I have talked openly about my experience with mental health treatment in the past. And the poorer you are, the more likely you are to wind up in an overcrowded state facility with county workers experiencing compassion fatigue and burnout. After reading a story like this, it’s hard to feel bad for Kesha who *almost* wasn’t allowed to write music during her stay in residential eating disorder treatment. Imagine the challenges of NON-FAMOUS people of color, transgender and non-binary people, and other marginalized groups face. Sadly, I do not feel Emilie’s experience in the hospital was anthing unusual. But it was not nearly as bad as I built it up to be in mind, as I’ve been reading criticisms of the book for almost a decade. This book does not paint mental health treatment a positive light, and makes many damaging assertions. But two thirds of the way through, it became evident that Emilie’s narrative wasn’t going anywhere and I became a little less invested. At the beginning, I was engaged with both stories. Emilie finds jentries from Emily’s diary every day between the pages of her notebook. When she is 17, she is sold to a nobleman, attempts suicide to escape his cruelty, and is then institutionalized in The Aslyum for Wayward Victorian Girls. Emily with a Y is sold to a music conservatoire at the age of 5.

The book contains two stories: an account of Emilie Autumn’s inpatient stay on a psychiatric unit and the life of Emily with a Y, a young violinist in Victorian England. There are so many versions of this book, I can only speak to the 2017 paperback version I have read. She does not explain what details were omitted. On her website, Emilie Autumn notes additions to newer publications, such as new scenes and characters. I doubt this is the artwork the critics referred to, but these are some of the illustrations excluded from the 2017 paperback: I would have liked to see these drawings, but they were not included in the newer editions. A complaint I heard from people who purchased the first edition is that the book contained many spelling and grammatical errors, and several pages consisted of crayon drawings or strands of hair. Newer additions are affordable and available both in paperback and as an e-book. I have now come to understand the first edition of the book was expensive to make and ship, and therefore expensive to sell. I recall seeing it on Amazon for as much as $355. According to her website FAQ, the book cost $75 upon release. When “The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls” was first published in 2008, I wondered how the author, and possibly her publicist, got off charging so much for a book. 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.”Ĭontent warning for suicide, gratuitous descriptions of self-injury, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, eating disorders, body shaming, medical trauma, gore, violence. 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.Īs 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.īut is it real? Or is Emilie truly as mad as she is constantly told she is? 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. Sharp, head of the hospital’s psychiatry department. 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.

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. “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. This post contains spoilers for “The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls” by Emilie Autumn.

Emilie autumn 2017