Wayward Girls Review: A Heartbreaking Story of Survival ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 Stars)
📚 Genre: Historical Fiction / Women’s Fiction
✍️ Author: Susan Wiggs
⭐ Rating: 4/5 Stars
⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: THIS REVIEW DISCUSSES THE ENTIRE BOOK INCLUDING THE ENDING
🚨 Trigger Warnings
This book contains:
• Child abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Physical abuse
• Sexual assault / rape
• Pregnancy trauma
• Forced adoption
• Institutional abuse
• Homophobia / anti-gay abuse
• Suicidal ideation
• Racism
• Child neglect
• Religious trauma
• Violence against minors
Seriously. This book does not gently tap these topics. It picks them up, throws them directly at your face, and asks, “How are you feeling now?”
📖 What Is Wayward Girls About?
Wayward Girls follows Mairin O’Hara, a fifteen-year-old girl living in Buffalo in 1968 whose life completely implodes after her mother sends her away to the Home of the Good Shepherd following an attempted assault by her stepfather.
Because naturally, the logic apparently was:
"Punish the teenage girl."
The Home of the Good Shepherd houses so-called "wayward girls"—pregnant teens, foster children, girls abandoned by families, girls who broke social rules, girls who simply existed in ways society disliked.
You know.
Crimes.
Like being poor.
Or gay.
Or inconvenient.
💔 Historical Fiction That Is Difficult Because It’s True
What makes this book especially devastating is not the fictional parts.
It’s the parts that aren’t.
These institutions really existed.
The abuse.
The forced labor.
The forced adoptions.
The physical punishments.
Girls being institutionalized because families, churches, courts, or society simply decided they were problems.
And maybe the most difficult part is that these stories are so closely tied to the Catholic Church, an institution many people view as sacred, trustworthy, and safe.
Reading this creates a strange feeling because while the novel itself is fiction, you also know:
This happened to real girls.
Probably more girls than we are comfortable thinking about.
And that reality hangs over literally every page.
🏫 Inside The Home Of The Good Shepherd (FULL Plot Summary)
Once inside the institution, Mairin discovers the place is brutal.
The girls endure:
😔 Hair pulling punishments
😔 Food deprivation
😔 Isolation closets
😔 Forced labor in laundry facilities
😔 Little education
😔 Constant humiliation
Mairin slowly forms friendships with other girls inside.
There’s Kay, a developmentally disabled girl who finds joy feeding a tiny mouse before the nuns kill it (yes, I hated this part).
There’s Odessa, who ends up there after being arrested during protests.
There’s Helen, whose parents become trapped overseas during political turmoil.
There’s Janice and Denise, who basically say foster care somehow managed to be even worse.
Then there’s Angela.
And Angela’s story is where this book absolutely punches you in the throat.
Angela was sent away because she was attracted to girls.
The institution responds by sending her to “corrective therapy” sessions.
Those sessions are repeated sexual assaults.
Angela becomes pregnant.
She gives birth while heavily drugged.
Then she is told:
Her baby died.
Spoiler:
Her baby did not die.
Because apparently this book decided emotional devastation required additional emotional devastation.
👭 Female Friendship Carries This Entire Story
The thing I loved most about this book is how much emphasis it places on friendship and solidarity.
The girls survive because they have each other.
They:
✂️ Cut their hair so nuns cannot pull it
🀄 Secretly play mahjong together
🤝 Create tiny rebellions
🌊 Make promises at Niagara Falls
These moments matter because without them this book would simply become 400+ pages of despair.
The friendships keep it human.
🚐 The Escape
Eventually Mairin decides:
"Actually I would prefer not remaining imprisoned."
Reasonable.
The girls create an escape plan.
They steal clothes.
They steal hidden money.
During a visit from a bookmobile, six girls climb into the library van.
Mairin drives.
Which honestly feels like one of the most satisfying scenes in the entire novel.
Police eventually spot them.
They abandon the vehicle and scatter.
Mairin contacts Flynn—her friend’s older brother—and he helps her escape permanently.
She ends up living and working at a commune called Heyday Farm.
⏳ The Ending Explained
Fifty years later, the surviving women slowly reunite.
Odessa publishes a book.
Angela finally decides she wants answers.
They reconnect with Sister Bernadette, one of the few nuns who showed some compassion and secretly hid documents decades earlier.
Those documents reveal:
Angela’s daughter survived.
Angela tracks down her daughter.
That daughter is Everly.
And yes.
They reunite.
And yes.
It is emotional.
And yes.
I cried.
The women eventually pursue legal action against the institution.
Angela brings a case against the Sisters of Charity.
She wins.
The secrets finally become public.
The women confront what happened.
Mairin reflects on her life surrounded by the friends who survived alongside her.
The ending isn’t exactly happy.
But it is healing.
Which honestly feels more earned.
🤔 My Thoughts
I genuinely enjoyed reading this.
Not enjoyed in the:
“Wow what a fun relaxing beach read 😊”
kind of way.
More:
“Wow I am emotionally damaged but also extremely invested.”
kind of way.
Susan Wiggs does a really good job making these women feel like real people rather than simply symbols representing historical suffering.
My biggest issue?
Historical inaccuracies and timeline issues.
Some dates and historical details occasionally pulled me out of the story.
Not enough to ruin the book.
Enough to cost it a star.
So:
⭐ Writing: Great
⭐ Emotional impact: Devastating
⭐ Friendships: Excellent
⭐ Historical accuracy: Occasionally wobbly
⭐ Ability to ruin your mood for several hours: Outstanding
Final Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 Stars)
📚 Books To Read If You Liked Wayward Girls
📖 The Women — Kristin Hannah
📖 The Berry Pickers — Amanda Peters
📖 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — Taylor Jenkins Reid
📖 The Pull of the Stars — Emma Donoghue
📖 The Nickel Boys — Colson Whitehead
📖 Orphan Train — Christina Baker Kline
📖 Room — Emma Donoghue
Have you read this one? And more importantly:
Were you also constantly furious while reading it? 😭
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