I’m catching up with some of my old FirstReads books and can’t believe I waited so long to read this! Absolutely haunting story of the amazing woman married to a man (based on the real life man who pioneered lobotomies!), her support and belief in him and his sometimes shady practices, and then her ultimate decision to turn against him when she recognizes him becoming reckless and ego-driven. Viewpoints are mostly Ruth’s, with some of Margaret - a young mother with the baby blues - and Robert, her husband.

Setting is in NYC in 1940s-1950s. Loved reading about what life was like back then.

Ruth’s development was fascinating to read and she is so kind, caring and compassionate, yet assertive and not afraid to stand up for what’s right. Robert, Edward and Margaret were well-written characters as well, their motives understandable. And I loved the ending!

4 stars because the middle dragged and I didn’t feel as close to Ruth as much as I wanted.

Overall a well done piece of historical fiction touching in a very dark time in medical history. ( )

I love first novels. They show the very great effort and leap of faith the author has gone through to make it over the publication hurdle the first time. This book is Woodruff’s first (though I imagine like all of us she has many more in her desk drawer), and she’s knocked it out of the park.
Based on the true story of a doctor who started the practice of lobotomy to ‘cure’ patients with desperate mental illness, this novel shows the folly of grandiosity, as the doctor in the picture becomes so enamoured with himself and his successes that things get quite out of control.
The main character is his wife, who runs a mental institution based on her love of the patients within. She is a strong, competent woman who nevertheless is held to be a failure by her parents who of course want her to marry and produce offspring. She has a deep sorrow from the loss of her brother through suicide that drives her, relentlessly. This makes her easy pickings for what is surely a sociopath.
Some of the dialogue is a bit less than effective, and the “strong woman bucking societal trends” trope is a bit familiar, but the topic in this case is quite interesting and the denouement is suspenseful enough to make the reader race through to the end.
Well done and I hope to read more by this author! ( )

In the early 1930s, Ruth Emeraldine is working at NY Hospital for the Insane, now Emeraldine after her father made a large endowment. Ruth has devoted her life to helping the patients, after her brother, Harry succumbed to his mental illness. When she meets Dr. Robert Apter, she is intrigued, and she believes that he shares her philosophy to help the mentally ill via new procedures. Apter "perfects" the lobotomy. He performs hundreds of them.
Meanwhile, Margaret, suffering from postpartum depression seeks his help. But Ruth becomes suspect of the success of lobotomies. Is she too late to save Margaret, her marriage, the hospital?
This is the story of a person's drive to succeed at any cost, contrasted with the compassion and patience of others. Interesting, but I felt that at times, the book was too bogged down with some things and didn't go deeply enough into other. Just OK. ( )

Book with interesting topic of lobotomy, a treatment performed on patients with mental health conditions.

Ruth Apter understands the crisis of mental health problems. Her brother lost his life fighting depression after his return from war. Now she can help patients in her hospital where together with her husband, they are determined to find a cure for insanity. Robert Apter, a successful doctor, spends every moment on new treatment he calls the miracle cure. He is proud of his success and the number of lobotomies he can perform in a short amount of time. Until it all goes wrong. The statistics at the hospital show concerns and Ruth will do everything to make it right.

The topic of lobotomy may be very disturbing especially the way it was performed at that time. I didn’t know what to expect from this book. It made me angry when patients, who were so hopeful, got even worse after this reckless procedure of the doctor whose success was more important than patient’s well being. But on the bright site, I loved and admired Ruth, who put her heart to make a difference in those people’s lives.
I really liked this book and I’m glad I finally decided to read it. It surprises me that it’s a debut novel. It’s interesting, grabbing reader’s attention, provoking and emotional. You’ll like it. ( )

Samantha Greene has delivered a gripping suspenseful thriller! It really is shocking just knowing the kinds of things that went on back then but to actually read about it makes it even more shocking! But having Could you imagine being in a position thinking you are saving peoples lives only to realize that you have been doing the opposite? Would you be able to stand up and say something? We don’t live in that era anymore but I would hope that I would be able to! I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! From the first to the last page I was hooked! ( )

I first learned about lobotomy in a college psych class and what little I knew was expanded by the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. So my understanding of the why's and how's was limited but I learned all I needed to know in this book. Developed in 1935, it was the primary method of help for psychiatric patients until it fell out of favor in the early 50's due to the side effects of the procedure but was still being done on a limited basis until the late 60s.

