Happy Fall!

“The Lost Girls of Willowbrook” by Ellen Marie Wiseman

I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked up this book from the library. The story line about the WIllowbrook mental institute on Staten Island that had existed in the 1900’s intrigued me, and I was expecting historical fiction and some drama. What I got was the closest thing to a horror-thriller that I have ever read.

This book is not for the faint of heart or stomach. Ellen Marie Wiseman’s prose captures the stench of the institution so well that I had to put it down several times, walk outside and breath fresh air. She lays out the horrid details of cruelty and neglect in the institution and bares the psychological and physical oppression endured by the protagonist, Sage.

Sage is a likable character, and I could sympathize with her plight. With no adult caregiver or mentor, she was the type of person who who would’ve been victimized by Willowbrook.

The worse part of this story is that the details of the asylum are based on facts. The press eventually opened the public’s eyes to this bell-hole, and it was closed. That so many innocent and misunderstood people were forced to live in sub-human conditions, with no hope of ever getting out, was sickening to process.

While reading this historical novel, it was as if I were walking through a dark tunnel with Sage. Finally, I realized It was too dark for my liking, but there was no going back at that point. There had to be light at the end of the tunnel; all tunnels end, and so I continued reading, determined to see Sage through to the other side of this suffocating, harrowing, and hideous
journey.

We did come out of the tunnel into the light. Wiseman rewards Sage, and the reader, with an uplifting ending to her psychological trial.