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Reviews tagging 'Racism'
The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
3 reviews
jhbandcats's review against another edition
4.25
That said, Wow. What a book. How is it that Elizabeth Packard is not a household name? She was extraordinary. Committed to an insane asylum because her husband found her outspokenness troublesome, she worked for three years to be freed, then worked the rest of her life to achieve equality for women, safety for mental patients, and the right of a mother to have custody of her children.
The author relies on diaries, letters, newspapers, and trial transcripts. Everything she writes has been thoroughly researched. Her work here is exceptional.
Having found Radium Girls equally important, I hope that Kate Moore continues to write. Her works are essential to understanding the history of the ordinary American in the late 18th - early 19th centuries.
Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
alexisgarcia's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
znvisser's review against another edition
3.5
In one of the many tidbits after the actual story the author elaborates on how she intentionally added "reveals for dramatic purposes". I wish she didn't, because those were my biggest annoyance about this book; the reveal method made me distrusting of her as a storyteller, ruining my reading experience at times. I don't mind myself a surprise or twist, but I do mind reading for tens of pages and made believe explicitly one way, only to be consequently patronized with a "the joke's on you because meanwhile everything else was different!" That's just a waste of words and there certainly are more elegant ways to achieve mystery or suspense. In fact in this case, I think the plot was entertaining enough in itself and didn't require the manipulation applied at all.
Elizabeth was a very interesting character, both intellectually and socially, but I couldn't understand how those two things interacted. How did such a brilliant woman keep making the mistake of trusting the same villains again and again? Afterwards I'm still curious if that paradox was a narrative choice as well, or her actual character. Because I do believe Moore did her research elaborately, I may have to believe the latter. All in all, in between the manipulating I did enjoy reading this story and getting an insight in this piece of history I had no prior knowledge of. Radium Girls has also been on my radar, and I've seen reviewers with similar objections to this book appreciating that one nevertheless (but also some same complaints), so we'll see if I might still pick that up in the future.
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, and Excrement
Minor: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide