Since her brother took his life after WWI, Ruth Emeraldine has had one goal: to help those suffering from mental illness. Then she falls in love with charismatic Robert Apter—a brilliant doctor championing a radical new treatment, the lobotomy. Ruth believes in it as a miracle treatment and in Robert as its genius pioneer. But as her husband spirals into deluded megalomania, Ruth can’t ignore her growing suspicions. Robert is operating on patients recklessly, often with horrific results. And a vulnerable young mother, Margaret Baxter, is poised to be his next victim.
Margaret can barely get out of bed, let alone care for her infant. When Dr. Apter diagnoses her with the baby blues and proposes a lobotomy, she believes the procedure is her only hope. Only Ruth can save her—and scores of others—from the harrowing consequences of Robert’s ambitions.
Inspired by a shocking chapter in medical history, The Lobotomist’s Wife is a galvanizing novel of a woman fighting against the most grievous odds, of ego, and of the best intentions gone horribly awry.
Goodreads Ratings: 4.09 stars with over 11,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Historical Fiction, Psychology, Medical, Mental Health
Goodreads Challenge: 7/48
2022 Reading Challenge: #28 Read a book you recently acquired (Find the entire challenge here)
Book Review:
Hello, Readers! I hope everyone is doing well. I am on a much-needed staycation for the week. I'm hoping to get caught up on my reading challenge, but we'll see if that happens. Really hoping to finish the Octonummi while I'm on vacation. Yes. I'm still reading it. I had planned on reading a bunch this afternoon, but after a Buffy the Vampire marathon with Tress, I came down with a Migraine, and being in a dark room sleeping won out.
I think The Lobotomist's Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff was an Amazon First read recently. If not it hasn't been on my shelf all that long. This was a really intriguing subject for me. Obviously, Historical Fiction is an automatic win for me, but getting into the history of lobotomies was really interesting. I think psychology is fascinating and wanted to be a psychologist/psychiatrist for a brief period of time in high school. Specifically, I wanted to be a criminal psychologist. I think because of all that, this book was a must-read for me.
The book is pretty short and just over 300 pages. It reads pretty easily and I felt instantly drawn in to Ruth's story. I thought she was kind and had a naivete about her that made her seem like she could change the world. I found it refreshing. I think that desire to help also made her a little desperate to take on anything she thought would help her patients. Her role in the story was intriguing, as so many of those close to those who discover or impact events aren't always told. Even though Ruth's story was fictionalized, it still provided an interesting perspective.
I think I misguidedly hoped that this story would be a little more creepy regarding the lobotomies. It did discuss some famous ones that had happened, but it was a very clinical telling of it. I will say in that regard if medical/clinical stuff is not your thing this book may not be for you. Mostly the way it was told felt very tidy and packaged. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I can't think of how else to describe it. I guess the tone of how it was written seemed really light for the subject. The end especially felt kind of phoned in. I felt like Ruth's husband was an egomaniac and never really had to pay for what he did to people. Ruth's ending was just confusing and didn't necessarily feel like it fit with the rest of the story.
The book is pretty short and just over 300 pages. It reads pretty easily and I felt instantly drawn in to Ruth's story. I thought she was kind and had a naivete about her that made her seem like she could change the world. I found it refreshing. I think that desire to help also made her a little desperate to take on anything she thought would help her patients. Her role in the story was intriguing, as so many of those close to those who discover or impact events aren't always told. Even though Ruth's story was fictionalized, it still provided an interesting perspective.
I think I misguidedly hoped that this story would be a little more creepy regarding the lobotomies. It did discuss some famous ones that had happened, but it was a very clinical telling of it. I will say in that regard if medical/clinical stuff is not your thing this book may not be for you. Mostly the way it was told felt very tidy and packaged. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I can't think of how else to describe it. I guess the tone of how it was written seemed really light for the subject. The end especially felt kind of phoned in. I felt like Ruth's husband was an egomaniac and never really had to pay for what he did to people. Ruth's ending was just confusing and didn't necessarily feel like it fit with the rest of the story.
Overall, I enjoyed the story. I thought it was a unique topic, and given the time period, it was interesting to read about something other than WWII. I liked Ruth and thought she was intelligent and caring. I just think I expected something a little grittier given the subject. I will say there are a lot of potential trigger warnings in this one. Some of those include suicide, mental health, spousal abuse, and postpartum depression.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for reading my book blog. Please feel free to leave a comment to further or start a discussion on the book reviews and other posts. If you have a book recommendation for me, I would love to hear it!