The World newspaper gives her a chance when she decides to do an exposé on the rumored mistreatment of women in the insane asylum. The book has quite a slow beginning, and the parts about her childhood just didn't grab me; I found myself skim reading to get to the later chapters. Feeling she has gone insane herself, Nellie really starts to question her assignment and agreement to do this. Down to her last dime and desperate to prove her worth, she comes up with a dangerous plan to fake insanity and have herself committed to the asylum on Blackwell's Island. The staff consists of criminals and prostitutes who could not care less about the patients if they tried, and have had no training whatsoever.

She kept persevering even when others would have just given up and her empathy and compassion is a testament to the human condition. What an absolutely stunning read this was and many congratulations to Louisa Treger for writing such a wonderful historical novel with such compassion and feeling .Women who were sane on entering were in danger of lapsing into insanity due to their hopeless future. While the subject matter is worth reading, the presentation lacked for me, especially in the first half of the book. In New York, she convinced a leading newspaper publisher to allow her to go undercover by faking insanity and be confined to the notorious Blackwell insane asylum to report on the horrific conditions therein.

In this compelling tribute to a fearless young reporter of Victorian New York, Treger brings to vivid life the way one woman's broken past gives her the strength to expose the many horrors faced by others left to rot in an asylum.

An important and shining book that brings to light a female pioneer who needs to be understood and celebrated. My only dislike was the romantic part of the novel which I found hard to believe, but it was not that important to the overall story and its message. Blackwell’s Island and it’s grey and hostile nature were a stark contrast to the city, and is managed very well by the author. Louisa Treger’s impressive Madwoman describes the extraordinary bravery of 19th-century journalist Nellie Bly, who wrote a blistering exposé of the insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island, “a human rat trap” in which she intentionally got herself incarcerated.