... compelling not only because of the way it creates an alliance between the reader and the courageous Packard, but also because of how it forces the reader to examine once more the language and attitudes around women’s mental health. In Packard we see a foremother of the female leaders of today: intelligent, tenacious and impossible to cow.

Moore’s expert research and impassioned storytelling combine to create an absolutely unputdownable account of Packard’s harrowing experience. Readers will be shocked, horrified, and inspired. A veritable tour de force about how far women’s rights have come and how far we still have to go.

Using Packard’s extensive writings, trial testimonies, and governmental reports, Moore’s latest work brings to life the activist’s tireless efforts and the advocacy work she accomplished in the mid-20th century ... A must-read for anybody interested in women’s history or the history of reform in the United States. Like Radium Girls, this volume is a page-turner.

Packard's writing, quoted generously, is the best part of the book — resolute, warm, both soulful and practical. But because it is quoted often without chronology or context, it is hard to see her intellectual development, the beginnings of her feminist stirrings, and the evolution of her relationship with her husband. Moore, the author of The Radium Girls, is a clear writer but prone to overreliance on metaphor, and painfully eager to make sure we never miss the point ... A particular oversight is Packard's religious views, which are never fully explained or explored, despite being the primary justification for her incarceration ... But the book's strangest and biggest omission is the subject of slavery...Moore never quotes these lines, or explores Packard's belief that she was more spiritually elevated than the enslaved people she relied on so often as metaphors for her own condition ... The book illustrates the particularly skewed incentives of inspirational biographies — to flatter, flatten, and portray someone in line with the presumed values of its values ... we meet Elizabeth Packard the inspiration — and she is an inspiration — but we don't quite see the radical, the believer, the racist, or the thinker.

... riveting ... Skillfully drawing on Packard’s voluminous writings, Moore describes her subject’s 'cheerless' marriage to Presbyterian preacher Theophilus Packard, and the couple’s growing estrangement as Elizabeth, inspired by the nascent women’s rights movement, began to publicly question his theological beliefs ... Moore packs in plenty of drama without sacrificing historical fidelity, and paints Elizabeth’s fierce intelligence and unflagging ambition with vibrant brushstrokes. Readers will be thrilled to discover this undersung early feminist hero.

... inspiring ... Drawing on sources like letters, memoirs, and trial transcripts, Moore’s well-researched book paints a clear picture of the obstacles Elizabeth faced both during and after her confinement and the cruel resoluteness of both her husband and doctor, who tried to control her at all costs ... A vivid look at the life and times of a little-known pioneer of women’s rights.