Thank you to Kensington publisher and NetGalley for the ebook of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook, Ellen Marie Wiseman's new book. This is an intense suspense, somewhat gothic, story with great detail and rich history and context. I appreciated what was for me a change in style for this author, this book felt more intense and scary as compared to previous books (which I have found eerie and suspenseful but in a different way, I am a fan!) and how much this book pulled the reader into the asylum settings, the fear and uncertainty, and the creeping doubts about Sage and Rosemary. Really a great, fast, and suspenseful read, I think it would be a great option for Fall readers looking for a scary/spooky read for October.

First ever Wiseman reader here. Its always exciting to find an author who masterfully weaves a tale bringing a part of our history to the forefront. And while "The Lost Girls Of Willowbrook" is haunting and utterly terrifying, its a story that needs to be told.

From the author: "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."

Viewing the cover art and this synopsis, I was sucked into Willowbrook right alongside Sage. I wasn't prepared for what I would find there. Willowbrook makes jails look like luxury residences. With close to 6000 mentally and physicaly disabled residents, the facility was the largest state run mental health institute in the US. It was overcrowded (patients being ill or abandoned by their parents - and thus wards of the state). The place was understaffed, filthy and overall a nightmare existence for residents. While outwardly labeled a school Willowbrook truly was not. This is a shocking read, one thats harrowing for Sage as she tries to not only escape Willowbrook, but find out what happened to her sister and try to convince staff she who she says she is and not her sister. Wiseman has a way of making you feel you are in the room, inside Sage's head experiencing everything right with her.

The mystery of what happened to Rosemary is well told. You, the reader, will feel the terror of confinment and horrific conditions. I did. You will be rooting for her. I was.

Lastly, make sure to read Wiseman's notes at the end. Willowbrook was a real place in the US. Take a look at what it took to create public outcry and bring change. And then note just how long after everything was exposed did it take for conditions and real homes to be found for these children. It's heartbreaking.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Kensington and Ellen Marie Wiseman for opening my eyes to the reality of WIllowbrook. We must do better.

Thank you Net Galley for an ARC of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wisman. This is a fantastic thriller that is about a pair of identical twin sisters. One or into a sanitarium and the other searching for the truth.

Too grim and too graphic for me. This tale of Sage, who learns that her twin sister Rosemary, is at Willowbrook when Rosemary goes missing, is, admittedly, a valid depiction of the abuse the women at the institution suffered. That said, it's unrelenting. The novel is not helped by Sage, who I found remarkably unlikeable at the start (and she's a wild 16 year old who drinks five amaretto sours and ten shots of schnapps). She's mistaken for Rosemary when she gets to Willowbrook and finds herself stuck on the ward. Then she discovers there's a killer afoot. I recognize that I'm an outlier on this but I got tired of the horrors at about the 50 percent mark and flipped to the end. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Can't recommend.

A huge thanks to NetGalley for this arc. I never put it down; I could not stop reading this book. Ellen Wiseman had me on the edge of my seat. I am known never to read what a book is about; the title caught my attention, so I was unprepared for this twisting story. This is a phenomenal book, My advice, go read it and be ready for the ride!

A historical novel, taking place in the early 1970’s, is set at the dreadful, real life mental institution, Willowbrook State School, which was located in Staten Island, NY from 1946-1987.
This was a gripping, hard to put down novel, which was also difficult to read due to the subject matter. It encouraged me start researching more about this infamous ‘school’. I hope to understand how it was able to remain open for so many years!! Releasing on August 30; add this to your to read list now!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! This book took away my breath, I had tears flowing down my cheeks, a knot in my stomach, and I read each and every single word. Ellen Marie Wiseman brings you inside Willowbrook State School. All of your senses are heightened. The description and details are phenomenal and really brings you into the book. The smells and the sights that you envision knock you back and make you sick to your stomach. You will be anxious and full of nervous energy as the story progresses. You can smell the fear and taste the terror as these people are locked up against their will and all of life's simple pleasures are ripped away. The immense amount of research into the actual Willowbrook State School that Wiseman conducted is abundantly clear. It is shocking and disturbing how mental health was dealt with not that long ago. How can people treat other people in this way?

Sage has been under the impression for the last six years that her identical twin sister Rosemary passed away from pneumonia. When Sage stumbles into a conversation overhearing that Rosemary is in fact alive. But she is now missing. Complete pulls the world from beneath her feet. How could her family lie and say that Rosemary had died, when in fact they had her committed to Willowbrook. The one place parents always tell their children to keep them inline, the place where nightmares begin. Sage is determined to find her sister; will she be able to before Willowbrook swallows her whole?

I do not want to go into too many details and spoil this book for anyone. Do yourself a favor and read it. Wiseman has created phenomenal characters, an exceptional story, and brings Willowbrook back to life in all of its terrifying glory. I love when an author masterfully creates a book that weaves fact with fiction. Thank you to Ellen Marie Wiseman, Kensington, and BookSparks for gifting me this astounding read.

