Naked Truth is the fictionalized true story of two women attempting to push against and through the rampant sexism of the post-Civil War United States.

In the late 1800s, in New York, two sisters attempted to make history by running for office. Leading up to this moment, their story is a tale involving seduction, blackmail, and bigotry. Naked Truth follows Tennessee Claflin and Victoria Woodhull as they slowly become involved in politics and then brought to trial by their own family for obscenity.

Unfortunately, what should have been a riveting true story is bogged down by the way the story is told. I spent a great deal of the first half of the novel confused, as characters/historical figures are introduced without a lot of backstory. There is a list of characters at the start, it only provided the bare minimum of information. I think the issue is that I am not American and while I know the basics of American history, I only have the vaguest idea of who Ulysses Grant is, for example, and I only know of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe from an American literature class. Tied to this, the characters are given little to no exposition or backstory – it felt like I was expected to know who these people were already, which was frustrating. Likewise, so many things happen that I didn’t feel I got to know Tennessee and Victoria very well, so I wasn’t as emotionally invested as I could have been.

Yet, this is an impeccable-researched novel – details about life in that time period were included to give it an authentic feel. One of the best aspects of the novel is the inclusion of primary sources – like newspaper articles – from the time of the events in the story.

Sometimes a novel that you think will be right up your alley doesn’t sit with you as you expected, which I think is what happened here. But readers who love this period of American history will undoubtedly adore this novel. You can tell there was a great deal of thought put into it, and the story is as relevant today as it was 120 years ago.