The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

Emilie Autumn

Jun 2017 · Asylum Emporium

About this ebook

Two young women, living centuries apart, both accused of madness, communicate across time to fight a common enemy...their doctors.

Emilie Autumn’s underground gothic phenomenon is born again in this completely re-imagined immersive eBook version that includes the as-yet-unsolved “armchair treasure hunt,” the Quest for the Spoon of the Royals. If you were lucky enough to get your hands on the limited edition illustrated hardcover, then you may think you know the whole story, but this...this is very, very different. With new characters, new chapters, new secrets, and new songs, the Asylum is back, and is admitting readers all over the world.

This beautifully designed eBook contains dozens of immersive elements including puzzle-filled illustrations, hidden links to new music, additional writings and character backgrounds, atmospheric audio tracks to read along with, secret ways to get in contact with the Asylum’s characters yourself, and, if you’re clever enough to find the key, exclusive access to never-before-heard songs from the upcoming The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls: The Musical.

Far from being second best to a print version, Emilie has packed this eBook with mysteries a printed book could never contain.

ABOUT THE STORY:

“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 talk.

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, showing in the process that little has changed throughout the ages.

Welcome to the Asylum. Are you committed?

Ratings and reviews

Imaginative, relatable and full of wonderful twists and turns, this is a story that never bores. The characters are all so very well thought-out and with underlying stories one wants to know, and by all means does miss Autumn invite us to conjure up details about all the inmates. The villains are bad to the core but charming and the inmates are all dear and inspirational. There is a vulnerability that makes it easy to identify with both Emily and Emilie, and the notes at the end make it all more real, especially for those readers who deal with the same problems. The biggest problem, however, that I have with this edition of this book, is the puzzles. Don't get me wrong, I love them - but they invite to twist your brain in all kinds of ways, and for me it is greatly distracting from the story. I want to either read or solve, and before I have solved the puzzles, I can't comfortably read the book. I already know the story, but this really makes this edition difficult for me to focus on.

This universe has been one of my biggest guilty pleasures for years, even with how awful the author can be. I eat the asylum parts up with a spoon like they're chocolate pudding, but I haven't been able to bring myself to read the hospital bits since I was much younger.

Imaginative and yet somehow so very real. While some scenes can be triggering, sometimes it can be necessary to understand the profound amount of pain those in the story have gone through. I would say listening to Emilie Autumn's music, especially her album "Fight Like a Girl" adds to the feelings within the novel. It may have taken me a year or two to read this, it was so worth. Heartwarming and heartbreaking all while keeping me intrigued and hoping for more. I can't wait for her musical of this to come out now!