Publishers Weekly
01/07/2019
In Macallister’s spellbinding novel (after The Magician’s Lie), set in 1888, a San Francisco society woman discovers horrifying treatment of patients after getting herself admitted to an asylum with hopes of freeing her sister. Charlotte Smith is devastated when her beloved sister, Phoebe, is sent to Goldengrove, supposedly an oasis of progressive treatment for mentally ill women. Inspired by Nellie Bly’s undercover reporting, Charlotte uses the cover of a leap off an ocean pier during a lengthy stay with her aunt Helen as a ruse to get herself committed and bring Phoebe home. Once inside, she realizes that many of the committed women aren’t ill at all, but are simply inconvenient, such as a prostitute, an adulteress, and a woman who refused to marry in hopes of pursuing an education. Charlotte suffers daily indignities (such as frigid communal showers), but finds humanity and small kindnesses among her fellow patients. As her time runs out, Charlotte enlists the help of her new friends Celia and Martha, who are planning their own escape. Though Charlotte narrates, Macallister also gives voice to a motley crew of women who, at the mercy of male whims, hide multitudes. Charlotte’s commitment to rescuing her sister is emotionally resonant, and the grim realities of institutionalization in the 1800s offer heft. Macallister sensitively and adroitly portrays mental illness in an era when it was just beginning to be understood, while weaving a riveting tale of loyalty, love, and sacrifice. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, the Book Group. (Mar.)
JULIA WHELAN
Macallister’s incisive voice brings a dark chapter of our past to life with unsettling contemporary resonance.
FIONA DAVIS
A gripping story that exposes the Gilded Age’s tarnished veneer, when women who didn’t acquiesce to the standards of the day were locked away. Powerful and electrifying, Macallister is at the top of her game.
SUSAN MEISSNER
Richly and expertly woven with chilling historical details—you won’t soon forget what it was like to be behind the locked doors of Goldengrove Asylum.
KATE QUINN
A gorgeous ode to the power of female courage.
From the Publisher
"WOMAN NINETY NINE is a gorgeous ode to the power of female courage...Greer Macallister pens a nail-biter that makes you want to stand up and cheer." -
"Greer Macallister's characters never fail to leap off the page into your very soul; you can't help loving them, rooting for them, agonizing with them over the choices they must make. WOMAN NINETY-NINE is richly and expertly woven with chilling historical details — you won't soon forget what it was like to be behind the locked doors of Goldengrove Asylum on a mission to save someone you love." - Susan Meissner, bestselling author of AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN
"Mccallister's mastery of historical fiction is on full display in WOMAN NINETY NINE. Her incisive voice brings a dark chapter of our past to life with unsettling contemporary resonance." - Julia Whelan, award-winning audiobook narrator and author of MY OXFORD YEAR
"As she did in Girl in Disguise, Macallister honors the brave women of history and spins a fine tale that will sweep readers away to another time. This work of historical fiction is a perfect reminder that women will not be silenced." - Pamela Klinger-Horn, Excelsior Bay Books (Excelsior, MN)
"A true page-turner from beginning to end with a very satisfying ending." - Carrie Deming, The Dog Eared Book (Palmyra, NY)
"Macallister sensitively and adroitly portrays mental illness in an era when it was just beginning to be understood, while weaving a riveting tale of loyalty, love, and sacrifice." - Publishers Weekly
"This is an insightful look inside a mental institution at a time when women were pretty much powerless. But are these women really ill or are they just rebels? It's a great read and deserves consideration by book clubs." - Linda Bond, Auntie's Bookstore (Spokane, WA)
"Exploring sisterhood, trauma, and the power of shared experience, Woman 99 is an undercover glimpse inside a late nineteenth-century treatment facility. Macallister fearlessly probes the dark corners of the era, exposing barbaric treatments and backward thinking surrounding mental illness." - Booklist
"Readers will become engrossed in Charlotte's journey of self-discovery as she fights to free herself and her sister from a rigged system." - Library Journal
"A riveting successful novel." - Write On Cindy
"It's impossible not to root for the sisters as they work to combat that mistreatment on behalf of themselves and others. Woman 99 is a fast-paced historical thriller perfect for book club discussions." - Shelf Awareness
"A fascinating, suspenseful story...[The] message rings true today, with a timelessness that adds to the tension as we read." - Washington City Paper
Kirkus Reviews
2018-12-11
A young woman sneaks into a California insane asylum to rescue her sister in Macallister's (Girl in Disguise, 2017, etc.) third novel.
Charlotte Smith, the 20-year-old daughter of a San Francisco shipping magnate, is about to be thrust, for her parents' convenience, into a marriage she did not choose; the groom's identity is not immediately revealed. Arguably worse, the Smiths have committed Charlotte's beloved sister, Phoebe, who suffers from what today might be classified as bipolar disorder, to Goldengrove, an asylum for the "curable insane." What's a sheltered, finishing school-educated debutante to do? Follow Nelly Bly's notorious example and infiltrate Goldengrove under an assumed identity, that of a suicidal vagrant, while her parents think she's off on a six-week sojourn in Newport, Rhode Island. The novel's backstory unspools in flashbacks, revealing that Charlotte has a crush on Henry Sidwell, the son of her father's chief investor and creditor. The present-time action focuses on Charlotte's search for Phoebe while chronicling life in a mental institution, which, though progressive for 1888, seems to assign treatment regimens according to class. Goldengrove is controlled by the Sidwell family, and the branch least concerned with inmate well-being has been left in charge, with the result that the asylum's mission morphs from therapies (albeit some very primitive ones) to contracting out the patients as slave labor. Although insights about the limited choices afforded women of all classes, and suitably gothic plot twists, keep us reading, too many improbabilities disrupt the narrative flow. The Smiths are portrayed as overanxious yet allow Charlotte to embark unchaperoned (and without luggage) on a supposed cross-country journey and make no effort to inquire about Phoebe's welfare. Since suspense is plentiful there is no need to postpone certain disclosures, such as the identity of Charlotte's fiance. Withholding information is particularly problematic in the first-person narrative of a protagonist as self-reflective as Charlotte. The denouement, with its concessions to period conventionality, removes any hope that this novel will deliver on its feminist leanings.
A gripping melodrama that may leave readers feeling gaslighted.
