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Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America
For readers of Hidden Valley Road and Patient H.M., an “intimate and compassionate portrait” (Grace M. Cho) of the Genain quadruplets, the harrowing violence they experienced, and its psychological and political consequences.
In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution.
The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Contrary to fawning media portrayals of a picture-perfect Christian family, the sisters had endured the stuff of nightmares. Behind closed doors, their parents had taken shocking measures to preserve their innocence while sowing fears of sex and the outside world. In public, the quadruplets were treated as communal property, as townsfolk and members of the press had long ago projected their own paranoid fantasies about the rapidly diversifying American landscape onto the fair-skinned, ribbon-wearing quartet who danced and sang about Christopher Columbus. Even as the sisters’ erratic behaviors became impossible to ignore and the NIMH whisked the women off for study, their sterling image did not falter.
Girls and Their Monsters chronicles the extraordinary lives of the quadruplets and the lead psychologist who studied them, asking questions that speak directly to our How do delusions come to take root, both in individuals and in nations? Why does society profess to be “saving the children” when it readily exploits them? What are the authoritarian ends of innocence myths? And how do people, particularly those with serious mental illness, go on after enduring the unspeakable? Can the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood help the deeply wounded heal?
In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia. When they got word that four 24-year-old identical quadruplets in Lansing, Michigan, had all been diagnosed with the mental illness, they could hardly believe their ears. Here was incontrovertible proof of hereditary transmission and, thus, a chance to bring international fame to their fledgling institution.
The case of the pseudonymous Genain quadruplets, they soon found, was hardly so straightforward. Contrary to fawning media portrayals of a picture-perfect Christian family, the sisters had endured the stuff of nightmares. Behind closed doors, their parents had taken shocking measures to preserve their innocence while sowing fears of sex and the outside world. In public, the quadruplets were treated as communal property, as townsfolk and members of the press had long ago projected their own paranoid fantasies about the rapidly diversifying American landscape onto the fair-skinned, ribbon-wearing quartet who danced and sang about Christopher Columbus. Even as the sisters’ erratic behaviors became impossible to ignore and the NIMH whisked the women off for study, their sterling image did not falter.
Girls and Their Monsters chronicles the extraordinary lives of the quadruplets and the lead psychologist who studied them, asking questions that speak directly to our How do delusions come to take root, both in individuals and in nations? Why does society profess to be “saving the children” when it readily exploits them? What are the authoritarian ends of innocence myths? And how do people, particularly those with serious mental illness, go on after enduring the unspeakable? Can the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood help the deeply wounded heal?
305 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 13, 2023
248 people are currently reading
9633 people want to read
About the author
Audrey Clare Farley
2 books125 followersAudrey Clare Farley is a scholar of twentieth-century American culture. She earned a PhD in English literature from University of Maryland, College Park, and now teaches at Mount St. Mary's University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post, New Republic, and many other outlets. She lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
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June 16, 2023Update What I'm getting from this book is a clear picture of the 40s and 50s. The racism, extreme against Blacks, but also Jews and Italians. And the Germans who had emigrated to the US but were fully inline with Hitler thinking themselves superior to the Americans. The excusing of this racism, of terribly school bullying of girls, and of family abuse - sexual and physical, the telling women when they are molested up to and including attempted rape, well that's how it is, a girl has to expect that sometimes.
And the worst of all, a racist, Nazi sympathiser who molests his daughters, has a clitoradectomy done on two of them, may well have been involved in a murder, a policeman praised in the local paper as the fine upstanding father of the Genain quads, all driven to madness by this man. (But it's the 50s, it's the mother's fault).
__________
We've come a long way baby! This is the 1930s, Shirley Temple is at the height of her fame when D.W. Griffith, the famous director of Birth of a Nation, "wrote to Temple's producer in response to her dancing with a Black man in The Little Colonel "There is nothing, absolutely nothing, calculated to raise the goose-flesh n the back of an audience more than that of a white girl in relation to Negroes."
If you haven't seen Birth of a Nation, Dick Lehr wrote,
The book is interesting. The quadruplets had a bad start in life. The father, a brutal, repeatedly unfaithful alcoholic and his German mother who worshipped all things German (yes I'm thinking that too) and despised other nations, but lived in the US, didn't want the children. The mother, Sadie did her best but was limited by lack of good help and her husband who was jealous, possessive and often abusive towards his daughters as much as his wife. Except for one, he loved one of them.
I'm enjoying this book, updates to come. Maybe.
And the worst of all, a racist, Nazi sympathiser who molests his daughters, has a clitoradectomy done on two of them, may well have been involved in a murder, a policeman praised in the local paper as the fine upstanding father of the Genain quads, all driven to madness by this man. (But it's the 50s, it's the mother's fault).
__________
We've come a long way baby! This is the 1930s, Shirley Temple is at the height of her fame when D.W. Griffith, the famous director of Birth of a Nation, "wrote to Temple's producer in response to her dancing with a Black man in The Little Colonel "There is nothing, absolutely nothing, calculated to raise the goose-flesh n the back of an audience more than that of a white girl in relation to Negroes."
