🩺 The Lobotomist’s Wife 🩺

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was a fascinating read. Going into this book, I had a general sense of how lobotomies worked and evolved, but there was so much more in this book.

🩺Synopsis🩺
This is a fictionalized account of the doctor who made lobotomies common practice in the US. The story focuses mainly on the wife of that doctor, hence the title.

She has a strong urge to help those who are mentally ill, specifically veterans, as her brother died by suicide, she wants to prevent other families from suffering the same way. And her role at a hospital gives her that opportunity. And when a dashing man comes along with big ideas, she gets whisked away. But eventually, she realizes something isn’t quite right.

🩺What I Liked🩺
• mid-1930’s time period
• the look into the science/medical world
• a focus on mental health
• some characters were obviously placed in the hospital because of who they were (i.e., a queer man) but the MC treated him with respect and recognized why he was there. And he was portrayed as a lively, beautiful man
•the MC was a woman in the mid-1900’s who had a job and was respected for it
•real historical events were included in the story

🩺What Didn’t Work for Me🩺
• The MC went lived in her marriage with rose-colored glasses on for a long time before realizing there was a problem
• The story wrapped up with happy endings for a lot of the characters. This could be good in a lot of cases, but I felt like this wasn’t a story where I expected or wanted happy endings for everyone.

I really enjoy reading about how mentally I’ll patients used to be treated. I find it both disturbing and fascinating. This was well put together

Since her brother took his life after WWI, Ruth Emeraldine has had one goal: to help those suffering from mental illness. Then she falls in love with charismatic Robert Apter—a brilliant doctor championing a radical new treatment, the lobotomy. Ruth believes in it as a miracle treatment and in Robert as its genius pioneer. But as her husband spirals into deluded megalomania, Ruth can’t ignore her growing suspicions. Robert is operating on patients recklessly, often with horrific results. And a vulnerable young mother, Margaret Baxter, is poised to be his next victim.

Margaret can barely get out of bed, let alone care for her infant. When Dr. Apter diagnoses her with the baby blues and proposes a lobotomy, she believes the procedure is her only hope. Only Ruth can save her—and scores of others—from the harrowing consequences of Robert’s ambitions.

2.5 stars
Samantha Greene Woodruff’s “The Lobotomist’s Wife” is a historical fiction novel set in 1940s/50s New York. The story features Ruth Apter (nee Emeraldine), a psychiatric hospital administrator, and her husband, Robert, a psychiatrist who brings lobotomy to America. We also meet Margaret Baxter, a stay-at-home mother of three who suffers from severe postpartum depression and is contemplating undergoing lobotomy as a cure.

Ruth, initially the primary champion of her husband’s medical innovation, starts to realize all is not right with Robert’s medical ethics and frantically sets out to stop him from doing anymore harm, including unnecessarily lobotomizing Margaret Baxter!

I was very excited to receive an eARC of this book because I love medical fiction, especially historical fiction that introduces the origins of illnesses and treatments. Disappointingly, this story took SOOOO long to get interesting (it took me over three months to read when my average for historical fiction is less than a week) and was SOOOO boring for the first three quarters of the novel, I often contemplated abandoning the book. Once the real story started (Ruth’s rush to stop her husband from performing any more lobotomies), it was fast paced and entertaining. Unfortunately it was not enough to make up for the first boring 70%.

I would rate this book 2.5 stars and don’t think I can recommend it unless you want to skim read the first three quarters to get to the good parts.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC of the book.

I loved this book!! The subject was fascinating, especially when I discovered that it was based on real life. I'd highly recommend this title to anyone with an interest in the history mental health treatments. The writing was spot on and it was obvious to see that a phenomenal amount of research was undertaken to produce such an excellent book. Highly recommend this title.

Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley UK for the review copy.

I didn’t know we were still doing “the male professional’s female relative” titles… especially ironic since Ruth Emeraldine is supposed to be an enlightened, independent woman, equal to her husband, and party to his discoveries in psychiatry.

The title being neither here nor there, The Lobotomist’s Wife evokes some strong feelings about women in the twentieth century, as they started gaining entry into political and scientific spheres.

It is certainly a good fictionalisation of a golden era in psychiatric research - although “golden” may itself be a misnomer, given the great damage done to unwilling/unwitting patients who underwent frontal lobotomies. There are obvious truths to it. I enjoy how it explores medical discovery - the trial and error, how good doctors can produce bad research; how bad research can lead to good research, how sometimes quackery ignites the search for a true cure.

That said, I find the main characters to be largely tropes - the gifted researcher who becomes a danger to his patients, the brilliant wife who gets little credit, and the colleague who eventually realises that their research has gone off track, then leaves. Tropes do have their place, but these ones did not stand out, and I connected more with the briefly mentioned background characters. (I quite appreciate the nod to queer people, living and thriving in a time so set against them.)

Ultimately, it is a book I enjoyed, and still recommend for readers who love historical fiction and psychology - it just doesn’t quite have what I’d want for a four or five-star read.

