The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

I loved this book. I have not cracked any of the codes, etc yet, but I devoured it in one night at work. SO good. If you function against the grain, don't miss this! And her music!? Omg, what are you even doing if not listening to it?

Welcome to the asylum! Where lavish curtains and furniture lure you in, and where crumpets and tea are served. It’s where the beautiful Opheliac ladies entertain you in their enchanting gowns....until time is up and harsh reality comes tumbling back down.This book instantly throws you into the vivid world of Emalie Autumn and her experiences of being in “the asylum” for having attempted suicide. The peer perspective Emalie offers you destigmatizes suicide and mental health by openly talking about it, creating space for us to hear about the true horrors and abuse that occurred and continues to occur to this day in asylums, mental institutions, and hospitals. It takes you down a winding road of questioning the definition of sanity and madness, especially when you are labelled a “criminal” for having a mental disorder. Do asylums really help people who need to get out of their heads? Regardless, when you are imprisoned with other misfits, “criminals”, and rats, your resiliency really starts to show.This book blurs the line between reality and fiction in a raw, vulnerable, and autobiographical way that keeps you captivated and wondering what is real and what is fiction? It is also a love letter detailing the legacy of resiliency for the thousands of forgotten women who died in asylums over the years so unjustly. You experience living in the asylum in a visceral way that activates all your senses, including synesthesia. This book is a thriller as much as it is a historical account of what happened in asylums. It should be considered mandatory reading for anyone in the field of medicine, psychology, psychiatry, social work, nursing, and mental health overall. Having an “insider’s” perspective is worth more than its weight in gold. If we want to make sure that history does not repeat itself again, then you need to know what happened.If you are a fan of Emalie’s music, then you will gain greater insight and context for her song names and meaning. The unfathomable symbology throughout this book is deeply rooted in lived experience, and artfully composed across the lines on paper to captivate you in the hauntingly beautiful and morose Victorian time period in the asylum. After reading this book, a piece of you forever changes, and you feel grateful to not be trapped among the black and white stripped walls in the asylum that draw you in . Or are you?