If you haven't seen Birth of a Nation, Dick Lehr wrote,
The Birth of a Nation is three hours of racist propaganda — starting with the Civil War and ending with the Ku Klux Klan riding in to save the South from black rule during the Reconstruction era.The attitude of the times towards sexuality was equally appalling,
Griffith portrayed the emancipated slaves as heathens, as unworthy of being free, as uncivilized, as primarily concerned with passing laws so they could marry white women and prey on them.
Drawing upon Freudian notions that sexual development began in infanthood, public officials reasoned that aged, senile individuals often resorted to an earlier stage of development, finding themselves attracted to childrn and no more able to control their impulses than those they lusted over.Michigan, where the quadruplets lived was the first of 26 states to pass such laws. J. Edgar Hoover, first director of the FBI called for a "War on Sex Criminals" so dedicated was he "to the scourge of degenerates".
In the case of homosexuals, the problem was that normal development had not occured, often because men had lacked a conventional father-figure with whom to identify or had been subjected to a smothering mother. Never learning healthy masculinity, these individuals too, related to and abused the young.
Sexual psychopath laws offered a solution. These authorized law enforcement to arrest questionable persons and surrender them to asylums until psychiatrists deemed them safe, in some cases by castrating them.
The book is interesting. The quadruplets had a bad start in life. The father, a brutal, repeatedly unfaithful alcoholic and his German mother who worshipped all things German (yes I'm thinking that too) and despised other nations, but lived in the US, didn't want the children. The mother, Sadie did her best but was limited by lack of good help and her husband who was jealous, possessive and often abusive towards his daughters as much as his wife. Except for one, he loved one of them.
I'm enjoying this book, updates to come. Maybe.
June 12, 2024
I don’t like books with agenda, especially when I was expecting a book about mentally ill quadruplets. A certain amount of the history of mental health is always helpful, for those who aren’t familiar with the history of psychiatry/psychology. Even when I agree with the writer’s point of view of the agenda, I prefer an unbiased view. I care about racism, sexism and antisemitism and while they historically have impacted diagnoses and treatment, the quads were white children, so repeated reminders of how racist the USA was/is didn’t factor into the the girls’/women’s history. If Audrey Clare Farley wanted to write a book about the history of race and mental health, I’d be interested. Don’t bait and switch me about quadruplets in the blurb.
I enjoyed the parts about the quadruplets, though toward the later parts of the book GIRLS AND THEIR MONSTERS was low on info, high on speculation and filled with extraneous history.
Farley didn’t seem to have a full grasp on schizophrenia and its etiology. I doubt she spoke with many sufferers. Based on GIRLS AND THEIR MONSTERS, I’m not certain the diagnoses were accurate for all of the girls based on 2023 understanding of the disorder.
I don’t recommend.
I enjoyed the parts about the quadruplets, though toward the later parts of the book GIRLS AND THEIR MONSTERS was low on info, high on speculation and filled with extraneous history.
Farley didn’t seem to have a full grasp on schizophrenia and its etiology. I doubt she spoke with many sufferers. Based on GIRLS AND THEIR MONSTERS, I’m not certain the diagnoses were accurate for all of the girls based on 2023 understanding of the disorder.
I don’t recommend.
February 17, 2023
I picked this up initially because I am a mother of identical twins and old timey twin lore is facinating to me. People not long ago used to assume you were cheating or part animal, or even evil, if you had multiples. The lore is also racist.
It was, and still is, bizarre. Plus twins still get a ton of attention. I made it a point to raise mine like little individuals but when two people have the same face society is curious.
This book was that and so much more. It was a detailed history of mental illness, racism, and public policy I didn't realize I needed to read until I started.
I also have a brother who is schizophrenic so that aspect was fascinating to me. We still don't know what causes it but three direct relatives in my family suffer from the disorder. However, two of them suffered head injuries and abuse.
I can't praise this book enough. The unbelievable amount of research the author did is so impressive. We have access to all the angles.
This is likely one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read!
It was, and still is, bizarre. Plus twins still get a ton of attention. I made it a point to raise mine like little individuals but when two people have the same face society is curious.
This book was that and so much more. It was a detailed history of mental illness, racism, and public policy I didn't realize I needed to read until I started.
I also have a brother who is schizophrenic so that aspect was fascinating to me. We still don't know what causes it but three direct relatives in my family suffer from the disorder. However, two of them suffered head injuries and abuse.
I can't praise this book enough. The unbelievable amount of research the author did is so impressive. We have access to all the angles.
This is likely one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read!
July 29, 2023
Drawing on publications, newspaper articles, personal papers, medical records and interviews, Audrey Clare Farley exposes the tragic lives of the Morlok sisters in the context of the era’s cultural and social milieu in Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America.
Girls and Their Monsters tells the story of the pseudonymous ‘Genain’ quadruplets, Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen, born in 1930 in midwestern USA to working class couple, Sadie and Carl Morlok. Named by way of a public competition, housed for free by city officials, and displayed in the front window of their home for crowds eager to marvel at their identical features, the girls became local celebrities. As they grew, the quadruplets continued to attract public attention, becoming regulars on the talent show circuit, and the subject of numerous newspaper features and articles.
Photographs show four blonde haired, blue eyed, demure little girls, and later teens, dressed alike, beaming for the camera, the picture of health and innocence, but behind closed doors, the girls were subject to horrifying abuse. Carl was a violent, misogynistic, drunkard who terrorised both his wife and the girls, while Sadie, unprepared for the challenges of mothering and desperate to maintain appearances, did little to protect them. Denied individualism and personal agency, Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen, were treated as if living dolls, controlled, exploited and violated by both family and strangers alike.