Ruth Emmeline is a wealthy heiress who has dedicated her life to the patients of the mental hospital started by her father and in memory of her late brother who like many other soldiers came back 'different' from WW1. She works at the hospital as the assistant administrator and prides herself and her hospital on the empathy, high level of care and the desire to be on the cutting edge of care for the patients. Her desire is to see patients improve enough to return to a normal life, but realizes this is not always possible. Enter Dr. Robert Apter, a young neurologist & psychologist who also wishes to see patients get to a normal life and is also very much on the cutting edge of treatments. Ruth hires Dr. Apter and they soon become a couple and then marry, their relationship is build on respect and admiration of each other's abilities and drive. However, the newest cutting edge treatment for mental health issues is something called a leucotomy, which turns into the lobotomy. This procedure seems like a miracle cure for patients, as the treatment relieves them of their OCD issues, schizophrenia, depression, et al. Dr. Apter becomes a proponent and the premiere lobotomist in the US, giving lobotomies, creating new techniques, and teaching the procedure to other institutions.

This book spans a good chunk of time, from the mid-20s up to the 50s and you get to see how Ruth & Dr. Apter meet and live their married life while running a hospital and medical practice. Ruth is a wonderful character, she's smart, compassionate and driven, and this makes her an outcast for her time period, which is also noted in the book. Dr. Apter is drive and also compassionate and makes Ruth feel worthy not for her looks or money but because of her intelligence, compassion and drive. The couple's early relationship and work is lovely, but as time goes on we see the cracks form. Interwoven with the story of Ruth & Dr. Apter is the story of Margaret, a housewife with three children who is going through the 'baby blues'. She becomes a patient of Dr. Apter's private practice and becomes one of the catalysts for the end of the novel.. The author based Dr. Apter on Dr. Walter Jackson, the real doctor who brought the lobotomy to the US and used real events throughout her novel, like the lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy. These events are nicely integrated into the story without taking you out of the written world. I enjoyed this novel, it was a quick read and the characters were well written. I would have loved to have had more interaction with Ruth's best friend, she seemed like a trip.

I received a free ebook from NetGalley & Lake Union Publishing.

Love that this was based on a real-life story. Woodruff grabbed me right from the beginning with stellar writing and storytelling. Have already purchased for a friend!

The Lobotomist's Wife is based on real events that surround the era of Lobotomies.
Ruth Emeraldine is single minded in her focus to treat mental health. She falls in love with a pioneering doctor named Robert Apter. He is the foremost expert and lobotomies and is in high demand. Robert begins to do more and more lobotomies on individuals and the side effects become horrific. Is Ruth capable of seeing her husband for who he really is and the damage he's cuased?
This was a really interesting book. The characters felt real and it was easy to see their decision making process.

I was gifted advanced digital access to this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and options are my own.

I loved this book, it's a story of an empowered woman standing up to a man gone completely mad with power and megalomania.

The most incredible part of this book is that while fictional, it is steeped in truth from one of the darkest points in mental health care history. The character of Robert Apter is based on the real man who brought Lobotomy to America, Walter J. Freeman. The character of Robert also follows some of Walter's actions over the years that followed. It's the perfect mix of fact and fiction to bring this story to life. Which is why I was astonished to find out the this is a debut novel from Samantha Greene Woodruff! What an incredible first publication this is for the writer, a perfect combination of fact and fiction neatly intertwined in a compelling story of a woman empowered to protect her patients.

While I absolutely loved this book, it's the kind of read that will stay with you forever. Which means I'll be unlikely to read it again, it just wouldn't have the same effect in knowing what comes next. This is why I have given it the 4 star rating. However if you are a lover of history and of fiction books then this is an absolute must read!

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the review copy. this is an interesting premise for a story and I did enjoy it, but it wasn't as exciting as I hoped it would be. I think there was a lot of potential that could have been developed further. on the whole it was an okay book though.

I picked up this book expecting a darker, drama filled book. Instead the book had a very slow start. It did pick up in the second half of the book and I was glad that I stuck with it. Overall, it was a solid 3.5 star book with a likable, strong female lead character. I was very confused by the ending and link between Edward, Ruth and Stephen.

Interesting premise but I had trouble getting into this book and the relationships at the end were a little confusing. The historical elements of the lobotomy were interesting but overall the boom was a little boring. 2.5 stars rounded up.




Thank you to Netgalley and to Lake Union Publishing for giving me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love historical fiction and this was great because it was a unique time period and perspective, not like anything I have read before. I wished there was more though; more details about the patients, and what their lives were like after the lobotomies. But this was a great book, I just didn't want it to end!

The Lobotomist’s Wife is the story of a compassionate and relentless woman, a cutting-edge breakthrough in psychiatry, and a nightmare in the making. This fictionalized account based on real developments in early psychiatry, was compelling and fascinating. With good character development and engaging writing, this was an interesting take on a lesser known part of history.

