Good historical fiction combines verifiable fact with a great story… a believable story. In THE MAD WOMEN'S BALL, Victoria Mas has done the research and built a tale of what it was to be a woman, in Paris, in 1885. It is not a pretty picture. Most of the women institutionalized at Salpêtrière, the madwomen, are given unique personalities and faces that could easily mingle in society and never be given a second look both then and now.

The women of Salpêtrière are guinea pigs for Dr. Charcot's Friday lectures presented to the public as if a woman hypnotized into a debilitating fit qualifies as entertainment. His current patient of choice is Louise who does seem to suffer from mental challenges. Then there is Eugénie Cléry, daughter of a respected bourgeois family, locked away by her own father because she dares to think for herself. Finally, the nurse in charge of the ward, Geneviève Gleizes, who does not permit herself the luxury of empathy. It is through these three women that we come to understand a male dominated world where women literally must be seen and not heard.

The madwomen are permitted to socialize with the outside world just one night a year… the night of the Lenten Ball, more commonly called the Madwomen's Ball. Invitations are sent, society descends upon Salpêtrière, and the women are allowed fancy dress costumes as they are put on display.

For me, the most telling line in the book is "The Salpêtrière is a dumping ground for women who disturb the peace. An asylum for those whose sensitivities do not tally with what is expected of them. A prison for women guilty of possessing an opinion." There is no doubt that this book is an excellent example of both historical and feminist fiction.

A point of personal privilege… I am intrigued by books that have the word 'mad' in the title. I've been called Mad (short for Madelon) since I was a little kid. When I read the definition of 'mad' in The Devil's Dictionary, I added it to my email signature… "MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech, and action derived by the conformants from the study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that they themselves are sane. - from The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce." You might bear this definition in mind when reading THE MAD WOMEN'S BALL.

This was a bit slow to start, and the back-and-forth in time at the beginning was confusing and unnecessary. Overall, though, the story was unique and interesting. A solid bet for women's book groups and readers who like historical fiction.

Thank you to the publisher for this ARC!

“The Mad Woman’s Ball” by Victoria Mas comes out in September, and is about an asylum for wayward women in the heart of Paris. Women could be admitted to this asylum for any number of trespasses, from legitimate mental illness to being too intelligent, promiscuous or independent for the conservative society surrounding them. Our story follows two heroines: Genevieve, a no-nonsense nurse haunted by a lost sister, and Eugenie, a vivacious young woman who can see the dead. These two women bond and dare to escape the oppressive grip of the patriarchy, weak to the whims of a society that wants them quiet, compliant, and decorative.

This book is barely more than novella in length, but it wraps up well following some interesting worldbuilding in which we learn that not only is this a historical fiction, but also a supernatural historical fiction. The turn of genre surprised me, but it makes sense within the context of Spiritualism, which was just beginning to take off at the point that this novel was written. Translated from the French, this was a quick, feminist book with ghosts, female friendship and just enough historical details to world build. Very enjoyable.

This was one of my most anticipated reads, and I'm so disappointed.

The asylum setting isn't fully formed. It's just a place, interchangeable with many other places.

I didn't emotionally connect with any of the characters. I didn't feel the women's struggles or outrage, or anything at all. The male doctor in charge is just a man who moves in and out of the story. I had no sense of him as a person.

The writing is dull. It's all tell, no show, which is the crux of the problem. The author is telling us what these women are doing and feeling and thinking, but not letting us experience any of it ourselves.

I made it to the 50 percent point on my Kindle. I was so incredibly bored, and ultimately gave up.

This book was a very interesting read on a subject of which I knew very little - the often unfair institutalisation of women by men. I felt, however, that the book was too short, ended too quickly, and easily, with the rather obvious reversal of the two lead characters' roles. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book but wanted more!

I’m glad this book exists to highlight this period in time where women were imprisoned and forgotten about by their families for the smallest things. Be it actual illness, unladylike behavior, etc. With that being said, this didn’t work for me as a novel. Eugenie’s storyline with the fantastical element felt out of place and overall this lacked plot and character building. There was not sufficient time spent getting to know these characters to really care much about what happened to them.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this for free in exchange for an honest review.