Society by and large were complicit in their abuse, demanding a performance, ignoring the obvious signs of dysfunction, eager to blame any ills on anything except their own behaviour, all while maintaining an egregious double standard. Farley highlights how the socio-political norms of the time permitted the trauma, exploring the contributions of issues such as sexism, racism, political will, economics and religion.
By the time the sisters were 24, all four girls had been labeled as schizophrenic, and became subjects of study at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health. Psychologists, like lead researcher David Rosenthal, were thrilled with the opportunity to prove a heredity link, but given the reality of the girls lives, it seems obvious the line between nature (genetics) and nurture (environment) in this case cannot be distinctly drawn. Farley examines the flaws in Rosenthal’s study, and, within the context of the history of mental health diagnosis, the field’s vulnerability to political and cultural influence.
I found the writing to be a little dense at times, particularly in the latter half, and the tone overall quite dry, but still I found the book to be fascinating as a whole. The story of Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen Morlok is heartbreaking, and Farley makes some insightful connections between their experience and society that provide context I’d not really considered.
Girls and Their Monsters tells the story of the pseudonymous ‘Genain’ quadruplets, Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen, born in 1930 in midwestern USA to working class couple, Sadie and Carl Morlok. Named by way of a public competition, housed for free by city officials, and displayed in the front window of their home for crowds eager to marvel at their identical features, the girls became local celebrities. As they grew, the quadruplets continued to attract public attention, becoming regulars on the talent show circuit, and the subject of numerous newspaper features and articles.
Photographs show four blonde haired, blue eyed, demure little girls, and later teens, dressed alike, beaming for the camera, the picture of health and innocence, but behind closed doors, the girls were subject to horrifying abuse. Carl was a violent, misogynistic, drunkard who terrorised both his wife and the girls, while Sadie, unprepared for the challenges of mothering and desperate to maintain appearances, did little to protect them. Denied individualism and personal agency, Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen, were treated as if living dolls, controlled, exploited and violated by both family and strangers alike.
Society by and large were complicit in their abuse, demanding a performance, ignoring the obvious signs of dysfunction, eager to blame any ills on anything except their own behaviour, all while maintaining an egregious double standard. Farley highlights how the socio-political norms of the time permitted the trauma, exploring the contributions of issues such as sexism, racism, political will, economics and religion.
By the time the sisters were 24, all four girls had been labeled as schizophrenic, and became subjects of study at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health. Psychologists, like lead researcher David Rosenthal, were thrilled with the opportunity to prove a heredity link, but given the reality of the girls lives, it seems obvious the line between nature (genetics) and nurture (environment) in this case cannot be distinctly drawn. Farley examines the flaws in Rosenthal’s study, and, within the context of the history of mental health diagnosis, the field’s vulnerability to political and cultural influence.
I found the writing to be a little dense at times, particularly in the latter half, and the tone overall quite dry, but still I found the book to be fascinating as a whole. The story of Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen Morlok is heartbreaking, and Farley makes some insightful connections between their experience and society that provide context I’d not really considered.
November 19, 2024
I received a copy of this book by asking nicely on twitter, and I was so excited to read it when I got it. I was instantly rapt. This is the fascinating story of identical quadruplets who all developed schizophrenia. It examines their (somewhat horrifying) early life, the research they underwent at NIHM, and what happened next. It also delves into the still unsettled nature/nurture debate, which is also about medications vs psychotherapy. As someone who has been in hospitals and on medications and given electroshock therapy, I found this really interesting and relevant even to me, not a schizophrenic quadruplet. The book was propulsive, highly readable, and full of invaluable tidbits. If you’re at all interested in science, multiples, mental illness, or just interesting nonfiction generally, I highly recommend pre-ordering!
October 11, 2023
I often find that books which are supposed to be deep cuts really aren't, this one was a refreshing exception on that front. I had no familiarity with the case of the Genain quadruplets before picking up this book and I feel like I've received far more than I could have hoped for.
The part about madness in America I wasn't entirely sold on however, while I found the argument timely and important (a lot of it is applicable outside of America) it also felt almost tacked on as an afterthought more than something that was an integral part of the book.
The part about madness in America I wasn't entirely sold on however, while I found the argument timely and important (a lot of it is applicable outside of America) it also felt almost tacked on as an afterthought more than something that was an integral part of the book.
December 4, 2023
DNF on pg. 29.
Poor writing with an obvious agenda.
This sentence was the one that did it for me:
“America’s fascination with cute little girls ran deep in the 1930s, as if the nation couldn’t even wait for the future mothers of the race to grow up before it put them to use”.
What the heck is that suppose to mean? Axe grinding on every page.
Poor writing with an obvious agenda.
This sentence was the one that did it for me:
“America’s fascination with cute little girls ran deep in the 1930s, as if the nation couldn’t even wait for the future mothers of the race to grow up before it put them to use”.
What the heck is that suppose to mean? Axe grinding on every page.
July 19, 2023
i thought i was going to give this book 5 stars but the last two to three chapters felt a bit hard to get through, as the focus shifted away from the sisters.
December 8, 2025
4.5 Stars ⭐
December 14, 2023
Ok, I'm done.
I've been trying to read this book for over a week. It's not going to happen.
