Sometimes when an author spends a great deal of time researching a book, they are determined to include every interesting tidbit they uncovered, making the book much longer and more repetitive than necessary. This is the case here. The fight of Elizabeth Packard is very interesting, especially in the context of the modern-day landscape regarding women's rights and mental health. However, I would have loved this to be a tad more condensed. I also don't read a lot of non-fiction, so that might be my fiction-minded brain talking.

Fascinating account of Elizabeth Packard, whose husband shut her up in an insane asylum in the mid-1800s because she disagreed with his religious beliefs. Readers will learn about how married women were property, and husbands could pretty much do whatever they wanted with them. Readers will learn about the very primitive beliefs in the arena of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, and what so called experts thought about the connection between menstrual cycles and "insanity."

Packard fought back, using every tool she could muster, along with some outside support. She became responsible for better laws (as much as could be said for the 19th century), and achieved personal agency through that long, drawn out battle.

Highly recommended.

Another well written story by Kate Morton. I knew nothing about Elizabeth Packers until I read this book. The author did another great job laying this story out and sharing with us Mrs. packards fight. It did not move as quickly for me as the radium girls and often found myself picking up other books instead. Thus four stars instead of five.