WAYWARD GIRLS by Susan Wiggs Historical Fiction 5 STARS
In the late 60’s, in Buffalo, New York, six young teenage girls are condemned to hard labor at a Catholic reform school. The story of the girls is fictional but based on real events at the Good Shepard School run by the Sister’s of Charity who take in young teen girls for the “crimes” of being gay, unruly, pregnant, or unwanted. The rules and punishment at the school were harsh, the twelve-hour shifts doing take-in laundry, which benefitted the nuns, was exhausting, and the girls were not educated, only indoctrinated in religion.
Of the six girls who’s stories were highlighted, two are protagonists. Mairin, the gutsy girl, always looking for a way to escape, was imprisoned because her mother thought she needed protection from her step-father, who had eyes for her. Angela, innocent and naive, at fifteen had fallen in love with a girlfriend and was sent to the institution for “reform”. She soon became the victim of a predator from within. The nuns were harshly cruel and blamed them for their behavior.
In Ireland and in the United States, there were hundreds of Catholic institutions for wayward girls that lasted into the 70’s when some laws were changed. This story which is based on reality, shows how these girls escaped, exposed the harrowing truth, and eventually found redemption and justice. This book is powerful, shocking, historically sad, enlightening, and triumphant!
A LITTLE ABOUT THE JOURNEY
The Covid has done lots of things to change our lives. Other than catching the damn thing, the hardest thing, I think for me, has been the lapses into boredom and the need to connect to the outside world. It’s challenging when you are trying to isolate or socially distance. Sanity is important too so I urge everyone who is feeling low or depressed to join in the journey to experience, via books, the world in our mind’s eye.
When I discovered the Libby app at my library it really showed me that I could bring the world home and now hopefully to you. In 4 1/2 months I have read more than 65 audiobooks. My library belongs to a county system and my choices are limitless. And the best thing is it is FREE! My little white AirPods allow me up to multitask, usually walking, cooking, playing Spider Solitaire, doing chores, or just resting and enjoying the view while I read. If this is not available to you there are other ways to download either the audiobooks or the written page such as Amazon Prime and Audible but check out the free first because once you get hooked there is no going back.
I hope we can become an interactive group, sharing titles, opinions and new ideas for exploring topics we my not have done on our own. If you like this idea, please “like”!! As I navigate this WordPress program I hope the result will be better. Suggestions always welcome!
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