Sunday 5 May 2013

Book review: "The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls" by Emilie Autumn


Warning: Possible spoilers (though I have tried very hard not to give any).




The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls is the debut novel of singer and musician Emilie Autumn. As well as being a novel of sorts, it is also an autobiographical account of Autumn's experiences with mental illness and psychiatric treatment. The story begins when Emilie tries to kill herself with sleeping pills, and her subsequent incarceration in a mental health ward in present-day California with other "crazies". While there, Emilie finds letters from another young woman who has been committed in London in the Victorian era, Emily ("with a 'y'"), and thereafter the stories are told in tandem, with exceprts from Emilie's real diaries interspersed with letters from Emily.