At times it has seemed like this author was trying to dumb down the subject matter. Then, surprisingly, it became all big words and discussion of complex subject matter with no explanation. I'm not a fan of either method of relating to your audience... there's an in-between there that this author seems to have missed entirely.
So I give up. At 75%. I just can't do it anymore.
Maybe I'll try again, but probably not. This could have been a fascinating book, but it thoroughly missed the mark for me.
I've been trying to read this book for over a week. It's not going to happen.
At times it has seemed like this author was trying to dumb down the subject matter. Then, surprisingly, it became all big words and discussion of complex subject matter with no explanation. I'm not a fan of either method of relating to your audience... there's an in-between there that this author seems to have missed entirely.
So I give up. At 75%. I just can't do it anymore.
Maybe I'll try again, but probably not. This could have been a fascinating book, but it thoroughly missed the mark for me.
June 3, 2023
This was a giveaway promoted by the publisher. My opinions are my own. I have mixed feelings about this work. At times it was very riveting when actually covering the quadruplets, extended families and the research. While other aspects of the book were important historically to the changes in mental health treatment, child discipline, etc., it made for some dry reading.
June 13, 2023
I had to take a break about a third into Farley's Girls and Their Monsters. The atmosphere of the novel, the pain and sadness Farley was uncovering, it all became a little too much. Or perhaps it got a little too close to home, because they way Farley unravels how society played a role in the mental health and lives of the Genain quadruplets was painful to witness. But I got back to it quickly, because Farley has once again written a fascinating non-fiction deep-dive that is at once utterly human and chockful of relevant information and insight. Thanks to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I was astounded by Audrey Clare Farley's The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt when I read it in 2021. The way she was able to both guide the reader through Ann Cooper Hewitt's tragic life and through all the social issues that affected it felt like a masterclass on how to write accessible and thorough non-fiction. So when I saw that she had another book coming out, I of course wanted to read it. I had no idea how Girls and Their Monsters would affect me, however. As I wrote above, I had to take a little break from it at some point. I was kind of losing grip on my anxiety and realised that the book was becoming a little too real for me. The way Farley traces how society played a significant role, alongside genetics, in the mental decline of the four Genain sisters, made me realise how my own surroundings were also affecting me. Once I got a grip on myself again, I returned to the book with a new appreciation and was once again amazed at what Farley accomplished. She traces the role of eugenics in 20th-century America, how religion, gendered and racial stereotypes all played a part. While these are things one knows theoretically, it is a whole new thing to see it laid out the way it is in this Girls and Their Monsters. We are shaped by our society in a way we often do not even recognise. Another aspect which Farley traces in the mental health industry, and how it moved from looking for causes in family surroundings, usually the mother, to looking for genetic causes only. While there are still no definite answers on what, exactly, causes illnesses like schizophrenia, Farley lays out a convincing case for how both nature and nurture play their role.
Girls and Their Monsters tells the story of the Genain quadruplets, Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen. Born in the mid 1920s, they were a sensation from birth and became something of celebrities in their home town. Growing up, they belonged to the town as much as to their parents and they were constantly looked at and presented. At home, they were also considered a unit, rather than four separate girls, by their mother and their access to the outside world was severely curtailed by their strict father. The book starts in 1954 when scientists from the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) visit them, with the hope to be able to study them. All four girls have, in one way or another, been diagnosed with schizophrenia, even if their parents and town still project the idea of them as four good, clean girls. From this point, Girls and Their Monsters investigates the girls' childhoods, their parents' history, the lives of the scientisits involved with their case, and the rising awareness and stigmatisation of mental health in America during the last 100-odd years. It is an incredibly comprehensive book, which touches on the widespread obsession with eugenics in 20th century America, the role of the Christian Right in the stigmatisation of mental health and schooling, the role of race is mental health diagnosis, and more. At the heart of Girls and Their Monsters, however, are always the four sisters and their struggles towards individual, fully realized lives.
As with The Unfit Heiress, I am amazed at the amount of information Farley is able to compile and make orderly and understandable, without loosing focus of the humans at the heart of Girls and Their Monsters. All four sisters come through strongly as individuals, something which was denied them for so long. Farley clearly has a lot of sympathy and understanding for them, and extends this, as far as she can, to those around them who may have contributed to their mental decline. In laying out the various social influences to which the sisters were exposed, Farley creates a comprehensive portrait of how mental health balances on the fragile line between nature and nurture. While the Genain sisters are at the core of the book, Farley also dedicates a significant amount of time to the primary psychologist who brought them to NIMH, Dr. Rosenwein, and through him explores the developments in psychology and psychotherapy. Another element she draws out is the racialised aspect of mental health, in part through the story of Louise Little. Like the Genain sisters, she lives in Lansing, Michigan. The Little family suffered through racial violence and after a nervous breakdown, Louise was confined to a mental health hospital for almost three decades. Her son was Malcolm X. Her story is in stark contrast to that of the Genain sisters and her inclusion in this book enables Farley to expand it beyond a tragic story and into an indictment of society. It is hard to encapsulate either the book or Farley's skill at writing it, so all I can do is wholeheartedly recommend it. It is necessary reading, in my opinion.
Girls and Their Monsters blew me away almost from the beginning. Farley has a captivating and personal writing style which flows seamlessly between human insight and social critique. Farley has become an instant-buy for me with this book and I can't wait to see what else she writes.
