The Girl Puzzle by Kate Braithwaite is the story of
Nellie Bly, the journalist who broke through the male dominated field with her
expose of Blackwell’s Island in 1887. Told between two timelines, 1919-1922
told though the eyes of her secretary, Beatrice Alexander, as Nellie is nearing
the end of her life, and through Nellie’s eyes with the events up to her stay
at the asylum, her experience while there and the events which occurred after. Born
Elizabeth Jane Cochran in 1864, Miss Bly was a puzzle to those who knew her. She
was a woman of many secrets and rarely allowed anyone to truly know the inner
workings of her mind, motivations and desires. She died on January 27, 1922 at
the age of 57. As her published story is well known but, did she tell the whole
truth about her times at the asylum? What happened to the women she encountered
there?
I had heard of Nellie Bly before. Her name was mentioned in
a Smallville (2001-2011) episode (“Gone” season 4, episode 2), as the hero of
Chloe Sullivan as she was a pioneering female journalist. Unfortunately, I knew
very little of her and her accomplishments. When The Girl Puzzle was
suggested to me, I took the chance to find out more about her. She was
certainly an enigma as many would describe her “useful in a crisis but remote
and always moving on.” Miss Bly was a woman shaped, better or worse, by her
childhood and home situation growing up. She was an advocate for foster
children and made it her mission to find good and stable homes for them. She
had gumption to not be put into a stereotypical place of what women could write
about and report on. From this story, I am interested in reading more about
Nellie Bly. I recommend The Girl Puzzle.
The Girl Puzzle
is available in
paperback, eBook, and audiobook
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