"She has found it difficult to believe in a heaven and a hell that are eternal - life already seems like a form of punishment and the idea that this punishment would continue after death seems absurd and unjust." When you are a woman trying to think for yourself in the late 1800's and you just want a life that isn't controlled by the men around you, life can seem like a punishment because you don't fit in the cookie cutter world you are placed in. That is how Eugenie feels during the course of this book. She is a 19 year old woman who is expected to marry and settle down to a family. The problem is, she likes her independence. On top of that, she sees the spirits of people who have passed on. When she reveals this fact to her grandmother, her father finds out about it and decides to disown her and sends her to the Salpetriere, a place for mad women.

Genevieve is the other main character whose spirit has already been broken by society. She believes in science and works as a nurse for Dr. Charcot at the Salpetriere, helping mad women find a some balance in their lives without getting too close. After her sister, Blandine, died years ago, she has hidden her heart away and she finds it opened when Eugenie speaks to Blandine and passes on a message for the girl.

The best line to summarize this book is this: "It is neither possible nor appropriate to rebel against everything, all the time, to attack every individual or institution guilty of injustice." The message of this book touched me deeply. Sometimes, I feel like I am fighting an uphill battle for my mental and physical health, screaming into the ether and no one can hear me. When I try to say that I'm not crazy, but I might need a little help sometimes, the people around me might say that I am crazy. I have been put down as a woman and told that my thoughts don't matter and that I'm too emotional in my delivery. I did think that the plot could have been fleshed out more, and I have gone back and forth on what to rate it, but the more I think about the themes, the more I like the book, so I've gone with the higher rating.

EXCELLENT debut! This is an intricately woven gothic-historical fiction story that will utterly mesmerize you. Author Victoria Mas does a marvelous job at highlighting the humanity of those who were forced to endure life at the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris during the 1800s. Salpetriere Hospital was where Dr. Jean Charcot established the first neurology clinic in Europe. Charcot utilized hypnosis as a means for evaluating hysteria. The women who were forced to live in the hospital ranged from the mentally disabled, those who suffered from epilepsy, the criminally insane and even those who were simply poor. Patients were not given any choice in how Charcot chose to treat them. This book takes the reader on the journey of Eugenie who was forced to live in the asylum by her bourgeois family. Mas overlaps the growth of spiritualism in Paris into the plot by granting Eugenie the ability of seeing spirits. Unexpected bonds and even more bizarre decisions make this book utterly fascinating.
I received a copy of this title via Netgalley.

This book was immensely well written and I loved how well the characters were developed and how atmospheric the writing was. This book was definitely dark, however was compelling to impart knowledge of these women that lived in these asylums during the time period. This was one of the books for me that I could not put down that just reached me so perfectly. I felt so many different emotions reading this book and most of all just felt appalled that women were placed in these types of places due to "hysteria." I was really impressed that this was a debut novel and definitely want to read more. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

There are some very heavy topics in this book and I might not have been in the right headspace for this one. Other than that, I struggled massively with the writing style. Everything felt overexplained. There was way more telling than showing. The characters and their motivations were completely spelled out and nothing was left for the reader to interpret or deduce for themselves. There was also very little focus on the setting, which prevented me from gaining an idea over what the setting was like. I also couldn't parse out a theme or even the atmosphere. While I think that the premise was interesting, the execution just fell flat for me.

I would like to thank Overlook Press for providing me with an ARC.

