Neither of them really fits the high society they grow up in. When Charlotte is forced to marry a man she doesn't love, her sister stands up for her. As a result she is put in the woman's asylum of Goldengrove, just outside San Francisco. Charlotte now has only one goal: getting her sister back home.
With a sudden rebel streak she gets herself admitted to Goldengrove and we follow the search for Phoebe through Charlotte's eyes.
It's a brutal environment, using treatments we can only imagine today on mainly sane but outcast woman. Waterhosing, isolation in darkness, restriction chairs, Charlotte bears it all in search for Phoebe. To survive she uses what she calls her reveries, the happy memories that explain to the reader how the girls ended up here, and the fantasies on how to get them back home.

The description of the environment inside and out is stunning, the characters are indepth. This books grabbed me and I couldn't let go.
Every time the sisters seem to finally find each other, something happens to wreck the moment. It's a heartbreaking yet exciting story, with heartwarming friendships and precious adventures among the woman admitted. The ending is quite predictable, but did put a smile on my face.

Woman 99 is a stunner read, extremely well written and moving at the right pace.
This story will stay with me for a while. What a treasure!

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars.

The premise of this book sounded great, but the execution fell a bit flat for me. Don’t get me wrong: overall it was a good book, and it’s definitely worth a try if you are interested in the subject. However, from the blurb I was expecting it to be more of a historical mystery, while it really wasn’t. There were some mysterious things at the beginning which were unraveled later, but there weren’t shocking surprises. The historical aspect is well done, but don’t expect many twists and turns.
The first half of the book was a little slow moving for me. It wasn’t until the second half that I became more invested in the story and attached to the characters. I liked seeing the different women and discovering the reasons why they were in the asylum. The different relationship which formed between them were also interesting and in some cases heartwarming.
As for Charlotte, our main character, she was too passive and naive for my liking at first, but she grew on me as the story went on and her evolution was very good. Her sister Phoebe was also a successful character: I think the author captured well her personality and her psychological state, and the relationship between the sisters was very sweet. I wasn’t as interested in Charlotte’s romance with Henry.
The ending left me feeling torn. On one hand, I liked it, especially the last chapter, but on the other hand I wasn’t happy at how some things got resolved. It was satisfying overall, but not perfect.

I was provided an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a student of psychology, I chose this book to see how the author handled mental health in the late 1800s. She did a fantastic job. It was very well researched and depicted with real honesty. The story itself felt a little clunky and while I recognized that Charlotte loved her sister, I didn't feel the author expressed enough of that love and connection before Charlotte decided to do something so reckless as attempt suicide so she could be put in the same institution. All in all, a good story.

For me, the mark of an excellent book is one I want to tell everyone about regardless of whether they have read it or not. Woman 99 by Greer MacAllister is exactly that type of book. It’s a book you will want to share and a book that will inevitably make for an excellent book club read. The premise of the novel hinges on the narrator, Charlotte, who is determined to save her elder sister, Phoebe. Phoebe was recently committed to a neighboring insane asylum of which Charlotte knows very little. Charlotte recklessly finds a way to be committed in order to rescue her sister. Charlotte’s naivety throughout the novel is often maddening, but I loved the storyline so much that I forgave her reckless choices. MacAllister builds the characters in such a way that I easily empathized with the good ones and despised the evil. I appreciated MacAllister’s well-researched take on early female asylums, and the way she depicted the treatment authorized within those walls while highlighting the strength of sisterly love. Surprisingly, for a novel set in an asylum, I found the plot was a well balanced mix of uplifting and macabre, and I will put it on my reread list!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.