Ruth, a daughter of wealth and privilege had one major goal in her life. After losing her brother to suicide, she wanted to do whatever was possible to help people suffering from mental illness. She worked at a psychiatric hospital that her father had built and was very kind and caring to the patients. But she knew in her heart that there must be some way to make them better able to handle life. She was interviewing doctors to work at the hospital and was impressed with Robert Apter. He was a brilliant doctor who believed that he had developed a new procedure to help mentally ill patients. The world believed his procedure was a miracle and it was performed all over the world. Robert perfected it to the point that he would use an ice pick and go into a person's brain to sever part of it. He was proud of the fact that he could do so many procedures in the same day. It's estimated that more than 50,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States, most between 1949 and 1952. Robert was so proud of his procedure that he traveled all over the country training other doctors and performing many procedures himself - some not even in hospital settings but using his office space. Ruth was so impressed with Robert that they got married but as Ruth began to learn about the side effects of the procedure, she realized that it wasn't the perfect procedure that her husband had been lecturing about and many of the side effects made the people mentally worse than they had been before they had it. Ruth had to decide whether to stay true to her marriage or report the real results to the proper medical authorities and hopefully put a stop to lobotomies.

The author did considerable research in this, her debut novel, and the information that she presented was accurate based on reading that I've done since I read this book. She says in the afterword that most of her characters, except for Ruth were based on real people and their medical procedures. With all of the medical information, this book could have been very boring and filled with medical jargon. I found it just the opposite. Because I was invested in Ruth and her attitude toward the mentally ill, I found it to be a very interesting and readable story. ( )

The Lobotomist’s Wife is historical fiction of a totally different kind than I usually read and in this case it was good. The book is not always easy to get through – after all they are discussing a truly barbaric procedure, but like many medical options presented to people who were desperate to “cure” their family members, something was better than nothing.

Issues of anxiety, post partum depression, schizophrenia and more were not understood at the time and the families of people suffering from these conditions did not know what to do to help. When presented with an option….they took it not knowing the full ramifications.

The book takes you through the journey on the side of the people who were working to try and “cure” the patients in a home for people with all manner of problems. I am not one to differentiate between mental diagnoses but just reading about the treatments for these poor souls was harrowing.

The book was not all medical treatments. There is also a story of people committed to trying to help the ones in their care. With a bit of hubris along for the ride as the promotion of the lobotomy as a cure all does start to rule.

What you have in this novel is a riveting read about a period in medical history that is truly regrettable. It is brought to life through the characters based around the real man who performed so many lobotomies on patients. It was really hard to put down. ( )

The causes of mental illness varies from person and treated correctly change an individual's life. In the last century, A so call cure was to perform a lobotomy on mentally ill individual's brain. After watching One Flew Over The Cuku Nest, your heart would break.for the patient who was forced to have this procedure.

This book has been well.researched and makes the reader stop.and think how dangerous medical.procedures can be with a system of checks and balances. The story's protagonist, Ruth finds it necessary to stop a doctor out of control from harming patients under his care.

What would you be willing to do to cure your mental illness?

At a time in history when people tended to trust and believe doctors without explanation, mental illness was new and emerging. Therefore, families of those who "didn't act right" were quick to jump at the opportunity to "fix" their loved ones, even when the stakes were high and the treatment seemed rather dangerous. Blindly following Dr. Apter's lead seems like the only option.

Labeled a spinster, Ruth Emeraldine has spent her time as an administrator of a mental institution rather than finding love. When a cocky new physician interviews in her office, he is charming and well spoken. Not only does he get the job at Emeraldine Hospital, he wins the heart of Ruth.

Thanks to their shared interest of treating mental illness, they spend their time learning all they can and bringing it back to their patients. But this new treatment called lobotomy? It seems promising. And as the data from their first procedures begins to be collected, things are promising.

Alas, Jesus take the wheel. Dr. Apter's pride gets in the way of safety as he finds a "better" way to perform a lobotomy and it might not be the best way. Will Ruth trust her gut and turn a blind eye or advocate for the patients she so dearly loves?

This audiobook kept me entertained from the first chapter. The narrator was clear and easy to understand, even at faster speeds. The author really painted a picture for me and I felt compassion for the patients as well as Ruth. Honestly, Ruth would have made a brilliant nurse in my opinion. One thing I did love was that the author was able to describe what was being done in a way that was not filled with gore or that would be disturbing to non-medical people.

This book is perfect for anyone who enjoys medical fiction or historical fiction. And I absolutely recommend the audiobook for those that enjoy listening.



Thank you Brilliance Audio for this copy and allowing me to give my honest opinion. ( )

Ruth has always been a strong woman and an advocate for the mentally ill since her brother committed suicide.

When she met Dr. Robert Apter, she thought he had a procedure that could help those with mental illnesses.

Ruth fell in love with Dr. Apter, they married, and worked together. Ruth was onboard until she realized the new treatment - a lobotomy - was harming more patients than helping them.

We learn of what Ruth does in the hospital, and we also meet Margaret who is having post-baby blues. Dr. Apter feels Margaret's only hope would be to have a lobotomy. Ruth was adamant a lobotomy couldn't help Margaret after seeing some of the awful mistakes including death that happened with the procedure.