Will update with links on publication day!
URL https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
I was astounded by Audrey Clare Farley's The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt when I read it in 2021. The way she was able to both guide the reader through Ann Cooper Hewitt's tragic life and through all the social issues that affected it felt like a masterclass on how to write accessible and thorough non-fiction. So when I saw that she had another book coming out, I of course wanted to read it. I had no idea how Girls and Their Monsters would affect me, however. As I wrote above, I had to take a little break from it at some point. I was kind of losing grip on my anxiety and realised that the book was becoming a little too real for me. The way Farley traces how society played a significant role, alongside genetics, in the mental decline of the four Genain sisters, made me realise how my own surroundings were also affecting me. Once I got a grip on myself again, I returned to the book with a new appreciation and was once again amazed at what Farley accomplished. She traces the role of eugenics in 20th-century America, how religion, gendered and racial stereotypes all played a part. While these are things one knows theoretically, it is a whole new thing to see it laid out the way it is in this Girls and Their Monsters. We are shaped by our society in a way we often do not even recognise. Another aspect which Farley traces in the mental health industry, and how it moved from looking for causes in family surroundings, usually the mother, to looking for genetic causes only. While there are still no definite answers on what, exactly, causes illnesses like schizophrenia, Farley lays out a convincing case for how both nature and nurture play their role.
Girls and Their Monsters tells the story of the Genain quadruplets, Edna, Sarah, Wilma, and Helen. Born in the mid 1920s, they were a sensation from birth and became something of celebrities in their home town. Growing up, they belonged to the town as much as to their parents and they were constantly looked at and presented. At home, they were also considered a unit, rather than four separate girls, by their mother and their access to the outside world was severely curtailed by their strict father. The book starts in 1954 when scientists from the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) visit them, with the hope to be able to study them. All four girls have, in one way or another, been diagnosed with schizophrenia, even if their parents and town still project the idea of them as four good, clean girls. From this point, Girls and Their Monsters investigates the girls' childhoods, their parents' history, the lives of the scientisits involved with their case, and the rising awareness and stigmatisation of mental health in America during the last 100-odd years. It is an incredibly comprehensive book, which touches on the widespread obsession with eugenics in 20th century America, the role of the Christian Right in the stigmatisation of mental health and schooling, the role of race is mental health diagnosis, and more. At the heart of Girls and Their Monsters, however, are always the four sisters and their struggles towards individual, fully realized lives.
As with The Unfit Heiress, I am amazed at the amount of information Farley is able to compile and make orderly and understandable, without loosing focus of the humans at the heart of Girls and Their Monsters. All four sisters come through strongly as individuals, something which was denied them for so long. Farley clearly has a lot of sympathy and understanding for them, and extends this, as far as she can, to those around them who may have contributed to their mental decline. In laying out the various social influences to which the sisters were exposed, Farley creates a comprehensive portrait of how mental health balances on the fragile line between nature and nurture. While the Genain sisters are at the core of the book, Farley also dedicates a significant amount of time to the primary psychologist who brought them to NIMH, Dr. Rosenwein, and through him explores the developments in psychology and psychotherapy. Another element she draws out is the racialised aspect of mental health, in part through the story of Louise Little. Like the Genain sisters, she lives in Lansing, Michigan. The Little family suffered through racial violence and after a nervous breakdown, Louise was confined to a mental health hospital for almost three decades. Her son was Malcolm X. Her story is in stark contrast to that of the Genain sisters and her inclusion in this book enables Farley to expand it beyond a tragic story and into an indictment of society. It is hard to encapsulate either the book or Farley's skill at writing it, so all I can do is wholeheartedly recommend it. It is necessary reading, in my opinion.
Girls and Their Monsters blew me away almost from the beginning. Farley has a captivating and personal writing style which flows seamlessly between human insight and social critique. Farley has become an instant-buy for me with this book and I can't wait to see what else she writes.
Will update with links on publication day!
URL https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
September 5, 2023
This is no "Hidden Valley Road." To be sure, the story of the quads, their horrific childhood and efforts to study and treat them is fascinating. The odd insistence on telling it through the lenses of racism and anti-Semitism? Not so much.
June 22, 2024
All good things must come to an end, and this is where my streak of reading great books has ended.
This suffered from a lack of focus. The quadruplets were interesting (initially), but there was too much extraneous information and too much of the author’s opinion. The author was trying to cover too much about the history of psychology and treatment of mental health in America, the history of racism and antisemitism, and child sexual abuse within a book billed as being about the Morlok quadruplets. And it was just plain dull as the book went on. So, so dry and a clear lack of understanding of the subject matter from the author, which is why it read more like a thesis in the later chapters. She wasn’t able to present the information in a way other than an info dump because she didn’t get it herself.
Instead, the author seemed to want to use this book as a vehicle to deliver her own opinions. The author seems to sneer at anyone who would dare love the United States. When it was said someone was patriotic, it felt like the author meant for it to be an insult, akin to an accusation of being racist or antisemitic.
Somehow, the author turned this into a discussion about race, telling stories completely unrelated to the quadruplets, with the only connecting thread being that someone died at the same hospital where the quadruplets were born, in one example. In another, the author references a black family with many children but admits the Morloks never met them.
