I’ve been enjoying Susan Wiggs’ books for years. The last few have been particularly good. This one is right there with those. Wiggs tackles the Magdalena laundries run by Catholic nuns. I have read enough to know that these horrible places existed outside of Ireland including in the United States. It is still shocking to think that they existed here right up to the 1970s! Wiggs did extensive research for this book. She wrote a fictional story with fictional characters, but based them on real stories. The story is mostly told through Mairin O’Hara’s experiences. She is a great character to center the story around. This is a hard subject to read about, but Wiggs handled it perfectly. She tells a great story that has hard moments, but is always hopeful.

Wayward Girls begins in 1968, and we meet a group of young women sent to the Good Shepherd Laundry for reasons that range from heartbreaking to infuriating. The narrator, Marion, has a fiery spirit pulls you right in, and while most of the story unfolds within the confines of the institution, the timeline eventually jumps to present day, giving us a powerful look at the long-term impact on these women. It's a compelling, thoughtful read that had me reflecting hard on the injustice so many girls were forced to endure. Definitely recommend this one.

Wayward Girls is a heartfelt, layered story about sisterhood, survival, and the long shadows of the past. I got totally pulled into the dual timelines and loved how the characters grew as the story unfolded. It's emotional without being too heavy, and there’s just enough mystery to keep you turning the pages. Some parts were hard to read, but it’s ultimately about strength and resilience. If you like books about complicated family dynamics and healing from trauma, this one’s worth picking up.

4.5 stars. A dark, hidden piece of American (and Irish) history comes to life as we dive into the Magdalene laundries. These homes were created to change the ways of “ girls who have lost their way”, perhaps unwed mothers, or girls with difficult personalities, or maybe even girls whose parents just couldn’t care for them for one reason or another, and were placed under the strict and relentless rule of Catholic nuns.
Each character has a distinct personality, brought to life by the author. I love the feistiness and determination of Mairin. I enjoyed seeing the camaraderie of the teenage girls under dire circumstances… the unlikely friendships formed. The fear they felt being trapped in a home that was truly a prison was clearly shown in the story. I appreciate the “then and now” approach the author uses to talk about the time of Mairin’s stay in the Good Shepherd home and where she and the others are now. Susan Wiggs chose to write it as two separate sections, rather than going back and forth between the timelines which can often be confusing.
The Magdalene laundries were horrific places and I thank Susan Wiggs for giving us readers a glimpse into what life must have been like for girls sent there.

This is a very moving book about the goings on in a place in New York for girls who may or may not get into trouble. The main characters Marin,Angela, Odessa , Janet and several more. The place was called the Good Shepherd. The Nuns that ran advertised it as a school but it was far from. The abused the girls and kept money that was suppose to be donated to charities. Marin, the free spirit who going to get them out of there. They made a plan and got off the grounds but then got separated. Follow the story to see what happened in the years following their escape. THIS BOOK IS A GREAT READ.

Loved this story of redemption and resilience!

This marks my second exploration of wayward girls books this month, following Grady Hendrix's recent release. While both books tackle similar themes, this historical fiction resonated more deeply with me than its horror/sci-fi counterpart—genres that don't typically capture my interest.

Susan Wiggs has crafted a beautifully written story that balances its ensemble cast with remarkable skill. The character development strikes an ideal balance, creating figures you genuinely care about while introducing several good villains that serve the story's darker themes well. The author's handling of the historical timeline feels authentic and well-researched, particularly in her portrayal of Buffalo, NY, and the social context of the era.

What sets this novel apart is its structural approach to storytelling. Rather than relegating the contemporary timeline to a brief epilogue, Wiggs weaves past and present together in nearly equal measure. This dual narrative provides substantial development for the present-day characters while offering meaningful closure to the stories from their youth. For me the result was a more complete and satisfying reading experience that didn’t leave me wondering about the characters' fates, or wishing for more closure to their stories.

For readers unfamiliar with the history of Magdalene laundries, this serves as a great starting point and a compelling work of historical fiction. I loved the themes of redemption, survival, and the long-term impact of trauma.

This is my second Susan Wiggs novel, and her storytelling has convinced me to delve into her backlist.

Well paced, and fully kept my interest. I had known of Magdalene laundries abroad but had no idea that they were prevalent in the US as well.

The jump from the 70’s to the present took me off guard, and I actually went back to see if I had accidentally skipped ahead. I hadn’t but it definitely threw me a bit. Regardless, this story hasn’t left me yet and if you enjoy historical fiction, I suggest definitely giving this a try. There’s a lot to think about within the pages. Recommended.



Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the DRC

Stories that show women and girls overcoming obstacles and working together to achieve justice have  always interested me, and this book did not disappoint.

