Although the topics discussed in this book are awful, they highlight important facts in our world's history...the eugenics program along with the persecution and execution of the mentally ill. Everything was well done and I was engrossed in the novel from beginning to end.

Thanks netgalley for giving me the pdf so that I can share my thoughts and opinions with y'all 🧡

An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author.

Although the subject matter is not a pleasant one, the reality of the Nazi eugenics programs is written about very well in this novel set in 2 time frames, a young woman patient during WWII and a young woman in 1984 battling psychiatric problems. Sensitively portrayed, these characters will stay with you for a long time. Mesmerizing and poignant.

What an excellent read!
These characters were gripping and the story so heart wrenching! The lives they led were so filled with difficulty made so much worse by the times they lived in.

It's so rare that I'll be left speechless by a book. This story was beautiful and heartbreaking, and to find that it's based on the authors own family experiences is just chilling. So often this aspect of eugenics is ignored, and to finally hear this story shared is so special.

This is an amazing story, following Inga from Nazi Germany, where her mentally ill sister gets caught up in the eugenics scheme of the Nazis, to modern day America, where she fights the same demons for her mentally ill granddaughter. Based on a true story from the authors own family history, it's filled with flawed characters whose quiet strength belie the horrid secrets they must keep, which sometimes hide their love beneath a harsh appearance. I was fortunate to receive a digital copy from the publisher Top Hat Books through NetGalley.

Enjoyed this one. I felt like there was something missing though, something I needed to love it. Well thought out plot and easy to read.

*Many thanks to Sylvia True, John Hunt Publishing, and NetGalley for arc inexchange for my honest review.*
A different approach to WW2 with the focus on mental health and how the next generations were affected by it. I was not invested in story as much as I would have liked to and the characters left me rather indifferent. However, the books itself reads rather well despite the subject matter which is upsetting and depressing.

This book did initially intrigue me, but I grew bored as nothing was really happening that would make me desperately want to get to the next page. The premise was promising and it did meet my expectations, but I felt like we were going in circles and nothing was really happening. I was satisfied by the ending, but all in all, this wasn't a satisfying read as a whole.

Hereditary mental illness and eugenics. Same family fifty years apart, connected through Inga. In 1934 the family is Jewish, well off and with a daughter who needs mental help. They have tried everything they can at home but eventually have her placed in a sanitarium, hoping she gets the help she needs. This is the beginning stirrings of Hitler's intentions, but the signs are already apparent. Although eugenics started in the US, Hitler uses this program to rid the world of those he considers undesirable. These of course included those thought defective, mentally ill. First sterilization and then.....

Fifty years later Sabine, from the same line, voluntarily enters McClean hospital. She finds herself unable to cope, anxiety ridden. Inga, her grandmother, arrives from Switzerland to help. Family secrets will be uncovered and hidden knowledge will be exposed.

There are several scenes that are beyond heartbreaking, which one expects when reading anything to do with Hitler. Even after the many books I have read about the horrendous acts he committed, they still have the ability to shock. This story is based on the authors own family history and she tells it with empathy and sympathy. With the understanding that even those who had good intentions were given little choice.

ARC from Netgalley.

Amazing amazing amazing book!! The description had me wanting this book and once I got it I dove right it and WOW! The story was so unique and powerful. I also was so glued to the two different time periods. I also feel this book really tackled mental illness in a eye opening way. I highly recommend this book!

I am so sorry, I do not know how I missed that I got a copy of this NetGalley books. It sounds so interesting. I do apologize. I was newer to Net Galley and not as familiar with website and App.

I don’t think I can access the book now, but think I am interested in buying. Sounds fascinating.

Well written and an incredible story. Sometimes difficult to read but the subject matter is so important. I highly recommend that everyone reads this book.

Thank you Netgalley, John Hunt Publishing Ltd and Sylvia True for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

Where Madness Lies takes you on cross-generation journey with dirty secrets and some family history of mental history. The author's note before the story begins made me re-read a lot of sentences. The novel is based on a real family history and some characters were drawn from real life.

