The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls cover art

The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

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The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

By: Emilie Autumn
Narrated by: Emilie Autumn
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About this listen

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
Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical Science Fiction Health Mental Health Historical Fiction Science History

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All stars
Most relevant
struggled to get on with the narrator at first. very individual style but enjoyed the book despite its abrupt ending.

Strange narration but got used to it!!

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Leans much heavier on fantasy than reality. Charming characters. Eloquently performed. A dizzying journey between the madness of two kindred souls.

Fantastical window into madness

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Couldn't get through more than a few minutes, the narration is terrible. Not good at all.

Terrible narrator.

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loved it so much. I've wanted to hear this for so long. physical copy next 💃

AMAZING!

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I didn’t dislike any of it. It was all incredible the story was written so well I feel like I was there

The characters and the storyline

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