Book Review - Wayward Girls

Title: Wayward Girls

Author: Susan Wiggs

Publisher: William & Morrow

Genre: Historical Women’s Fiction

{Thank you @uplitreads + @williammorrowbooks for the #gifted copy of Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs.  I was able to do a tandem read thanks to an audio copy from @librofm narrated by Jane Oppenheimer and Cynthia Farell.}

Told in five parts and separated into a two book format of Then’ and ‘Now’, Wayward Girls in a fictional historic account of the “Survivors of Good Shepherd/Magdalene Laundries in North America” of Buffalo, NY.

Most of the story takes place in the Vietnam era and shines a lens on six girls and one young nun.  History isn’t always pretty and that was certainly the case for much of this story.  What these poor girls endured!  But with heartbreak comes hope, strength, courage, and resilience.  I loved the bound that these girls shared and am a sucker for found family in stories.  The author treads lightly with the mentions of abuse, rape, isolation, and the overworking of these girls.

Each girl came to find themselves at the Home of the Good Shepherd for various reasons:

-Protection from a stepfathers advances.

-To denounce her attraction to girls.

-From Communist China.

-Caught up in a racial incident.

-Sentenced from a brawl in a foster home.

Taking place in the fruit belt of Buffalo, and full of 60s pop culture—music, Vietnam protests, hippie communes, and strict religion upbringings.

❓Did you know that author Susan Wiggs has now written over 50 books!?  Her talent is on full display in Wayward Girls.  Out Now!