The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman
🌿 The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman — Book Review (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 Stars)
Dark. Haunting. Powerful. A thriller with a purpose — and yes, it’ll make you Google “Willowbrook State School” at 2AM.
💡 Quick Take
This book is based on the real horrors of the Willowbrook State School and the Cropsey urban legend, and it absolutely kept me hooked. The story was tense, tragic, and even heartwarming at times. I devoured it in record time, and it left me thinking about it long after the last page.
📝 The Plot
The story centers on Sage Winters, a 16-year-old girl who believes she lost her twin sister, Rosemary, at age 10. She’s been raised by her stepfather, Alan, since her mother died, and she misses her biological dad, who’s been absent for reasons she doesn’t fully understand.
One day, Sage overhears a phone call and discovers Rosemary didn’t die — she was actually sent to Willowbrook State School, and now she’s missing. Naturally, Sage is horrified. When she confides in friends, they up the terror with stories of Cropsey, the local boogeyman.
Determined to find the truth, Sage runs away to Willowbrook. But as soon as she arrives, things go terribly wrong. Her purse is stolen on the bus, and she’s mistaken for Rosemary and locked up in the school. No one believes her when she insists she’s not her sister.
Inside, she’s subjected to horrific abuse, forced medications, and cruelty. She meets Wayne, a guard who tries to assault her, and Eddie, a janitor (or so she thinks), who is the only person willing to listen. Eddie promises to help and even visits her house (or so he says) to get Alan’s help.
Spoiler: Alan did open the door. Eddie killed him.
Eddie suggests they escape via the tunnels beneath Willowbrook. While running, they stumble upon Rosemary’s body, showing clear signs of being one of Cropsey’s victims. (Spoiler: Eddie is Cropsey. He killed Rosemary.)
Sage is recaptured, but convinces Eddie to lead a doctor to Rosemary’s body. When they return, the body’s gone — Eddie moved it.
Meanwhile, bodies of other missing women start turning up on the grounds, and the police finally believe Sage. She’s released — but her nightmare isn’t over.
At home, Alan’s body is under the bed. Sage ends up back at Willowbrook because no one believes her story about Eddie helping her escape. It turns out:
👉 Eddie isn’t a janitor. He’s a resident/patient.
👉 He stole the car and money he used to “help” her.
👉 He is Cropsey, the killer who thought he was freeing people from suffering.
In a final confrontation, Eddie attacks Sage, but she fights back — bites him, stabs him — and survives.
🎯 The Ending
Sage wakes in a hospital, where she learns that Eddie is in a coma but expected to survive. She’s reunited with her friends and her biological father, who was kept away by her mother.
In a bittersweet epilogue, we learn that Sage dedicated her life to helping survivors of Willowbrook, married, had four children, five grandchildren, and lived to age 89.
⚡ Final Thoughts
This book is intense, gut-wrenching, and important. The horrors of Willowbrook were real, and this novel captures the emotional weight while delivering a gripping thriller. If you’re into true crime-inspired fiction, this one belongs on your shelf.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ / 5 stars — highly recommended, but brace yourself.
📖 Grab Your Copy
👉 The Lost Girls of Willowbrook on Amazon
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💡 If You Liked This, You Might Also Like
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📜 Room by Emma Donoghue — heart-pounding survival story from the POV of a child trapped in horrifying circumstances.
🏚 The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld — haunting, lyrical, and focused on a search for a missing girl in the wilderness.
🗝 Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews — classic twisted family secrets and survival against abuse.
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