This book is a look at the history of lobotomy in America through the eyes of the fictitious wife of the fictitious doctor who stands in for the actual Dr. Freeman. While originally intended to help the worst of psychiatric patients manage their symptoms and hopefully lead meaningful lives, somewhere in its decades of use lobotomy's original mission gets lost and the fictitious Dr. Apter misapplies it with disastrous results, just as the original Dr. Freeman did. While she was originally one of his biggest supporters, his wife struggles to find the evidence to stop him before he uses lobotomy to 'cure' her friend of postpartum depression.

This book does a good job of scratching the surface of the lobotomy era, with nods to Rosemary Kennedy's lobotomy and the 228 patients who were lobotomized in 10 days. Now, I like medical history like The Ghost Map and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and my initial disappointment in the book may have been because that's not what this is. It's not a deep, fictionalized look at lobotomy, or even a look at the role Freeman's wife may have played in his practice. It's not even about Dr. Freeman, per se. And I struggled with the characterization of the protagonist, Ruth Apter: a woman ahead of her time, wealthy and educated, she deals with the death of her brother by turning to helping other psychiatric patients. But she reads like a silver screen heroine, all breathy "Darling" and "Whatever shall I do." She's not the sort of woman I would picture a doctor like Apter would consider a peer, or the kind of woman I can easily see administrating a psychiatric hospital. While she comes off strong with a deep care and regard for her patients, if this were a movie I would say she doesn't have the chops for a leading role. This might also be because my usual diet of historical fiction consists of Tudor women and depression era mothers. So, I let that stand as strictly my opinion, and your own mileage may vary.

There are some moments with Apter's former partner Edward (our fictionalized stand in for Dr Watts) that are confusing and feel like they were an after thought.

What I did enjoy was there was just enough factual history entwined with the fiction to make it interesting. Dr. Apter did lobotomize 228 patients in 10 days, just as the real life Dr. Freeman did. Yes, lobotomy came to be used to treat not just the worst, most violent patients, but simple maladies such as migraines and postpartum depression. Yes, Rosemary Kennedy's lobotomy was a horrible failure. This is a wonderful book for getting your toes wet in an otherwise little explored era of medical history. If you have the patience for a quick read with some occasional googling to separate the fact from the poetic license, it's an interesting book with a different sort of premise.

This story follows Ruth a woman who has dedicated her life to helping the mentally I’ll after the loss of her brother to sucrose. Ruth runs a private mental hospital in New York that prides itself as being at the forefront of mental illness. This is where she meets Robert Apter a doctor who is obsessed with finding a way to cure mental illness through surgery. He starts working with Frank a neurologist on ways to do surgery to help those with violent psychotic episodes. Following the work of another doctor they develop the lobotomy procedure. This story follows as Ruth and Robert get married and the story of how the lobotomy went from a miracle cure to a nightmare. This story is largely based on facts of the person who created the lobotomy Walter Freeman.
I really enjoyed this book I am a sucker for historic fiction and this book gave me exactly what I wanted. While the story follows the general facts the romance and friendships that take place in this book really keep you entertained while learning a lot about how mental illness was perceived and treated in this timeframe. My only complaint was I wanted more from after the lobotomy was a standard practice , it felt like the first half the book dragged a little as Robert and Ruth met and married. It felt like the second half flew by and I really wanted more information on how the lobotomies effected the thousands who had them performed. I still really enjoyed this book and look forward to picking up more from this author in the future! I would also like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

This book was beautifully written. I love how it showed the problems that faced healthcare, especially towards mental health, in the 1930’s. Her journey to choose love or what’s right, when she starts to realize that the practice of lobotomies may not be helpful, is something that many people face, in different extremes.

An enthralling historical read! The Lobotomist’s Wife is a medical infused drama set on the backdrop of 1950s America. However, the style and formatting of the story is what made this book sing. Alternating timelines kept the book feeling insightful, rather than overly heavy. Focusing on Ruth’s past and present, while weaving in the backstories of patients, brought a layer of much needed humanity to the book. While I am highlighting the positive- sections of this story are clearly upsetting due to the subject matter. Proceed with caution.
For fans of all fiction but particularly historical fiction- I definitely recommend The Lobotomist’s Wife!

Carefully written, this book encompasses fact and fiction seamlessly. Ruth Emeraldine lost her young brother who was suffering from a mental illness. She embarks on a mission to help those suffering with mental illness. While working at a facility she meets Dr. Robert Apter. He pioneers the lobotomy, otherwise labeled the "ice pick lobotomy", in which he claims to be able to help people's mental conditions with a one hour outpatient procedure. Things become uncomfortable to Ruth as she begins a study a few years down the line to see if his procedure actually works.

Part 1 begins in 1933 and we land in Part 4 in 1953. I love how the story takes us through the journey of this experimental medical treatment. I have heard of it and thought I had an understanding of it but after reading this book it brought it to life for me. I became interested in hearing more about it the more I read. Ruth and Robert Apter are well created characters as well as the others in the story.

We have closure in the end although I will say that a small portion of the ending is subject to interpretation regarding the relationship between some of the characters. Wonderful story, well put together and enjoyable to read.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this book.