THE LOBOTOMIST’S WIFE brings to light the extreme treatments that were used in the early 1930’s for treating the mentally ill. Some of the things that were done were shocking, and the lobotomy got out of hand with Dr. Apter's ego getting in the way.

This book was interesting, well researched, intense, and based on real people and events.

If you are a fan of medical treatments and historical fiction, you should enjoy this book. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. ( )

This was a very fascinating read into the craze of the lobotomy, based on the true story of the doctor who lost sight of lobotomy in the medical field and became erratic with numbers and documentation, almost as a test to see how many he could preform on a daily occurrence- whether it may have been warranted or not.

This story is told from Ruth, who comes from a well to-do family who has made strides in caring for those who have mental instability. Having seen her brothers downfall, Ruth has made it her mission to try to understand mental illness and to work on saving others in the most humane way as possible. Having never been one to care about a partner, she falls for and marries Doctor Robert Apter, someone her parents can be proud of as well.

The two have similar goals in wanting to help others but it doesn’t take long for Dr. Apter to lose sight of why he originally got into the medical field and that the new radical treatment he has been preforming in record numbers, may not be working as first thought. The after affects and complications that come from these procedures has potentially harmed these people worse than before. Lobotomies may have been a quick fix for the issue, but not a long term and often these patients developed other medical issues later on.

This story follows Dr. Apter on his quest to prove that lobotomies are the way of the future, are the answer to anything and everything – a cure all and a wife whose devotion to the hospital and belief in her husband has blinded her to the after results of these procedures. Out to right a wrong, Ruth gathers what she can to try and prove that this is not the way of the future and that these need to be stopped immediately, and that includes stopping her husband.

This was such a well written novel, I flew right through it. I have read a few memoirs about lobotomies but never knew about the doctor who helped to pioneer and then preform hundreds of these all over the US, and sometimes hundreds in a day. Such a fascinating piece of medical history. I will be watching for more historical works by Samantha.

Thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours for the invite, I loved this one! Thank you to Lake Union Publishing and the author Samantha Greene Woodruff for the free novel. I will be keeping this one on my shelves. ( )

This was my Amazon First Reads choice for January 2022.

1.5/5 stars

I was so excited to read this book, as lobotomies and the history behind them has always been morbidly fascinating to me. Unfortunately, I found that the execution of this story didn't live up to the hype I'd built in my head.

The writing is incredibly predictable, and not in the way that feels like a favorite sweater on a cold day. The characters are archetypes we've seen before; none of their dialogue sounds the way people would actually speak, and paired with the plot you'll see coming a mile away, everything just falls flat. Even the descriptions seem contrived and forced - I was concerned from the very beginning with the clunky way the author handled the physical appearance of the female characters.

I've given this an extra half-star because the history was clearly well-researched, and I was intrigued enough to continue reading, if only in the hopes that maybe things wouldn't turn out the way they did. I would not recommend this book to those already familiar with the story behind lobotomies, nor to those looking for new and exciting historical fiction. ( )

For a period of time, lobotomy was the go-to treatment for psychiatry. It involved disabling the frontal lobes of the brain with the hopes of averting psychiatric symptoms. If “disabling the frontal lobes of the brain” sounds scary to you, it is to me, too. Over time, bad outcomes were chronicled, and lobotomy was eventually relegated to the historical record (much like other equally scary psychological treatments). However, in this book, Greene Woodruff brings frighteningly real history to life – entertaining and educating along the way.

The main character Dr. Robert Apter is loosely based on the historical figure of Walter Freeman II. Robert pioneered this treatment which first seemed markedly helpful to patients. His wife Ruth bonded with him over hope for this treatment. However, over time, Robert’s ambition seemed to overtake him, and both Robert and Ruth became blinded to harmful effects. In this novel, these tensions resolve in an intriguing manner.

Obviously, this book deals with the topic of medical and psychological ethics. It is staged in the early twentieth century, before the development of psychiatric drugs. (Of course, over-medicating patients might be seen as a new lobotomy, too.) Dealing with psychological pain is and will remain a central part of the human experience; Greene Woodruff shows us that it should be dealt with through empathy, not ambition. The author, herself a daughter of two therapists, brings this character trait and motif to life in an all-too-real narrative.

Those involved in psychological and psychiatric care – whether clinicians or patients – can benefit from thinking through Greene Woodruff’s storytelling. For some reason, stigma around mental health remains a part of modern society, and seeing the historical record frankly might demystify some of these concepts. Further, it can remind all those involved in healthcare that critical reflection over the “good” done by one’s work is always needed. Ambition should never triumph over empathy and reason. I’m grateful that this theme engaged my mind as I engaged with this suspenseful and interesting book. ( )