There is quite a myriad of thoughts and feelings about this book on the interwebz, given that this is about the 4th(?) edition to be released by EA and the story has gone through quite a few changes.Full disclosure: I own and have read the first edition. I've been listening to Emilie's music for very many years. I even had her personally read excerpts of the book to me and a few other fans before one of her concerts the year before the 1st edition was released. You could say I'm familiar with the Asylum.However, none of the above will deter me from providing a completely truthful and unbiased (well, as much as one can be) review of the ebook. In fact, I think the prior context will help me describe where this book excels and where it may not.I read this ebook in about a day, mostly because I had the free time. My visceral first thought: i actually quite enjoyed it. In some ways moreso than the original, and in some ways less. One of my original criticisms of the first edition was the "purple prose" EA so enjoys employing. Now, as a personal preference I don't particularly mind purple prose, but I will say that the first edition sounded quite amateur at worst. I'm happy to report however that I feel EA went through this edition with a sharper eye and cleaned up a lot, making things more concise. Her writing style--whether in poetry, lyrics, and now literature--has always been one of... extravagance, and that certainly hasn't changed. But the stories both flowed better and the rhythm of the words was far smoother.One thing I am sad to have lost is how truly personal EA went with the first edition. In this ebook, she cut a majority of the "suicide diary" which went into more detail of what her life was like leading up to her eventual suicide attempt. We got some smidgens of that back with the "Confiscated files" at the end of the ebook, but even that was heavily edited and more stream of consciousness than actual chronicling of daily life. It's a give and take, I suppose. Many people decried her verboseness in the original, so perhaps she felt a need to cut things she didn't think were entirely pertinent. I do admit that perhaps I'm only missing it because I knew it was there to begin with, and a fresh reader with no such context will probably find the ebook as is to be incredibly personal and enough for them. So, I'm not counting this as a mark for or against the book, but just an observation.Now, onto the meat and bones. Let's begin first with the hospital diaries. They're largely unchanged in the beginning, but they too were cut down from original size and were even added to (which I will admit bothers me just a smidgen since EA has advertised this book previously as a totally accurate transposition of her diaries from her stay in the psych ward). In terms of content, I felt that they were mostly honest in their portrayal of the current health care system. I've also seen a lot of criticism levied against her for exaggerating the conditions, but just take a moment to think about it. Mental illnesses, specifically PTSD and depression, are incredibly pervasive in my life (won't go into further detail than that.) One thing that I know for certain is true across the board for anyone dealing with a mental illness is the absolute **necessity** to have a safe space. For instance, if someone with PTSD is ever made to feel truly unsafe--even in their own home--it triggers the fight or flight response into their brain and they have a panic attack. Putting someone like that in a cold and austere environment with virtually no support and only a constant stream of drugs is absolutely unsafe. I can absolutely understand why EA felt the psych ward was a horrible experience, because there was no safety and no actual help. However, I believe that's as far as I'll grant. Do I feel, from her own descriptions, that she was actively *mistreated*? No, I don't think she was. Not from the information she gave us, anyway. Keep in mind, I'm not trying to invalidate whatever experience EA may have had. It seems like the health care system is ill equipped to provide safe places for those who need it, and that can cause massive stress and trauma. But my point is that I don't think any of it was done on *purpose*. My only real issue with the hospital entries is that they too became small snippets of thoughts as the book went on, instead of actual depicting of life in the psych ward. If EA was aiming for an "accurate portrayal of life in an asylum" then I would've liked to see more of actual life in the hospital. However--the reason for that may lie in the fact that this book wasn't actually written about just one hospital stay. If you're curious about what I mean by that, do some sleuthing and you'll figure it out.To branch off from the above a little bit, there have also been criticisms against EA in terms of the veracity of her chronicling. Here is a truth: she's lied about several things before. Most notably, her family being dead when her mother and sisters are actually quite alive and well. But I suppose she has her reasons for that and I've personally never judged her for it. When it comes to the book, I do think she's telling the truth as she knows it--which is just as valid as anyone else's truth. The whole "never know another person's mind" argument, and all that philosophical goodness. If there's one thing I put stock in it's that EA told a story that's incredibly important to her and she was as honest as she could be. I'm going to interject a truly personal opinion here and say that accusing an abuse victim of lying or "making it up for attention" plays into the *exact* culture that normalizes the abuse and seeks to delegitimize women that speak out against it. Don't fall into that trap.The Asylum story is very well written and certainly kept my rapt interest. Among her many other talents, I truly think Emilie is great at crafting a fantasy world and populating it with her motley cast of characters. I would've honestly loved a "full length" Asylum novel, that told the story exclusively and gave us even more of the the Captain and Veronica and the other inmates. Of course I understand the point is that they're "letters from another dimension" and I liked the effect that had as well. I also thought the small modifications to the Asylum story were for the best. Overall, I feel the Asylum part is something you'll have to read for yourself to form an opinion on. I enjoyed the crafted elements of it and the way things fit together even without being explicitly stated--you'll understand that after you read it.While I think saying this book is "the best account of bipolar disorder ever penned" (I'm slightly paraphrasing) is a bold and not quite true statement, I do think this was an interesting look into EA's mind in a way wholly unlike we get to see with her other work. Interestingly, I don't think this is the "rawest" version of her we've seen--I felt that her old journal entries on the forum she used to host were sometimes a bit more unedited and "real"--please take great care to notice the scare quotes I put around 'real' because I don't think the EA we see in this book is fake by any measure. Just a more polished presentation of her thoughts than what she had previously shown us online.There are quite a few interactive elements to this novel which were fun. Admittedly I didn't really focus on the hidden songs, and the ones I did manage to crack the code for were already released songs, so that's a feature I'll probably go back to. The treasure hunt hidden in the novel also seems fun, but I don't know if I want to try solving it. I tried my hand at the Enchant puzzle, which has been out in the world and unsolved for well over a decade, so if I'm honest I'm a *bit* skeptical about EA's puzzle making. But I do wish luck to all those who do attempt it!I think TAFWG is worth a read. I truly do. Will everyone like it? Probably not. It can be a polarizing book (please believe me when I say that is *not* a pun and none is intended) and there are a lot of things in the hospital diaries that I can see people taking the wrong way. Not to say that everyone EA writes is pristine, because she, like every other human on this planet, still has some problematic ideas about the world and prejudices that will come through in her work. But I also think she's speaking from a very personal place, and women in pain need to be heard. One of the most important things I believe is that people need to listen to women about their experiences--really listen, without the intention of responding, but just understanding. You don't have to agree with everything or even anything Emilie says, but I do think if you take the chance to read some of her innermost thoughts that you'll realize you're reading the story of a woman who is sharing her experiences and it's NOT your job to tell her they didn't happen or that she shouldn't feel a certain way about it. That's what I'll leave with.

