Reviews

The Darlings of the Asylum by Noel O'Reilly

emily_bg's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

myretromeltdown's review

Hypnotism 

thebooktrail88's review

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 

I was intrigued by the title and when I found out who the darlings were and why they were called that, my heart went out to them.

Anyway I digress. This is a fine novel that delves into the daily routines and torture of an asylum. Even if this one is fictional, you get the idea of what women of that time could have faced. Violet Pring is one such woman. She gets sent to the asylum for wanting to be an artist and for rejecting a marriage suitor. Her family send her – her mother is involved – and that for me seemed worse than just the husband. I had realised husbands usually sent their wives or female relatives to these places but I didn’t realise the parents would be involved somehow.

There’s a lot of the book which is set in the asylum and it’s dark to read this. However, before Violet gets there, she’s seen as a vibrant and modern woman and I enjoyed getting to know her. Her art is seen as subversive and challenging for the society of the time. What right does a woman have to want to be free like this to express herself? Why does she not want a man, and a rich one at that?

There’s plenty of social commentary, letters and conversations that show you just what things must have been like at that time. I liked fellow artist, Wilf Lilley, who praises Violet’s style of painting. At last, an ally of sorts! Maybe Violet would be understood. However,  I was soon disabused of that notion. 
 

Once in the asylum, we meet Dr. Harold Rastrick, who appears to have been resurrected in real life many years later as a member of the Nazi party working in eugenics. The experiments he carries out are more than inhumane. I couldn’t believe anyone would even think of these things let alone carry them out. People with any kind of ‘disorder’ or ‘condition’  are deemed to be unfit for the human race.

All of this was good and very compelling but the language, the prose seemed to be too ‘light’ for the subject matter. The writing was very good, flowed well and was enjoyable to read – but the friendly prose and the almost comedy moments with Violet and her thoughts and the balls and marriage talk seemed a bit out of place. Even when we get to the asylum, the feel of the novel stayed ‘ safe’ and a dark spot but one in an almost regency themed novel.

I’d still recommend though. Fascinating subject matter. 

bookishreadsandme's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

I recommend you pick this up if you love a dark, atmospheric piece of historical fiction. 

It has that unsettling psychological thriller side to it which works well, especially in a setting like a lunatic asylum. You follow Violet Pring who is sent away to one when she refuses to marry as she would rather be an independent artist. Of course, as this is set in the Victorian period, her family find this idea horrifying and worry about their family reputation. Also they are constantly embarrassed of Violet’s opinionated views, especially when she voices them in social occasions and decide for her own good to send her to Hillwood Grange Lunatic Asylum.

I found myself completely engrossed throughout, especially when there are a few twists. What I really liked about this book is how Violet is an unreliable narrator and you start to wonder if she really does have some mental health problems.

The staff treat the patients in the asylum terribly and it really made me feel so much emotion towards these poor women locked up with no hope of getting out. Doctor Rastrick, the main doctor there who treats Violet was awful and his treatment was basically just drug the patients and confining them to a room if they had any fight in them. You cannot help but root for Violet and pray she escapes. 

The Darlings of the Asylum is a chilling gothic story that is packed with lies, secrets and betrayal that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

wayward's review

Nothing wrong with this book; it just didn't grab me, and came up due at the library. Maybe I'll give it another go another time.

reading_ani's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I found this book quite interesting. I’ve spent quite a lot of time studying the phenomena of the “angel of the house” that was prevalent during the 19th century and that’s also why the premise of this book drew me in, but I have to say that the plot twist in a sort of way “destroyed” a good chunk of the amusement of the book. When the plot twist happened, I fully expected the rest of the book to revolve around that and ESPECIALLY that it would be more implemented and a recurring theme, but unfortunately it was only mentioned once and then never used again?! Considering how the book ended and the feministic approach it took with THAT ending, I’m disappointed as the book could’ve 100% functioned without that twist. And actually, if one were to remove it, there would have been no change in the story (which is a clear indicator for it being unnecessary!), on the contrary, it would have even made the book’s message much more powerful. 

littlemisselvis's review

3.0

Not sure about the pacing - there seemed to be long periods where very little happened that was relevant to the plot. Though maybe that was the point and reinforced the pointlessness of the time spent in the asylum. I liked the ending!

megmoore123's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I hated this more than I can even explain. Men writing about women as one dimensional and needing to be saved by men from men, a big nope from me. Violet was a loose attempt at feminism that massively missed the mark - it’s 2023, I thought we were pasted men writing women like this?

mes91's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

kellysmaust's review

2.0

I was only a few chapters into this book and the extremely NLOG protagonist had already hated on "other" girls making "accurate botanical drawings" and the hot art teacher had dissed Edmund Blair Leighton! My initial thought was that no offense but they both belonged in the asylum, however, I did keep reading and the rest of the story was basically a blatant rip-off of [b:Alias Grace|72579|Alias Grace|Margaret Atwood|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1298545436l/72579._SY75_.jpg|2069530] complete with an

Spoiler

less sexually repressed alter-ego unveiled by hypnosis along with Satanic-Panic-style recovered memories.

About 75% of the main character's dialog is basically sound bites pulled from a Feminism 101 class, and everyone else, when they take a momentary break from their mustache-twirling villainy, basically exists to dump effusive praise for the heroine about what an amazing and innovative artist she is. Violet is basically a dramatic 24-yr-old woman who wants to spend a lot of time alone angsting and drawing thirsty mermaid pictures (literally) instead of getting married. Unfortunately, this being the 1880s, rather than just being obnoxious on Tumblr and DeviantArt as she would have been in the 2010s, she is sent to an asylum. This truly is a horrific fate that many real women went through; however, it was really difficult to care about this protagonist and her struggles when she had spent the entire first half of the book being A Feminist Written by a Man, completely self-absorbed, caring only about her dad and brothers' approval, and having absolutely nothing good to say about her mother or any other women.