2023 Book Review #26:The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

 The author of this book lives upstate from me out by Lake Ontario somewhere. She actually sent me an email once after I reviewed a book!  I've read 4 of her historical fiction books and this one drew my eye at the town library because as a special education preK teacher (now retired!), I know a lot about Willowbrook, and during my last 6 months of grad school/internship, the state finally closed it down for good. I will say more about that below, in the My Thoughts section. 

 Every teacher, social worker, therapist, parent, and educational administrator should read this book.  So should  psychiatrists, psychologists, and doctors/nurses. Willowbrook was a disgrace to New York State and I  am ashamed of, and for,  the state workers who were employed there. (other than the one who actually got the reporter to come investigate). 

STORY SUMMARY

Sage and Rosemary Winters are identical twins. But they are very different. They are being raised by their mother who got re-married to a man named Alan, after getting a divorce from their biological dad whom they haven't seen since they were preschoolers. They don't know where he lives. The twins, their mother and stepfather live in a small apartment on Staten Island. 

Sage has always known that Rosemary is "different". They loved the same toys and shared a deep understanding but Rosemary always seemed to need protection from the world. She would sometimes be very happy and other times be very sad or angry. Sometimes she would throw things or just scream. 

Six years after Rosemary died from pneumonia, Sage, who is now sixteen, still really misses Rosemary. Their mother has died in a fatal car crash, and their stepfather is not thrilled that he is now responsible for Sage. He drinks away his paycheck and parties with his friends, leaving the apartment a mess all the time. Sage tends to go to school, does homework with her two friends Heather and Dawn, and parties with them and her boyfriend Noah. She is basically raising her self. 

One day she learns a horrible secret.......something that Alan knows and has kept from her:  Rosemary is not dead. She is actually alive and a resident at Willowbrook State School also located on Staten Island. But the school has called Alan saying Rosemary is missing!

Sage doesn't know much about Willowbrook.  Neither does most of the nation. 

There has always been rumors about Willowbrook.  It's a place where local parents threaten to send their disobedient children.

Sage is determined to find out what happened to her sister. She sets out for Willowbrook by bus with no idea about what she will find. 

What happens is: when she shows up at the main office, the administration thinks she is Rosemary!  She is now locked up in Ward D in House Six and no one believes she is Sage. Being at Willowbrook is going to change her life in ways she never imagined. 

Will she get out?  And what does she learn about what really happened with Rosemary? 

MY THOUGHTS

I've loved the other 4 books I've read by this author. This one I  was drawn to because of the Willowbrook history but honestly this book drove me crazy.  It was like a "super charged faster and faster the drama goes" kind of book. It left me breathless in spots.  It left me with such a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach because I know the descriptions of the children and older residents at Willowbrook were based on fact. 

One of my clients at the Center for the Disabled in the city where I received my masters degree and did my last 20 weeks internship was a former resident of Willowbrook. In fact, he was known as the oldest living person in NYS with Down Syndrome at that time. The whip marks on his back broke my heart. He survived Willowbrook and was placed in a group home up here in the Capital Region.  Willowbrook was actually shut down for good during my year of graduate school.  In one of our special education classes focused on the Mentally Handicapped (Cognitive Impairments) we discussed Willowbrook and the wrongs there. I won't go into all of that here.  Read the book and then google the news articles. 

Geraldo Rivera really did break the news regarding an inside look at this institution.  There really was a parent association member who filed a lawsuit and there really was an employee who alerted the news team. 

Regarding the story:  it was so accurate in the descriptions that it made my stomach churn.  The characters were a bit far-fetched in my opinion.  It's set in 1972 which is when the news broke about Willowbrook.  But the characters just seemed so far fetched particularly Eddie and Sage. Sage is somewhat believable in that I can see a teen being that persistent in getting to the truth of what really happened to her twin sister but at times it just seemed too far "out there" and far-fetched.  The description of the state employees was spot on, though!

I'm thankful that here in NY we no longer have these types of "schools" for special needs people. The realities though do linger: the reality of group homes and certain centers being understaffed; that abuse does still go on; that our nation seems to care more and pay more for people who work in space, medicine, sports, the armed forces, law,  but not for special educators, social workers and therapists or centers that work with special needs children and adults. 

The main themes in this book are: social injustice; educational injustice; betrayal, child neglect and abuse;abandonment; suicide; disease, violence, medical experiments;  murder; alcoholism and drug addiction; loss, grief, death; survival. 

In many ways this book reads like a murder mystery and a horror story. Sadly......this is based on facts.  It really was that bad at Willowbrook. What's absolutely horrifying to me is that our US Defense Department funded the medical experiments on the residents there!!!  Just disgusts me. Shame on them. I was only 12 years old when the news broke about Willowbrook and I remember my parents watching the news about it. My heart broke even then for all of the mentally impaired people living there. 

I really am glad the author has notes in the back of the book.  it's important to know the facts. The real story of Willowbrook should never be forgotten. 

I do recommend that if you work at all with special needs children or adults or if you are an educator of any kind, that you read this book. Also if you don't know the difference between mentally impaired and mental illness, you might want to learn those differences. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content).

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 9.