MY THOUGHTS
This author writes a story like she's living it. This book will touch your heart in ways you never expected. The sorrow that you'll read about is so real. It's what actually happened on Staten Island, NY back in the early 1970's and let's hope it isn't still happening anywhere today.
This is the story of an institution that was suppose to house mentally challenged children. What happened there was nothing short of the worse abuse I have ever read about in this country. The fact that it is based on actual events makes me cringe. Reading this book you will learn about the atrocities that happened to children. The filth they were made to live in. The meager amount of food they received. The drugs they were all given. All the same thing none the less. The abuse was atrocious. I could feel the stench. The horrible living conditions. The cold. The vermin that they had to endure each and every day of their young lives. Though some lived to be adults they were still kept there, in separate quarters. Some never made it to their teen years.
This book is based on the events that led up to the public finding out the truth about what was going on at Willowbrook. A young woman who went there looking for her twin sister was kept against her will as they thought she was the twin. Actually they said she didn't have a twin but was delusional. She was said to be violent and out of control. The sad part is that the so called doctors did not do evaluations on the patients like they should have. A year or more would go by before they were ever seen by a doctor. They were placed in very overcrowded rooms with nothing to do but fight, drool, walk in circles or just exists they best they could. What this one young lady, who was only sixteen, discovered what no one cared. Even the attendants were doing the best they could. Though some of them were very abusive also. Sage Winters went to Willowbrook looking for her twin only to find herself as a patient. What she went through was horrendous but she did survive.
Sage Winters went on to help many of the patience at Willowbrook. She worked endlessly to find them places to live. Ways to help. Her ultimate goal was restitution for what her sister and many others went through. Knowing this actually happened makes this book even more worth reading. It was so very well written and researched. This author never lets me down with her writing skills and way of putting in print what we need to know and remember. This place was full of children. Starving and many naked and abused sexually.
There was a lot going on but the overall is that this was written about an institution that should have been helping but was hurting so many. So many died and there was a serial killer among them that said he was only doing what they asked of him. To help them escape.
The last chapter of this book tells what happened to Sage later in life. All the good she did. This is a very emotional read. Not doubt about that. I shed many tears reading this but it was also very good. Very interesting to learn about. It was worth every single tear.
Thank you #NetGalley, #EllenMarieWisman, #KensingtonBooks for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.
5 huge stars and a very high recommendation.
SYNOPSIS
Girl, Interrupted meets American Horror Story in 1970s Staten Island, in the evocative new book from the New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Collector. Fact, fiction, and urban legend blend in this haunting story about a young woman mistakenly imprisoned at Willowbrook State School, the real-life institution later shuttered for its horrendous abuses.
Sage Winters always knew her sister was a little different even though they were identical twins. They loved the same things and shared a deep understanding, but Rosemary—awake to every emotion, easily moved to joy or tears—seemed to need more protection from the world.
Six years after Rosemary’s death from pneumonia, Sage, now sixteen, still misses her deeply. Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted. Yet despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing.
Sage knows little about Willowbrook. It’s always been a place shrouded by rumor and mystery. A place local parents threaten to send misbehaving kids. With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary. What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could imagined . . .
Sage Winters always knew her sister was a little different even though they were identical twins. They loved the same things and shared a deep understanding, but Rosemary—awake to every emotion, easily moved to joy or tears—seemed to need more protection from the world.
Six years after Rosemary’s death from pneumonia, Sage, now sixteen, still misses her deeply. Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted. Yet despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing.
Sage knows little about Willowbrook. It’s always been a place shrouded by rumor and mystery. A place local parents threaten to send misbehaving kids. With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary. What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could imagined . . .
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