Then, it went into anti-white, anti-Christianity diatribes, railing against whites and Christians from the 50s to the present day. She apparently thinks promoting purity and virginity are problematic and that this somehow “promot[es] a culture of rape.”
She had all-too-long discussions about the life of a doctor, Rosenthal, who helped the quadruplets for a time but was forced to retire early due to Alzheimer’s. For reasons unclear, we kept coming back to Rosenthal. The author also had an axe to grind against Nixon and Reagan, repeatedly giving her own opinion on actions taken during their administrations. And then she used Rosenthal’s demise to again criticize Reagan. Was THAT the point of forcing us through seemingly endless pages about Rosenthal?
The author’s phrasing was astounding at times. “Nevertheless, Michelle Remembers flew off the shelves as swiftly as white southerners flocking to lynching trees after one of their own uttered the word rape.” Seriously?
Much like the girls felt like they were only a quarter of a person and not individuals, I also felt that way with the storytelling, as I couldn’t keep the girls straight except for Sarah.
For a nonfiction work, there was so much conjecture and even more of the author’s political and social biases. All I learned was that shitty parents produce mentally unstable kids and that I never want to read another book by the insufferable Audrey Clare Farley.
This suffered from a lack of focus. The quadruplets were interesting (initially), but there was too much extraneous information and too much of the author’s opinion. The author was trying to cover too much about the history of psychology and treatment of mental health in America, the history of racism and antisemitism, and child sexual abuse within a book billed as being about the Morlok quadruplets. And it was just plain dull as the book went on. So, so dry and a clear lack of understanding of the subject matter from the author, which is why it read more like a thesis in the later chapters. She wasn’t able to present the information in a way other than an info dump because she didn’t get it herself.
Instead, the author seemed to want to use this book as a vehicle to deliver her own opinions. The author seems to sneer at anyone who would dare love the United States. When it was said someone was patriotic, it felt like the author meant for it to be an insult, akin to an accusation of being racist or antisemitic.
Somehow, the author turned this into a discussion about race, telling stories completely unrelated to the quadruplets, with the only connecting thread being that someone died at the same hospital where the quadruplets were born, in one example. In another, the author references a black family with many children but admits the Morloks never met them.
Then, it went into anti-white, anti-Christianity diatribes, railing against whites and Christians from the 50s to the present day. She apparently thinks promoting purity and virginity are problematic and that this somehow “promot[es] a culture of rape.”
She had all-too-long discussions about the life of a doctor, Rosenthal, who helped the quadruplets for a time but was forced to retire early due to Alzheimer’s. For reasons unclear, we kept coming back to Rosenthal. The author also had an axe to grind against Nixon and Reagan, repeatedly giving her own opinion on actions taken during their administrations. And then she used Rosenthal’s demise to again criticize Reagan. Was THAT the point of forcing us through seemingly endless pages about Rosenthal?
The author’s phrasing was astounding at times. “Nevertheless, Michelle Remembers flew off the shelves as swiftly as white southerners flocking to lynching trees after one of their own uttered the word rape.” Seriously?
Much like the girls felt like they were only a quarter of a person and not individuals, I also felt that way with the storytelling, as I couldn’t keep the girls straight except for Sarah.
For a nonfiction work, there was so much conjecture and even more of the author’s political and social biases. All I learned was that shitty parents produce mentally unstable kids and that I never want to read another book by the insufferable Audrey Clare Farley.
February 21, 2023
Four kids simultaneously is a lot of kids. It would be very difficult to weather the storm of four kids showing up one day and having to figure it all out especially if you didn't know until the day they were born. Unfortunately for the Morlok quadruplets, their parents didn't have the skills to raise a bird let alone children.
Girls and Their Monsters by Audrey Clare Farley follows the lives of the Morlok quadruplets and the hell they grew up in. Their father was abusive in nearly every way and their mother was either abusive herself or at the very least complicit in the father's misdeeds. It is a tough read because you truly wish you could go back in time and somehow get the sisters to somewhere safe where they can be truly cared for. Farley does a great job laying out the timeline and developmental aspects of the sisters. The book is truly at its best when it focuses on them and how their upbringing, and possibly their genetics, affect them as they grow up. There is science involved in the story, although this wasn't nearly as engaging as the sisters home lives.
The reason this book doesn't get a full five stars is the other parts of the narrative not involving the sisters. Farley will occasionally dive into societal factors on mental health and child rearing. There is repeated references to racism which I found to be badly placed in the story. I understand Farley was trying to explain the time period but there is no real connection made between the sisters and racism. Other references to religious movements could have been more appropriate, but the direct effects on the sisters are never convincingly made. These passages in the book feel distracting and more like social points Farley wanted to make as opposed to important details needed to understand the sisters' story. Regardless, the book is still very good and worth a read.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing.)
Girls and Their Monsters by Audrey Clare Farley follows the lives of the Morlok quadruplets and the hell they grew up in. Their father was abusive in nearly every way and their mother was either abusive herself or at the very least complicit in the father's misdeeds. It is a tough read because you truly wish you could go back in time and somehow get the sisters to somewhere safe where they can be truly cared for. Farley does a great job laying out the timeline and developmental aspects of the sisters. The book is truly at its best when it focuses on them and how their upbringing, and possibly their genetics, affect them as they grow up. There is science involved in the story, although this wasn't nearly as engaging as the sisters home lives.
