The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

By: Emilie Autumn

Narrated by: Emilie Autumn

Two young women, living centuries apart, both accused of madness, communicate across time to fight a common enemy...their doctors.

"It was the dog who found me."

Such is the stark confession launching the harrowing scene that begins The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls as Emilie Autumn, a young musician on the verge of a bright career, attempts suicide by overdosing on the antipsychotics prescribed to treat her bipolar disorder. Upon being discovered, Emilie is revived and immediately incarcerated in a maximum-security psych ward, despite her protestations that she is not crazy, and can provide valid reasons for her actions if someone would only listen.

Treated as a criminal, heavily medicated, and stripped of all freedoms, Emilie is denied communication with the outside world and falls prey to the unwelcome attentions of Dr. Sharp, head of the hospital's psychiatry department. As Dr. Sharp grows more predatory by the day, Emilie begins a secret diary to document her terrifying experience and to maintain her sanity in this environment that could surely drive anyone mad. But when Emilie opens her notebook to find a desperate letter from a young woman, imprisoned within an insane asylum in Victorian England and bearing her own name and description, a portal to another world is blasted wide open.

As these letters from the past continue to appear, Emilie escapes further into this mysterious alternate reality where sisterhoods are formed, romance between female inmates blossoms, striped wallpaper writhes with ghosts, and highly intellectual rats speak the Queen's English.

But is it real? Or is Emilie truly as mad as she is constantly told she is?

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls blurs harsh reality and magical historical fantasy whilst issuing a scathing critique of society's treatment of women and the mental health care industry's treatment of its patients.

Welcome to the Asylum. Are you committed?

©2007 The Asylum Emporium (P)2016 The Asylum Emporium

still wanting more

the book grips you until the end it has left me wanting another book I still have unanswered questions which is also part of the brilliance

Emilie Anderson's book is quite an enjoyable listen

While I can't argue the accuracy of whether or not the "autobiography" sections of the story are exaggerated or not, given that I haven't set foot into a mental institution before in my life (as of writing this). Emily(with a 'Y')'s story is enjoyable and gut-wrenchingly angst-ridden.

This book full my curiosity.

I bought this book because I heard there was a musical about it. I like the music and I wanted to go in depth about the story.

WOW! Just WOW!

This book being outside my genre blew my mind. I loved it! the voices she does for everyone were perfect. it was riveting, on the edge of my seat excited to listen to this book. In fact, I have never left a review before that is how much I liked it. WOW! Just, WOW!

Bizarre

A moderately interesting story completely botched and ruined by the most horrendous narration I’ve EVER heard. I don’t know what the author was thinking, but she needed to have left the reading of her book to a professional. (If I were to describe the narration as an attempt at a female William Shatner, that would be insulting to him, as comical as his deliveries can be). Having said that, the story alone was decent (the only reason I made it all the way through).