The idea that pregnant girls got duped about their  unborn children at birth and continued to be trafficked as recently as the late 1960s and early 1970s,  when a large portion of this story takes place, is sad and alarming.

Seldom do I discover a book capable of making me cry, and I think this book took that as a challenge. A powerful story touching on a sensitive subject which was handled with dignity by the author. Difficult to comprehend how this is rooted in actual history.

Beautiful and affecting historical fiction. Wiggs draws you in with six equally fascinating characters surviving unspeakable circumstances and displaying extraordinary resilience over the years. Epic and intimate.

I loved this book! Taking place in 1969, girls were placed in Catholic run boarding schools for reasons like pregnancy, trouble at home, mental delays, or because they had nowhere else to go. This story centers on a group of girls who suffer in one of these schools and how they band together to strengthen each other. I found myself cheering on the girls in several parts of the story. The characters are well written making this a page-turner. The never-give-up attitude of Mairin was fantastic and the sad story of Angela who was a victim of her "cure" really got to me. I highly recommend this one.
I received a copy of this book from Net Galley and have left an honest review.

What a heart-wrenching, powerful story based on true events. these girls are sent to this " church run school" for various reasons. once in you are there till you age out. It turns out it's not really a school but a laundry run by nuns and staffed by the girls who are sent there by parents who think it is a school run by nuns. No spoilers but a warning. Some parts are upsetting.Probably the worst being based on true occurances.

“Wayward Girls” by Susan Wiggs
Reviewed by Claire Hamner Matturro

“Wayward Girls” (William Morrow 2025) by Susan Wiggs is a cautionary tale filled with memorable characters which offers suspense and redemption between its 400 pages. It is an important book which also contains an entertaining sweep of American history and music from the 60s until present times. While the first third can be harsh to read, the generally positive tones in the later parts of the books are enjoyable to read. I am glad I read it, and I recommend it. Themes of shared trauma, powerlessness, transcendence, abiding friendships, recovery, and “I can do hard things” resonate throughout the novel.

Before I expand on any of this, let me add the trigger warnings: If you are a Catholic, this might be a tough read. It deals with the historically documented abuse of teen girls in the so-called Magdalene Laundries run by nuns. In this novel, the facility at issue is “The Good Shepard Institute.” With a singular exception, the nuns running the place are pure evil in this novel. They are abusive, cruel, and are also stealing funds from the church Diocese. The Catholic Church as a whole is not well presented in the novel, though the worst of condemnation centers on the nuns. Additionally, let me add a trigger warning about the abuses. At the Good Shepard, the girls are emotionally abused, physically abused (including what I would consider torture), and some are sexually abused.

As detailed in the author’s notes at the end of the novel, the facility in this book was real and the abuses were real. However, the characters are fictional. In her Author’s Notes, Susan Wiggs mentions her research, including interviews with inmates from The Good Shepard, and provides information on the true history of these abusive homes for so-called wayward girls run by the Catholic Church. In some cases, the only “wayward” behavior of the girls was that they were born into poverty.

In essence, the Magdalene Laundries were places where enslaved and abused girls and teens (usually from poor backgrounds) were forced to do the harsh, uncompensated work of cleaning and pressing dirty laundry from hotels and other places. To quote the novel: “Brutal punishment, harsh rules, and iron discipline mangled the very souls” of the girls in such places. In the novel, one girl had been strapped “so hard that the fabric of her smock had made an impression in her flesh.”

The strengths of the novel are many—this accurate depiction of the Magdalene Laundries as well as the background cultural history which captures the flavor of the sixties and seventies, the ultimately positive plot lines and story arcs, and the wonderful characters of the girls themselves. The negatives are few—the author’s tendency to sweep large segments of the plot in a narrative that reads more like a synopsis and an occasional indulgence in cliched phrases (his “eyes seemed haunted by the shadows of war” for example) But my guess is that readers won’t mind a bit when they are caught up—as I quickly was—in the story of the main character, Mairin, and the other girls at the so-called school for wayward girls.

Mairin is a strong and spirited redhaired teen sent to The Good Shepard when her stepfather tries to molest her. Rather than protect her daughter, the mother capitulates to her husband and sends her daughter off to The Good Shepard. Mairin is immediately determined to run away from the horrid place and makes a failed attempt at escape right away. Naturally she fails and begins to understand just how cruel the place is as a result. Next time, she resolves, she will plan better.

While imprisoned there for a year, Mairin forms strong friendships with other girls. Their friendships sustain them. That, and their hopes for a better future. And their plans for a more organized escape for a group of them. The bonds formed in that wretched place survive beyond The Good Shepard. At a future time, Mairin and her friends meet up again as they champion and support each other—and seek a belated justice. The latter parts of the book detail Mairin’s life after The Good Shepard and her eventual reconnects with her other friends from the place.