The reason this book doesn't get a full five stars is the other parts of the narrative not involving the sisters. Farley will occasionally dive into societal factors on mental health and child rearing. There is repeated references to racism which I found to be badly placed in the story. I understand Farley was trying to explain the time period but there is no real connection made between the sisters and racism. Other references to religious movements could have been more appropriate, but the direct effects on the sisters are never convincingly made. These passages in the book feel distracting and more like social points Farley wanted to make as opposed to important details needed to understand the sisters' story. Regardless, the book is still very good and worth a read.
(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing.)
September 11, 2023
GIRLS AND THEIR MONSTERS
Audrey Clare Farley
The Genain sisters were four identical quadruplets. They were born in 1930, and before the end of their life all of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The diagnoses were in their early twenties and the girls were brought to the National Institutes of Health for three years of intensive study: interviews, Rorschach tests, galvanic skin-response tests, electroencephalography, doll play, and god knows what else.
This is a sad and sordid story of these little girls and their families that sort of sent chills down my spine.
3 stars
Happy Reading!
Audrey Clare Farley
The Genain sisters were four identical quadruplets. They were born in 1930, and before the end of their life all of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The diagnoses were in their early twenties and the girls were brought to the National Institutes of Health for three years of intensive study: interviews, Rorschach tests, galvanic skin-response tests, electroencephalography, doll play, and god knows what else.
This is a sad and sordid story of these little girls and their families that sort of sent chills down my spine.
3 stars
Happy Reading!
August 24, 2023
The interesting story of the quadrupled gets bogged down with the history of psychiatry. When the focus remains on the sisters, it's fascinating. When it switches to a dissertation, it's tedious.
September 14, 2023
I previously read Farley's 2021 book The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt, which focuses on a similar topic, a young woman who was marginalized under the guise of mental health issues. It seems like these stories are of particular interest to this author.
I expected to like this book more, hoping for something akin to Kolker's brilliant Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, but alas, I was disappointed here. The book manages to be dry and go on numerous tangents that detract from the main foci of the work, the quadruplets and how their lives played out.
I expected to like this book more, hoping for something akin to Kolker's brilliant Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, but alas, I was disappointed here. The book manages to be dry and go on numerous tangents that detract from the main foci of the work, the quadruplets and how their lives played out.
September 15, 2023
I wasn't a fan of the book - I found some passages very hard to follow, and quite wordy. I also found, in an effort to cover the quads' lives and the history of schizophrenia research (in its entirety), it was even harder to follow, and I didn't feel gave a complete picture to any of the topics. I was also left confused at points what was the perspective/story of the quads, the specific Morlok researchers, known psychologists (not involved in the Morlok research), and what was speculation on the part of the author. It was unclear to me why Freud's research and perspectives were brought up so often, especially towards the end/modern day research - if the author was trying to make a connection between past and present, if modern day researchers actually drew on Freud's assertions, or if it was simply a means of comparing them.
April 10, 2024
In Canada we learned about the Dionne Quintuplets, but I was unfamiliar with the Genain quadruplets.
I found the writing to be somewhat confusing. There were very few dates, and the timeline jumped around, so I never knew how old the girls were. I found it very unsettling to be reading something not knowing if they were being told about a child, or a grown woman.
The doctors and parents were very concerned about the girls sexually, and this books focused on that quite a bit.
While I understand this may have influenced the decisions made for the girls, I did not think it had to be so prevalent in the book.
In the end this was not the book for me, but I thank Grand Central Publishing for this gifted copy.
I found the writing to be somewhat confusing. There were very few dates, and the timeline jumped around, so I never knew how old the girls were. I found it very unsettling to be reading something not knowing if they were being told about a child, or a grown woman.
The doctors and parents were very concerned about the girls sexually, and this books focused on that quite a bit.
While I understand this may have influenced the decisions made for the girls, I did not think it had to be so prevalent in the book.
In the end this was not the book for me, but I thank Grand Central Publishing for this gifted copy.
July 1, 2024
Someone had a word count/page count they had to meet, huh?
The amount of pointless speculation and entirely unnecessary diversion from the topic at hand was ridiculous.
“Sadie’s reply was never documented, but it’s not unthinkable she now found it within herself to reassure Wilma what was happening was not her fault.”
No. You say “Sadie’s reply was never documented”, and you leave it at that. You have zero idea how she responded and NOTHING is accomplished by speculating, beyond some desire on the author’s part to redeem Sadie in some respect.
Which she should not be doing, because this is non-fiction and it is not your job to redeem, it is your job to report.
The amount of pointless speculation and entirely unnecessary diversion from the topic at hand was ridiculous.
“Sadie’s reply was never documented, but it’s not unthinkable she now found it within herself to reassure Wilma what was happening was not her fault.”
No. You say “Sadie’s reply was never documented”, and you leave it at that. You have zero idea how she responded and NOTHING is accomplished by speculating, beyond some desire on the author’s part to redeem Sadie in some respect.
Which she should not be doing, because this is non-fiction and it is not your job to redeem, it is your job to report.
July 2, 2024
A haunting and incredibly important book that does an amazing amount of work regarding eugenics, the birth of the moral majority, the sexualization of children, the evolution of psychology, while never failing to keep the main subjects of the book centered and human.
