Woman 99 - Greer Macallister

Written by Greer Macallister
Read by Nina Alvamar
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
Release date: March 5, 2019
Duration: 13:26:35

A vivid historical thriller about a young woman whose quest to free her sister from an infamous insane asylum risks her sanity, her safety, and her life.

Charlotte Smith’s future is planned to the last detail, and so was her sister’s—until Phoebe became a disruption.

When Charlotte Smith’s wealthy parents commit her beloved sister Phoebe to the infamous Goldengrove Asylum, Charlotte knows there’s more to the story than madness. She risks everything and follows her sister inside, surrendering her real identity as a privileged young lady of San Francisco society to become a nameless inmate, Woman 99.

The longer she stays, the more she realizes that many of the women of Goldengrove aren’t insane, merely inconvenient — and that her search for the truth threatens to dig up secrets that some very powerful people would do anything to keep.

Rich in detail, deception, and revelation, Woman 99 honors the fierce women of the past, born into a world that denied them power but underestimated their strength.

“In late 19th-century San Francisco, socialite Charlotte Smith has the world at her feet, but when her parents commit her older sister Phoebe to Goldengrove Asylum for what would now be considered bipolar disorder, Charlotte is determined to set her free. While pretending to visit relatives in Newport, Charlotte fakes a suicide attempt and gets herself committed to Goldengrove. Naïvely, she believes that she will find Phoebe and explain that neither she nor Phoebe are insane, and both will walk away unharmed, like Nellie Bly. It’s not that simple….. she must rescue all the women who don’t belong there by exposing the practices at Goldengrove….. “

VERDICT A novel of the power of sisterhood, shining a spotlight on the barbaric treatment of the mentally ill in this period as well as society’s view of women who don’t fit the “traditional” mold. Readers will become engrossed in Charlotte’s journey of self-discovery as she fights to free herself and her sister from a rigged system…. 2019 Library Journal,

“Exploring sisterhood, trauma, and the power of shared experience, Woman 99 is an undercover glimpse inside a late nineteenth-century treatment facility. Macallister fearlessly probes the dark corners of the era, exposing barbaric treatments and backward thinking surrounding mental illness. Fans of Yara Zgheib’s The Girls at 17 Swann Street (2019) and the novels of Anne Tyler will appreciate Macallister’s strong narrative style”….Booklist, 2019, American Library Association.