There are several relatively new novels out now with the phrase “wayward girls” in their titles. In fact an imprint of HarperCollins, the overall publisher of Susan Wiggs’ “Wayward Girls,” also has a book called “The Home for Wayward Girls” (Harper Paperback 2023) by Marcia Bradley. And, full disclosure, a dear friend—Penny Koepsel—and I also authored a book titled “Wayward Girls” (Red Adept Publishing 2021). Wiggs’ novel sets the laundry school in the late 60s, Penny’s and my novel sets the abusive boarding school in the early 70s, and Bradley sets her boarding ranch in the 1990s.

These books follow a certain formula—teen girls are sent against their will to a dangerous facility for alleged delinquent girls such as the school in Wiggs’ book or the remote boarding school or ranch in the others. There, the girls are abused. In order to survive, they form strong friendships, and they try to escape what are essentially unregulated prisons. When they try to explain about the abuse, no one believes them. Once they escape (one way or the other), most overcome the shared trauma and manage to make good lives as adults. But not all do.

The messages, then, of these “Wayward Girls” novels well as of “The Home for Wayward Girls,” are that church-related or not, such facilities for so-called troubled teens need to be carefully regulated and that teens in these places should be listened to carefully when they complain of abuse. These books also address the lifelong trauma that will impact the teen girls subject to such abuse, their need for counseling, and the abiding strength of friendships.

Susan Wiggs is the award-winning, New York Times Best-Selling author of many novels, including romance and historical fiction. A Harvard graduate, she lives in Puget Sound.

At this point if Susan Wiggs writes it I’m gonna read it. We find ourselves in Buffalo, NY in the Vietnam era at Good Shepard a school for wayward girls, except it’s not a school at all it is a Magdeline Laundry where we meet a group of unlikely friends and spend a year with them. Learning the reasons why the girls are in the Good Shepherd in the first place is mind boggling especially today. We also get a pov from current times 50 years after the fact. This was a hard read but a good read, a historical fiction based around truth and stories from women who went to “schools” like these for real. I will be grabbing a copy for my collection and I hope others read it when it comes out. Mairin, Angela, Odessa and Helen have a place in my heart along with Evelyn and Violet. What a great book.

This book was very eye opening for me. I had no idea and find it appalling that such places existed as recently as the 1960's. The beginning and middle of the book were action packed and attention grabbing, however the tone of the writing changed as the story progressed. I appreciated that all characters mentioned, even minor ones, had closure to their stories which is rare.

4.5 stars rounded up. This had a bit of a slow start and was overall a slow burn BUT I really enjoyed it. It was definitely hard to take in at times, the subject matter can get a rough, especially knowing it is based on true events. It still blows my mind that all of these things happened not that long ago and older people still alive today lived through this.. It blows my mind even more that we could be heading back in this direction. The writing was well done and I really enjoyed how it was broken up into 2 stories essentially, the past and today's time. This was a powerful read full of injustice and abuse but I am so glad I read it, because it was also a story about friendship and resilience. It really opened my eyes to the horror that was Catholic girls' homes/schools. The ending was hopeful and tied the story up nicely.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Wayward Girls is a chilling blend of psychological suspense and supernatural mystery. The story moves between past and present, unraveling a haunting tale of sisterhood, secrets, and the blurred line between reality and the unexplained. Creepy and compelling, it keeps you guessing until the very end. A must-read for fans of dark, twisty thrillers

I'm not sure I went into this book fulling knowing what I was signing up for. That being said, I could not stop reading. This is the kind of book that tells a story of an actual historical point in time. This was gripping and sad, but written beautifully and with a sense of hope!

Be prepared to find the truth about these schools known as the Magdalene Laundries where they sent girls back in the 60s for many different reasons.

Some were sent there because of pregnancy - others were sent there just because their parents wanted them out of the house or they couldn’t afford them, but most of the reasons were not really legitimate to keep them.

They didn’t educate them. They used the girls as free labor for doing laundry for local businesses and treated them like prisoners.

These schools were run by nuns with many strict rules, very little nutritious food, horrible punishments, and with the outside world thinking the girls were being treated well and being redeemed.

We meet Mairin, who was dragged there by her mother. While she is there she befriends other girls, but tries to escape every chance she can.

The girls become close and realize they need each other to endure what goes on.

You will love the characters and the lifelong friendships they made, but your heart will break for them.

WAYWARD GIRLS is another marvelously researched, pull-you-in book by Susan Wiggs that will also have you shedding tears.

Be sure to add it to your TBR. 5/5

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This is compelling story of hardship, friendship and surviving. The story will make you angry, often… and it is definitely a page turner. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.