August 30, 2023
Top tier nonfiction, MWAH MWAH amazing, review to come!
July 29, 2023
I was shocked and appalled at the core story about the Genain quads - not their experience with the medical community, but the parental and workplace abuses, public/private freak show experiences, and the extreme sexual harassment by men, which seemed to be the catalyst for many of their mental collapses in adulthood. The history of schizophrenia was fascinating and well-documented. However, I think it a stretch with Farley mentioned other society problems of the day that didn't touch the Genain sisters as having an impact; it was more like she wanted to use their lifetimes as a reason to analyze every social issue, culture war, event from the last 80 years. As a result, it was like reading two different books. I think Farley should have had a tighter focus, especially with how the public attention affected their lives.
April 17, 2024
Exhausting to read because of subject matter, and the fact that I feel it’s poorly written. For me, it was hard to discern the passage of time in the describing of the women’s lives. It left me frequently feeling overwhelmed from the awfulness of their circumstances, and not knowing what age anyone in the book was. Also, large portions of the book feel like a stylized retelling of therapy notes, not truly researched or written material.
While I can’t deny the story is compelling, I feel it’s poorly told and relies too much of the intensity and salaciousness of the subject matter to try and carry writing that is badly in need of an editor.
While I can’t deny the story is compelling, I feel it’s poorly told and relies too much of the intensity and salaciousness of the subject matter to try and carry writing that is badly in need of an editor.
May 24, 2024
I lost patience with the digressions about unrelated societal problems. To understand this family, we don’t need a whole chapter about the history of psychotherapy, an analysis of America racism, and a lecture on changing attitudes about sex offenders. A bit of background enriches the narrative, but this book seems to be a patchwork of unrelated lectures held together with a few anecdotes about the terrible life of the Genain quadruples.
April 26, 2023
I was expecting a riveting story about mental health, abuse, and quadruplets… what I got was a medical paper turned into a book. This read like a pubmed article that far exceeded its word count. If you’re interested in outdated medical information and a subjective view of mental health, I guess this one’s for you.
January 1, 2025
This is a tragic story of child abuse experienced by Michigan quadruplets born in 1930. It is a thorough genetic case study. The intersection of the study and the family’s experiences during the Great Depression, WWII, political activism in the 60’s, Vietnam, PTSD from these wars, the AIDS epidemic, President Kennedy’s Community Mental Health Act, Reagan slashing it and sexism are astounding. Women were institutionalized for menopausal symptoms and any sexual assault or childhood abuse were categorized as a Freudian Fantasy during their lives. Trauma informed practices had yet to be developed.
There is a lot packed into this and it would be great for book club. There is still so much we don’t know and so much we think we know has been completely white washed. It’s sad.
The house in Lansing was bulldozed and is now a parking lot. They attended a local church and I’m sure they were enmeshed in the congregation with those organ skills. These ladies were as resilient as they could be 💗.
There is a lot packed into this and it would be great for book club. There is still so much we don’t know and so much we think we know has been completely white washed. It’s sad.
The house in Lansing was bulldozed and is now a parking lot. They attended a local church and I’m sure they were enmeshed in the congregation with those organ skills. These ladies were as resilient as they could be 💗.
September 9, 2024
I'm not sure how to rate this book. On one hand, I was thoroughly engrossed in the story of the schizophrenic Morlok quadruplets, and on the other hand the author went off on tangents that I presume were supposed to be part of the Making of Madness in America. Farley did well with researching and presenting the story of the quadruplets and their abusive home life and their diagnoses of schizophrenia. Farley's hypothesis was that while the NIMH researchers used the quadruplets as evidence that schizophrenia is hereditary, their traumatic home life shows that there may be more than heredity to mental illness. But throughout the book she managed to talk about racism, the far right fundamentalists like Bill Gothard and James Dobson, the purity culture (all topics that I care about) but they didn't seem to fit into the theme of her book. So 5 stars for the story of the quadruplets, minus 1 star for bunny trails...
March 25, 2024
Rather than a biography of these people's lives (which has already been written), this book looks at psychiatry's understanding of schizophrenia throughout the 1900s. These four girls/women's experience with trauma and mental health run the gamut from religious to medical to psychological and finally psychiatric treatments.
Further, the author contextualizes schizophrenia within the broader contexts of war, racism, religious extremism, and politics in the US. I know that will turn off a lot of people who want to be voyeurs into the girls' lives, but I do agree with the author that these larger contexts affect how mental illness is perceived and treated.
I was less enthusiastic about some of the writing here. The author did a fair amount of inferring and extrapolating people's thoughts and reactions, then seemed to explain new behavior based on those inferences. They are logical leaps to make, and the author never writes it as though it's factual, but I felt unnecessary. There were enough details that the reader could do this on our own and we didn't need guidance to do so.
Further, the author contextualizes schizophrenia within the broader contexts of war, racism, religious extremism, and politics in the US. I know that will turn off a lot of people who want to be voyeurs into the girls' lives, but I do agree with the author that these larger contexts affect how mental illness is perceived and treated.
I was less enthusiastic about some of the writing here. The author did a fair amount of inferring and extrapolating people's thoughts and reactions, then seemed to explain new behavior based on those inferences. They are logical leaps to make, and the author never writes it as though it's factual, but I felt unnecessary. There were enough details that the reader could do this on our own and we didn't need guidance to do so.
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