A review by ooohgoshtara
Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hylton

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This nonfiction novel gives a look into the 93 year history of Crownsville Hospital. Crownsville is one of the nation's last segregated asylums. This novel is heavily researched. The deep dive into Crownsville and how race always plays a role in these systems down to patients building their own asylum and being the labor that keeps it running. The pipeline from slavery to asylums and/or prison. Imagine walking down the street a white person deciding you a Black person are loitering or whatever. They take you to Crownsville get twenty five dollars and you end up there indefinitely. And for those actually in need of care the mental health of Black people continues to be misdiagnosed and mistreated. I liked that the author combined research with stories from patients and employees of Crownsville. The author even adds in their own personal family experience with mental illness. All of this gives the novel a very personal feel and I related to so many of the experiences. Novels like this one are so important in telling our stories our history documented and oral. It is thought provoking heavy and heartbreaking but so well put together. A novel that will be with me for a long time.