Publishers Weekly
07/26/2021
French writer Mas debuts with a cinematic gothic story—soon to be a feature film—set in an abusive and exploitive 19th-century Parisian asylum. La Salpêtrière is inhabited almost entirely by women and girls whose male relatives have had them committed for hysteria. As Mas reveals, most of these women are survivors of rape or sexual abuse, but as far as the average Parisian is concerned, the women are grotesque and most likely dangerous. Set in 1885, during the weeks leading up to the hospital’s annual costume ball, at which the bourgeoisie can indulge their voyeuristic inclinations and rub elbows with the “mad women,” Mas’s novel alternates among the perspectives of three characters. Louise fantasizes about becoming charismatic Dr. Charcot’s next celebrity patient and about marrying a junior doctor; Eugénie is a bourgeois young woman who claims to see visions of the dead; and Geneviève is a long-time Salpêtrière nurse whose unwavering loyalty to her employer begins to falter as events unfold. Mas elegantly blends feminist history and spiritualism, and poignantly demonstrates how the hospital is both prison and refuge for its residents, as Geneviève simultaneously grows disillusioned and empowered. Mas’s dark tale will have readers transfixed. (Sept.)
SheKnows
A must-read for all who have ever felt silenced
Chicago Review of Books
Potent and wicked ... a darkly entertaining piece of revisionist feminism
Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lamplighters - Emma Stonex
The Mad Women’s Ball is a darkly sumptuous tale of wicked spectacle, wild injustice, and the insuppressible strength of women . . . as moving as it is macabre.
#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
In this darkly delightful Gothic treasure, Mas explores grief, trauma, and sisterhood behind the walls of Paris’s infamous Salpêtrière hospital.
*starred* review Foreword Reviews
electrifying...The Mad Women’s Ball is a magnetic historical novel.”
Library Journal
08/13/2021
DEBUT In 1885 Paris, elite society is looking forward to the Mad Women's Ball, where the women institutionalized in the Salpêtrière asylum don their best finery to dance and perform for the attendees. The majority of patients have been committed by fathers or other family members for refusing to play the roles expected of them. One of them is Eugenie, a young woman unhappy with the prospect of having to become a mother, housekeeper, and wife; she confides a secret to her grandmother that, when shared with her father, gets her committed to the Salpêtrière. Eugenie tries to convince her ward nurse, Genevieve, that she doesn't belong there. At first, Genevieve, hardened by years at the hospital and under the spell of the chief physician, Charcot, believes Eugenie is deluded and dangerous. But then Genevieve's beliefs are challenged by the dawning revelations shared by Eugenie and the failures of Charcot to care for the patients. As the ball approaches and the excitement builds, the inmate and nurse are forced to confront the system that placed them at Salpêtrière. VERDICT Debut novelist Mas blends history with a gothic tale about being a woman in a patriarchal society. It's a compelling and quick read with an ending that seems a bit rushed. For fans of Sarah Waters.—Susan Santa, North Merrick Lib., NY
