In 19th century France, a psychiatric nurse starts questioning the doctors she works for and once admired, and helps a sane woman escape the asylum she works at the night of The Madwomen's Ball.

It was an interesting story. I'm partial to stories about asylums, the women who were sent to those places for not conforming to societal norms imposed on them, and the history of female mental health. I felt like the plot was going so fast that I didn’t have time to identify with the characters. I was rooting for them though. But I felt that there was a "je ne sais quoi" missing. Maybe it got lost in translation? I also thought that the setting was so detailedly described that, at least for me, it took away from the plot a bit. Now it’s time to see the movie.

THE MAD WOMEN'S BALL by Victoria Mas

NUTSHELL: A madhouse of women in 1880s Paris and its inhabitants and nurses is altered when a girl enters who claims she can converse with dead people.


REMINDS ME OF: Girl, Interrupted meets The Sixth Sense


PLUS SIDE:
+ Very quick read, and interesting enough that the pace seems to move quickly over all.
+ I really liked all the women patients characters and the main nurse.

NEGATIVE SIDE:
- It really annoyed me that it ended the way it did with absolutely no sense of justice on anyone's account, just some finding peace within resignation. I was obviously not expecting some grand rebellion because of the time period, but... something.

FAVORITE WORDS:
[It's easier if you are not brought here at all. ]

[ Have I told you how calm I feel since I began to doubt.]

I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

This story is set in the late 1800's in Paris France a a place called the Salpetriere which is an asylum that houses girls and women form 13 to 65 who suffer from Neurological maladies but it also as you will read is a dumping ground for any women who decides to disturb the peace or decides to have her own opinion. For example there was a housewife who wanted to study to be a chef but her husband felt is authority was being challenged so he had her committed. There was a women who confronted her husband over his infidelities and he had her committed. One of the main characters is Eugenie Clery she is from a middle to upper middle class family, she has an ability or talent that if revealed in this period of time will surely find her committed. As you can confer from the title the majority of the story is the build up to the Lenten Ball or as the title states the Madwomen's ball were the invited guest of Paris get to see the women of the asylum in hopes to see the freaks of society and possibly what ails them and the women for one night get to be free confinements of the asylum and looked down upon. This is a good read about historical fiction and apparently has been made into a movie. I would recommend this for an afternoon read. Thank you to Netgalley and Overlook Press for an ARC for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of THE MAD WOMEN'S BALL. I've always been fascinated by mental health and the way it was treated before modern medicine. Cool story

Absolutely beautiful story capturing an awful time period for women. Told with a deep sense of the injustices against the characters and how perseverance can change the world for some.

Thank you to NetGalley, Abrams, and Victoria Mas for an e-arc of The Mad Women’s Ball in exchange for an honest review.

This was better than I was expecting. The Mad Women’s Ball is a short historical fiction with a supernatural twist. We follow our main character, Eugenie, in 1885 Paris. She longs to have the freedom that her brother is afforded, but when she confides in her grandmother that she sees spirits, her family places her in The Salpetriere Asylum. Eugenie is determined to escape the Asylum and find those who believe in her gifts.

The Mad Women’s Ball showcases the horrors faced by women in the 1800s who were institutionalized for a multitude of reasons beyond mental illness. It paints a heartbreaking picture of what women could have faced if they made waves or did anything society thought they shouldn’t. Eugenie is an interesting character, but I do wish we could have explored the backstory of some of the other patients a little more.

Overall, the book was well written and very atmospheric. I enjoyed getting a brief look at this time in history.

I didn’t get a change to finish this book due to life and work constraints but I enjoyed what I have read so far! I plan to finish the book when I get my own copy.

Victoria Mas could write the nutritional information on the back of a cereal box and I would read it with wide eyes. Her words are so lyrical, so captivating. The Mad Women’s Ball is such a quick and easy read, yet it will stay with me forever. The way women who didn’t meet society’s standards were shunned by the same community that is fascinated by them. A theme that is so immensely paralleled with society’s expectations of women today. The ending was just the cherry on top of a great read.

While not as amazing as the reviews make it sound, The Mad Women’s Ball is a decent read. I enjoyed our lead gal and her conversations with ghosts. It would have been nice to feel like I knew a couple other main characters as well as we end up knowing her. Both the nurse and Louise (a ‘hysterical’ woman) are key players but I never truly felt like I knew them with as much depth as I’d have liked.
This is a shorter novel, translated from French. It could actually have been longer (shocking I know, it’s rare to wish a book was longer). I’d have liked more about our characters, their motivations, and experiences prior to being put up at the asylum.
It’s certainly tragic that, back in the day (but assuredly still happening on occasion today), that someone with power could abuse and manipulate a person and then leave them (more or less) for dead at the asylum. The doctors we encounter in The Mad Women’s Ball are historical figures, including Babinski, a famed neuroscientist (thank you Big Bang Theory for teaching me this and not needing to look up a bunch of historical fact. Lol). All our other characters are fictional to my knowledge.

Overall I’d say this will likely make a better movie (which I will watch) than a book. The plot feels very linear and the set-up will lend itself to a well written script. And so, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, maybe wait for the movie to be released?

Please note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

The Mad Women's Ball is a great, quick read. Historically based in the 1800's, it tells the story of two women from very different backgrounds impacted by a patriarchal society where any undesirable behavior could be resolved with commitment to an asylum.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

LOVED. LOVED. LOVED this book! Well written. Well paced. Rich atmospheric setting. A simple but engaging plot. Intriguing characters. The only little niggle I had with this one was that I wish the paranormal angle had more depth or been more fleshed out. Overall, though, this was a cracking good read. Now off to watch the movie...

**ARC Via NetGalley**

I loved this. There's not an ounce of fat to this tale, which is incredibly refreshing, but the story itself is horrible and still holds true.

Every single woman is a madwoman in this world. It simply depends on whether or not people want her locked up.

The cover of this book caught my eye immediately - and I hope the film turns out great. But, despite the fact that I usually love historical fiction, I don't think I'm the right reader for this book. I had a hard time connecting with the story and the characters.

Look at that beautiful cover! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!
I thought I won't enjoy this book but it turns out to be pretty okay even if I HATE THAT ENDING LIKE WTF

this was such a beautifully done story, the Gothic feel to the book had really lured me in and I'm glad I did. This was a great story and I enjoyed every minute of reading this.

This story was so interesting and infuriating at the same time. It was interesting to see how women with “mental” illness were treated back then and Although the events in the story was fictional you know that’s exactly how women, who were different were treated back then. It’s not depicted as a horror story, but I feel for so many women, especially back then it was. I can’t even imagine being thrown into a mental hospital because I had an argument with a male relative or because I talked back to my husband. It’s insane but it really is a subject that we should remember so that it never happens again.

I wanted to read "The Mad Women's Ball" before watching its adaptation on Amazon. While I was interested in the subject matter, the writing style didn't really work for me. The ending wasn't all that satisfying either and I would have liked to see more character development.

I really enjoyed the book, but I felt that the ending was a bit abrupt. There is a good message here about how women are cast aside, taken for granted, not taken seriously, etc. that could provide excellent classroom discussion.

The Mad Women's Ball is a work of historical fiction set in Paris in 1885. The Mad Women's Ball is an annual event at the Salpetriere asylum. It lets the upper class of Paris mingle with the "mentally ill" women of the asylum. Based on the actual story of Dr. Charcot who was a famous neurologist who hypnotized and did experiments on women who were often just unwanted by society - women who had strong opinions, who disapproved of their husband's affairs, or maybe just women who were unwanted by their own families. A very interesting story about the state of mental health issues in the late 1800's and the rights of women in a male dominated society.