Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Woman They Could Not Silence: Elizabeth Packard's incredible fight for freedom, and the men who tried to make her disappear by Kate Moore

42 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.25

This book was great. However, I really wanted to like it even more - I wanted to give it five stars. Ultimately I didn’t because occasionally it would devolve into histrionics. The story was so powerful that literary flourishes were unnecessary and distracting. 

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

fkshg8465's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

5.0

I feel like everyone needs to read this book. We owe so much to this woman. I am both inspired and buoyed by this woman and appalled and disgusted even further by weak men. The amount of research the author must’ve done is impressive, but even more so is the way she wrote this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

plumpatio's review against another edition

informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

kilonshele's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Classism

Minor: Suicide

katiemack's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

I’m not sure what to rate this. The story itself is compelling; Elizabeth’s writing is so sharp and perceptive, and she’s an incredibly brave and intelligent figure in history. Kate Moore’s writing, though, gets too bogged down by small details and novelistic flourishes—I admire the amount of research she did for this book, but there’s only so much I can read about the weather or the amount of time Elizabeth spent on sewing.

This book did make me want to read Elizabeth’s works, though, which are apparently all available on hoopla (shameless library plug). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

ohlala_kaylala's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

overall, i really enjoyed this book but it lost a star due to the length. i think it would have really benefitted off of being edited down quite a bit because it became very drawn out

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Content Warnings

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

mrsdarcylynn's review against another edition

5.0

What a wild story! This book is so important to read, especially when understanding the evolution of women’s rights, mental health history, and legal processes surrounding “dependents”. This story was hard to stomach, but well worth the listen! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

znvisser's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring slow-paced

3.5

This was an interesting, inspiring and infuriating story at the same time and I am thankful for Kate Moore for narrating it. I do love narrative nonfiction so I lost myself in this story very quickly, but unfortunately I did find out as quickly that the applied style of storytelling was actually not my cup of tea.

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.

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Content Warnings

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

matcha_cat's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Classism

Minor: Death, Excrement, and Gaslighting