A beautiful and a thought-provoking book about strong women and hard decisions that sometimes they had to make. Rigmor and Inga are sisters, one is a strong-willed and social butterfly and another is shy and prefers to her own company. From teenage years Rigmor started to have "fits" which only grew worse with time. Unfortunately, it was time of Nazi Germany where the tide of eugenics facilitates the campaign to rid Germany of the mentally ill. 40 years after, Sabine (Inga's grand-daughter) commits herself to McLean Hospital , battling crippling panic and depression. Through the story, the reader get to know the intricacies of Rigmor's life, decisions that were made to her benefit but led to devastated results; Inga's life in marathon of saving first Rigmor's, then Sabine's health and life.

Definitely, not the easiest book to read due to subject. However, I have to say - it was well-written. Character-wise I think it was amazingly done, all women were developed separately and through each other. Inga came to live through her own story, and through her sister and granddaughter. The complex issues of mother-daughter relationship are expertly done, and it clearly shows the impact of it to participant's lives.

Overall, very enjoyable story, with a lot to learn and to research after. I am looking forward to more work from Sylvia True.

I found Sylvia True's Where Madness Lies to be a great read. I was hooked right from the start. Highly recommended. Five stars.

This was a difficult read but it was definitely an interesting read. It is horrifying how far the Nazis went.

A beautifuly written story about the sad topic of mental health This book explores all the horrors of the Hitler era and how even the basic of mental health was dealt with. The story spans two timelines, one being the story and Inga and her sister Rigmore and the other is Inga's granddaughter's story. Although parts of this book I found harrowing I still really enjoyed reading it, this is one of those books that will stay in my mind for a long time.

In 1934 a family lives in Germany. The family includes a mother and two sisters. Iinga is the oldest sister and Rigmor the younger sister and the mother is Frieda. Rigmor suffers with depression and psychosis. Frieda and Inga decides to research and read how mental illness can be treated. She decides Rigmor needs a friend who is also a psychiatrist where Rigmor can have someone to talk to. That person will become Arnold who is a psychiatrist. Arnold at first says no but ends up doin it. However Rigmor becomes worse and ends up in Sonnestein known for its excellent care of mentally ill persons. Will Rigmor get well? When Nazism is the police leader system in Germany, all mentally ill patients are to be sterilized. Will Rigmor be sterilized? It is 1985. Inga is going to the United States, to visit and help her granddaughter Sabine who is is admitted to a mental hospital. She is wanting to help Sabine to get well,. Will Inga be able to help her?

In this historical novel, the author writes a partially fictional and factual story of her family’s mental illness. And how it is treated in two different countries and inn two different time periods. It is a story that covers three generations. It explores a part of the horrifying of the Holocaust and the 198o’s of women suffering mental illness in America was treated. The author has shown us how difficult mental illness can be due to people’s distrust. I was captured by the love and pain of the story. It is still a taboo to have mental illness in th family. People don’t understand an far. It. It is still a too mysterious illness

1This was a hard read on many levels. First of all, because my time for reading and my oace have decreased by the later part of 2020. But also because of the subject matter and the fact that it was inspired by real events.

In many ways, a book like this, which deals with mental health and some of the darkest facts of human history, is very much a 2020 book. It was just tghe right time for it somehow.

I would say this kind of book that has no real romance and no kind of comic relief at all is not usually my styke, but I was drawn to it, and I did enjoy it very much, as hard as it was to read at times.

You know a book is good when the characters and situations move you, cause an emotion, whether it was empathy for Arnold, affection for Inga, a deep sorrow for Sabine and Rigmor, disgust for Bohm or anger for Tanner.

This book touches on the hidden truths of Holocaust and how noone was truly safe, even with the most pristine background and reputation. That is an important message that doesn't get out enough, in my experience.

Beautifully written and with accurate, painful descriptions of mental health and its treatment both in the 1980s and Germany in the 1930s, I found Where Madness Lies a compelling, if emotionally draining, book.

Skipping between the lives of Sabine and Rigmor and linked by Inga, the story winds its way through Nazi Germany and Rigmor's depression to Sabine's stay in a hospital in the united States, some fifty years later. Inga tries her best to heal the present with stories of the past and, in doing so, manages to bond with the granddaughter she's struggled to understand before.