Emilie is awesome

I purchased the electronic version but after having read it I regret not having bought the original large version when it was available. Very well written and illustrated. The duality between modern Emily and Victorian Emilie gives an excellent mean of enlightening each other's story. Whether the stories end well or not depends on the reader ... you decide.

This is the first book I've actually been so immersed in. Finished reading it within 5 days or so & I'm about to read it all over again. Touches subjects that need to be heard, even in 2024. Beautiful quotes & even the bad guys have something I fell in love with — especially Dr. Stockill .

Incredibilmente coinvolgente.Non si può che sentire da subito empatia per le protagoniste (o LA protagonista ….)Due vite parallele : la Emilie di oggi e la Emily del mondo vittoriano : accomunate dall'infelice destino di un ricovero in una casa di cura (meglio chiamarlo manicomio) per scelta l 'una (forse) e forzatamente l’ altra . Un mondo di dolore e miseria, trattate secondo i criteri di una presunta inadeguatezza nelle mani di chi decide giusto o sbagliato , accettabile e non….La storia , sopratutto quella del mondo vittoriano, presenta un' evoluzione e dei colpi di scena che mantengono costantemente vivo l' interesse nella lettura,ed anche dal punto di vista storico, ci vengono regalati alcuni squarci delle terribili pratiche mediche dell' epoca : un mondo a tratti cupo ed inquietante, ma che riesce ipnoticamente a catturare l' attenzione di chi legge .Ma anche nel buio , incredibilmente, c' è sempre una speranza ,ed ecco che un cucchiaino da thè o una graffetta diventano un faro nella tempesta , una ragione di vita , un modo di sentirsi e dichiararsi vivi nonostante tutto e tutti.Due storie di sofferenza , coraggio, solidarietà e amore, ribellione e vendetta ..... ed amicizia.Un romanzo quindi ,che sa essere a tratti commovente e dolcissimo ed a tratti terribilmente doloroso e straziante , che mi ha fatto sorridere e piangere (spesso nello stesso momento !) facendomi provare emozioni intense , su cui mi soffermavo il più possibile, incapace di lasciarle andare troppo presto .L' opera , a tratti chiaramente autobiografica , è una testimonianza di come l' autrice sia riuscita a trasformare le esperienze più traumatizzanti, in una storia avvincente e persino affascinante.Non bisogna necessariamente essere fan di Emilie Autumn (cantante violinista, autrice, poetessa ….) per goderselo appieno e riconoscerne il valore. Consigliato a donne e ragazze ma ,aggiungo, consigliatissimo agli uomini , per riflettere e tentare di capire un’ universo ( parallelo anche questo) spesso sconosciuto , ignorato , o liquidato con troppa superficialità.

pero.... este libro me ha dejado sin palabras.lectura obligatoria para los fans...y muy recomendable para cualquiera (algunas de las descripciones, sobre todo de la depresión, no podrían ser mejores)... por ahí he leído que las "crónicas" del hospital (... el diario de Emilie) son más extensas en la primera edición... así que habrá que ahorrar XD*nota: no he leído casi nada del contenido extra, tan interesante era la historia principal. aún así, es un libro que leeré muchas, muchas veces.