The Mad Women's Ball is a solid showing by Victoria Mas, incorporating real life individuals responsible for running the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, and just how horrifying and dangerous it could be for young women to be completely under the control of a man in the nineteenth century. While many of the women in this story may have needed the care of an asylum, Eugenie is sent there by her father after her grandmother discloses her secret - Eugenie can see the spirits of the deceased. Despite this being out of her control, and being normal in every other way, Eugenie is regarded as psychotic and unstable. The only person that may be able to save her from a lifetime locked away is head nurse Genevieve. A practical person, who's worked for the hospital for over twenty years and is a woman of science, this wouldn't lead the reader to be overly hopeful for Eugenie. But Eugenie has someone else on her side that might just consider Genevieve to look at things in a new way - her sister Blandine. As a woman, this book is terrifying. While women certainly have more freedoms today than they did 140 years ago, there are still ever present reminders of inequity that remind the reader that it may not be so hard to slip into the dangers of the past. The concept of the ball is fascinating - uplifting from the incarcerated women's side as something to look forward to once a year, and disgusting from the side of the Parisian elite that can't wait to rub elbows with the "crazies". This was an enjoyable quick read, though it could have been better being expanded to incorporate additional development of Genevieve, Eugenie and her brother Theophile.

Are the women in this book really mad? This book tells the story of women in a mental hospital in the late 19th century. It really does a great job at conveying the injustice toward women at that time. Once labeled, it was extremely hard to be relieved of that label, true or not.

I really liked Genevieve's character because she went from being hard and tough to listening and understanding. It was nice to see the gradual change in her character for good.

This book was fairly short and seemed to wrap up quickly, but I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me a digital copy of this ARC for my honest review.

I loved this book and I think it is real spot on for our time. I happen to have been reading it during Brittany Spears's quest to get out from under her conservatorship so it connected in a very real way. That and the currently very hostile political climate toward women who "step out of line" or that are in any way different from "societal norms" made this book hit home for me.

The plot is good and it grips you from the beginning. The mistreatment of the women in the 1880's is shown in this book so if it is not for you may not want to read this.

The book concentrates on the backstory of the characters and how they end up in the sanatorium.

Not a bad read, though it did at times get a little boring.

Good easy read.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book.. I really liked the authors style I found it easy to read and very enjoyable

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley. I was not paid or otherwise compensated for this review, and the opinions presented here are mine and mine alone.

The author bio for The Mad Women's Ball notes that Victoria Mas spent several years working in film. Having read this book, that is utterly unsurprising; perhaps more than any other book I've read this year, The Mad Women's Ball would lend itself perfectly to a film adaptation. Not a television adaptation, mind you, but a two-hour feature film. It hits all the beats of a movie, so much so that it almost feels like this was written as a screenplay and then turned into a novel after the fact.

I enjoyed this book; it's just the right length to communicate its ideas without overstaying its welcome. Genevieve in particular is a stellar protagonist, and it is fascinating to watch her crumble and fall apart, only to reshape herself into something new. I appreciate that The Mad Women's Ball does not mince words when describing how much of our discourse around mental health is shaped by patriarchy, and by men's actions resulting in negative health outcomes for the women around them. Almost all of the men in this book are varying shades of terrible, some in ways that are socially acceptable given the setting, others in ways that, even for late 19th century urban France, stand out as monstrous. Victoria Mas chooses to take the side of the madwomen, the patients at the Hopital d'Salpetriere, and grants them the space to be humans with real problems and characters, not just vaguely sick lumps of flesh, cast off by society (no matter how much the medical establishment would prefer to view them that way).

This was a fairly quick read, and while I liked it, I'm not sure there's a ton here to get me to re-read anytime soon. That said, I definitely recommend this for a quiet afternoon or evening, and I had a good time with this book.

The Mad Women's Ball illuminates how 19th century women had little power over their bodies or their circumstances, especially when a man (a father, brother or husband) decided she was mentally ill and needed to be committed.

Genevieve is a senior nurse at the Saltpetriere Asylum in Paris. She sees the women under her care as being sick, in need of treatment, and in need of isolation from the rest of the world. Some of the women in her ward are happy there; at least they have a decent place to sleep, food to eat, and people to talk with. Others enjoy the attention they get from the doctors, and are happy to take part in the demonstrations given to other doctors and members of Paris society by the asylum's doctors to show how women might be cured of their mental ailments. And others slowly go crazy from the isolation and boredom, especially if they really didn't belong there in the first place. But she doesn't see it as her job to diagnose, but just to monitor the physical health of her patients.

