Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Gray Chamber (True Colors) by Grace Hitchcock

Book Description

Step into True Colors -- a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime

Will Edyth prove her sanity before it is too late?

On Blackwell Island, New York, a hospital was built to keep its patients from ever leaving.

With her late father’s fortune under her uncle’s care until her twenty-fifth birthday in the year 1887, Edyth Foster does not feel pressured to marry or to bow to society’s demands. She freely indulges in eccentric hobbies like fencing and riding her velocipede in her cycling costume about the city for all to see. Finding a loophole in the will, though, her uncle whisks Edyth off to the women’s lunatic asylum just weeks before her birthday. Do any of Edyth’s friends care that she disappeared?

At the asylum she meets another inmate, who upon discovering Edyth’s plight, confesses that she is Nellie Bly, an undercover journalist for The World. Will either woman find a way to leave the terrifying island and reclaim her true self?

My thoughts:

Grace Hitchcock has penned another compelling novel that I read in one day.  I loved everything about this book from her thorough research to her incredible characters.  The Gray Chamber is a heart wrenching  story of fictional character Edyth Foster who was placed in a very real and horrible asylum on Blackwell Island, New York.

Edyth is such a free spirited young lady who enjoys her life as a single lady of leisure would do but unfortunately her relatives saw that as an opportunity to have her committed.  The horrible treatment she and the other ladies placed there experience will break your heart.  It's hard to imagine that people were institutionalized in some cases because families couldn't deal  with them or for more nefarious reasons.  
I loved seeing the appearance of Nellie Bly an undercover journalist and the work she did to help expose the atrocities the patients suffered, but what I loved most of all was the caring people in Edyth's life.  

True Colors written by various authors has been one of my favorite series and has jarred my memory on historical events that I had forgotten about. 
If you love Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime then you'll definitely want to read this series.  They are all standalone novels which I love.

Overall, I thought The Gray Chamber was a fast paced, heart-pumping read.  It kept me engaged from beginning to end which is why I highly recommend it.
I received a complimentary copy.  All opinions are completely my own.

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