Unadorned ugliness. Unquestioned horrors. Unconcealed lunacy.

Ohio, 1890s. Behind the barred windows of a crumbling asylum, women vanish into silence and shadows—committed not for madness, but for defiance, grief, or the simple misfortune of being inconvenient.

When Cassie Alexander is wrongly confined by her husband, she enters a world where the walls themselves seem to breathe despair. Patients are stripped of dignity and locked away, their suffering dismissed as delusion. Beneath the iron rule of Matron Harrow and the predatory gaze of Dr. Winifred, cruelty masquerades as care.

But Cassie refuses to surrender. Bearing witness to atrocities and whispered secrets in the night, she clings to resilience and vows to expose the institution’s darkest truths. To survive, she must navigate a labyrinth of fear, injustice, and fragile alliances—before the asylum consumes her voice forever.

Delusional Madness is a haunting work of historical fiction about mental health stigma, survival, and the silenced women of the 19th century. For readers drawn to dark psychological historical fiction, Gothic suspense, and stories of resilience in the face of overwhelming injustice, this novel opens the doors of the forgotten asylum—and dares you to step inside.

• Setting: 19th-century Ohio asylum

• Themes: stigma, power and injustice, survival, resilience, isolation

• Perfect for fans of gritty, character-driven historical fiction