“Woman 99” by Greer Macallister – The Undeniable Fighters
Greer Macallister has a strong and much-needed voice in literature, centring her works on the power of the female identity.
In Woman 99 she introduces us to Charlotte Smith, a wealthy high-society young lady whose sister was committed to an infamous asylum by their parents.
Dropping everything, Charlotte goes undercover as an inmate, and soon has the impression most of the patients aren't necessarily crazy, with something sinister brewing above them all.
Greer Macallister Welcomes us to the Asylum
Asylums, or mental institutes as some would prefer to call them these days, have quite a fascinating and morbid history of their own dating back thousands of years, though we probably won't go this far.
In modern times, most people see them as hospitals housing people with mental illnesses, doing their best to treat them while offering a safe existence they wouldn't be able to have anywhere else.
However, the study of mental illness is still something new, and there was a time when admittance to an asylum was based on guesswork and crude knowledge... or in some cases, a personal agenda, as is the case in Greer Macallister's Woman 99.
As the novel opens we are introduced to the wealthy Charlotte Smith, a privileged young lady living in late 1800s San Francisco without a care in the world, until one day her parents decide to commit her sister Phoebe to the infamous Goldengrove Asylum.
Though they might claim madness took her and there was nothing else to be done, Charlotte doesn't simply roll over and accept the explanation, knowing her sister better than anyone else.
With all investigative venues blocked off to her, Charlotte resolves to take the one path she can think of: to relinquish her life of aristocracy and be committed as a nameless inmate herself in the asylum. The plan works like a charm, and soon she finds herself in the place everyone knows about but few have witnessed with their eyes.
To her surprise, quite a few of the inmates actually seem rather sane and aware of their predicament, pushing Charlotte to realize she might just have landed in the middle of a sinister conspiracy where the rich and powerful seek to remove inconvenient elements from society, burying their secrets with them.
Intrigue of the Sane
Though I am not certain how obvious it is from my little summary of the premise, this story is largely centred around the struggle of women in a world ruled by men, a state of affairs very much present today, and even more topical in the late 1800s when the story takes place.
However, I would ask not to let this aspect of the book fool you: this is a far cry from being low-effort feminist propaganda, the kind which cares much more about the message than the story itself.
Instead, it always feels as if the plot and its development are the primary focus here, and whatever meditations and reflections happen only come as a byproduct of it all. In any case, the story itself is quite engaging in its own right as a historical mystery, following Charlotte as she unearths the truth about the asylum one little bit at a time.
Seeing how she manages to overcome the many small challenges being an inmate would present for her investigation is simply a lot of fun, and I felt she made for a compelling and wise protagonist despite her age, with still a lot of room for personal growth.
Though there might be an omnipresent sense of danger lurking in the air, it felt to me the curiosity of finding the truth always ended up taking the centre stage.
There is seldom a passage where we don't learn a little bit more about the asylum or its patients, and slowly but surely, we the reader can begin putting the puzzle together ourselves... even if we don't know with certainty who to trust.
While I wouldn't say the answer to the mystery is shocking or particularly hard to predict, I do believe it fits the story like a glove, taking into account the larger themes in play.
The Real Madness is Outside
As expected, we spend little time outside the asylum, mostly enough for Macallister to ease us into the setting and provide some context for how people lived in those days.
What I found particularly fascinating was how the author managed to use this grand asylum as a mirror of the outside world, exploring the society surrounding it without ever truly leaving.
As a matter of fact, for large sections of the book I almost had the impression I was reading a work of non-fiction aimed at criticizing society for its mistreatment of other humans in general.
More often than not, we delve into the various ways in which women have been oppressed and suppressed by society, but rest assured, none of the examples ever feel corny, cheesy or over the top.
On the contrary, it felt to me as if they were taken or inspired from real-life examples... while I can't vouch for this being the truth, they were written well-enough to leave me with this impression.
There is a whole host of philosophical and societal topics to mull over as you read the book and for quite a while after, including the burden of social expectations, profiteering from human misery, the power of money in deciding people's fates, our historical propensity to mistreat the mentally ill, the ease with which we inflict suffering, and a whole lot more.
The Final Verdict
Woman 99 by Greer Macallister is both a powerful and entertaining piece of historical fiction, taking us on a mystery adventure which makes us ponder on quite a few subjects along the way.
If you enjoy your historical thrillers with a healthy dose of food for thought, then I strongly recommend you add this novel to your collection.
 | Greer MacallisterPersonal site Greer Macallister is a poet, short story writer, novelist and playwright hailing from the American Midwest. Her debut novel, titled The Magician's Lie, was a USA Today and MIBA Indie bestseller, even being optioned for the silver screen. Her other novels include Girl in Disguise, inspired by a real-life female Pinkerton detective, and most recently, Woman 99. |
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