Eugenie is the daughter of a lawyer - smart, pretty, and convinced that she will make her mark in the world. Her big secret is that she sees spirits. When her family finds out, her father commits her to Salpetriere. Eugenie is drugged because she is non-compliant (but who could blame her for being so?), and put in an isolation room. When she interacts with Genevieve, she also sees Genevieve's dead sister, who tells her that Genevieve will help her escape. But Eugenie isn't sure how that will come about, because Genevieve isn't interested in hearing anyone's story, including Eugenie's, and is greatly disturbed that Eugenie claims to be talking to her sister.

This book is set around the time of the Lenten Ball, otherwise known as the Mad Women's Ball, where Paris society could come and gawk at (and dance with) the ladies of the asylum. It was fascinating to read about this practice and how it affected the women and their mental health.

I truly enjoyed this look into 19th century Paris, and how these asylums were used as dumping grounds for women with views that differed from their male family members, as well as women who suffered from mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, whose families didn't want to keep them at home (or thought this was the best way to help them). I imagine the endings for most of these women were not as nice as Eugenie's, but that is the joy of fiction!

Thanks to Netgalley for this advance copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced review copy! A short novel that's stayed with me since I finished it, "The Mad Women's Ball" provided a glimpse into women's rights in the 1880s. (Spoiler alert: Women were treated horribly.) Set in the Salpêtrière, a mental institution for women that have essentially been abandoned by their families, the book explores the backstories of each patient. One patient in particular, Eugenie, has a special gift that has been deemed an affliction by her father. Her arrival at the Salpêtrière sets off a series of events that change the face of the staff and residents in a matter of days.

If you're looking for a quick fiction read with historical and gothic flavors, this is a great pick.

I absolutely hated the writing style of this book. I understand that it is a translated text, but the story was lost on me because I couldn’t get past the writing. It sounds like it’s translated, and I didn’t enjoy it.

Some books are based on such an interesting premise that I can't wait to read them. Sometimes there's a brilliant payoff in discovering a great author or an new subgenre; other times the whole experience is meh. Victoria Mas' The Mad Women's Ball is certainly based on an interesting premise. And it is most definitely NOT meh.

Set in late 19th Century Paris, the novel follows several characters connected—through employment or institutionalization—connected to the Salpetriere Asylum. For its time, Salpetriere is ground-breaking. The new medical "tool" of hypnotism is being used to study female madness. Hundreds of medical men (and only men) gather to see Dr. Charcot, who directs Salpetriere, induce seizures in his patients, for reasons of medical research, of course.

The ball of the title is an annual event which the wealthiest, most powerful Parisians attend for a chance to rub shoulders with "madwomen," who for one night are allowed to dress in finery and mingle with those living outside the asylum. Yes, the mad women's ball was a real event. You can read more about it here: https://victorianparis.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/the-madwomens-ball-a-flattering-invitation/

Of course, many of the mad women aren't mad at all. This is an era when it's easy for a man to "dispose" of an inconvenient wife, mother, or daughter by taking her to Salpetriere. There's Therese, a murderess with an excellent reason for her crime; Louise, subjected to her uncle's sexual abuse; and Eugenie, who is visited by the dead. Eugenie has been committed by her father—a wealthy authoritarian and rationalist—who disowns her shortly after she confesses her "gift" to her beloved grandmother.

The Mad Women's Ball explores two topics: perceptions of female madness and the possibility of spirit communication. The novel's characters have strong opinions about each. Victoria Mas shows us their many different responses when those opinions are challenged.

The Mad Women's Ball succeeds as a fast-paced story of adversity and (occasional) triumph. It also gives readers a great deal to chew over regarding both history, what it means to be female, and their own perceptions. I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

[I will be posting this review on GoodReads, Edelweiss, and LibraryThing.]