I received a complementary ARC of this book from Netgalley on behalf of the Publisher and was under no obligation to post a favorable review. This book was an intensely written story about twin sisters, Rosemary and Sage, one who has a lot of mental issues and is taken to Willowbrook Home for girls and one who is told her twin sister is dead. Year's later she overhears a phone conversation that he stepfather is having that her twin sister has escaped from the school. Wanting to help and see the sister she thought was dead she goes to the school and is mistaken for her twin and locked away. This is a disturbing story not for the light of heart. When I found out that this school did really exist back in the 1970s it made it even harder to fathom that human beings could have been treated this way. There's a good mystery here and a lot of creepy things happening. I felt like the book itself was easy to read but the content made it a bit harder but the detail was there and I could visualize the things that were happening.

This book was based on a true institution and it was just as bad as you’ll read about. It scared the jeepers out of me and gave me nightmares as I thought about all of the youth that were truly traumatized here. Yet I could not put it down and had to keep turning the pages to find out how it ended.

A great read for those who like a bit of a darker mystery.This book was based on a true institution and it was just as bad as you’ll read about. It scared the jeepers out of me and gave me nightmares as I thought about all of the youth that were truly traumatized here. Yet I could not put it down and had to keep turning the pages to find out how it ended.

A great read for those who like a bit of a darker mystery.

THE LOST GIRLS OF WILLOWBROOK by Ellen Marie Wiseman is a gripping and gut-wrenching novel based on the real-life Willowbrook State School, a mental institution on Staten Island, New York that was exposed in the 1970s for the unthinkably horrendous abuse of its residents. I only vaguely remembered the exposé of the school by Geraldo Rivera that helped lead to its eventual closure so I learned a lot from reading this haunting story. Sage Winters has been through a lot in her young life. She lost her mother in a fatal car crash and her twin sister, Rosemary, to pneumonia when she was just ten-years-old. Six years later, Sage learns a shocking secret from her stepfather. Her sister actually didn’t die as she was told. She was committed to the Willowbrook State School by her mother and stepfather and has been there ever since. Sage vows to find her sister and heads off to the school on her own. Upon her arrival, Sage is mistaken for her identical twin and locked up in her place. She is subjected to the same horrible living conditions and the physical and psychological abuse as the other residents. The descriptions in the story are intense and very difficult to read, but Sage’s resilience, bravery and will to survive are very inspiring. The author has used the perfect blend of fact and fiction to tell this important story. Don’t miss the Author’s Note at the end. I highly recommend this well-written and thought-provoking book. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read and review an early copy.

Having previously portrayed such injustices as the Pennsylvania mining industry’s effect on the workers, including children, a girl sold by her parents to a circus sideshow, and a woman kidnapping immigrant babies and children during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in order to turn them into Americans, Ellen Marie Wiseman now transports readers to the Willowbrook State School on New York’s Staten Island.

When teenager Sage Winters learns that her twin sister Rosemary had not died of pneumonia years before as Sage had been told but had, instead, been taken to Willowbrook and has now disappeared, Sage sets off alone by bus, telling neither her friends nor the drunken step-father with whom she lives. Believing Rosemary is receiving the type of special education she needs in a caring environment, Sage hopes to help the school find her. Then everything goes wrong.

Wiseman paints a horrifying portrait of this underfunded, understaffed, filthy, nightmarish mental institution that passed under the radar well into the 1970s and did not close its doors for good until 1987. She works in Robert Kennedy and Geraldo Rivera, who played roles in Willowbrook’s horrifying history and includes the urban legend of Cropsey, a kidnapper of children and a suspected serial killer.

In her Author’s Note, Wiseman provides useful and interesting information, including an explanation of people upon whom she loosely based a few fictional characters and a list of sources used in her meticulous research. Her thought-provoking discussion questions will serve book groups well, but also help the individual reader.

Although I felt the author had made her point about the appalling conditions at Willowbrook and found myself occasionally wishing she would skip the repetitive description and get on with the captivating story, The Lost Girls of Willowbrook is a well-written and memorable addition to Wiseman’s canon and to sociological-historical fiction. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington for the advance reader copy.

That. Was. Horrific! What is even more horrific is that it is based on real events. The main characters were, of course, fictional but the Willowbrook ‘school’ DID exist, it WAS overcrowded and understaffed and many patients/residents died in its care (or rather lack thereof). There are plenty of true accounts about the place if you care to look for them. At one stage I wasn’t even sure if I could finish reading this terrible account but I’m glad I did. It just goes to show that no matter how much progress we seem to make as a society there is still plenty of brutality to go around. Ms Wiseman certainly did her research for this book and it is both saddening and shocking to read about.

In the story 16 year old Sage Winters has only just learned that her twin sister, Rosemary, who was said to have died 6 years ago, is still alive although she has apparently gone missing from the Willowbrook school on Staten Island, New York. By this time Sage is living with her stepfather Alan whom she hates and the feeling is mutual. Her mother left her father and married Alan but when her mother died Sage had nowhere else to ago. She didn’t know where her real father was.

She misses Rosemary terribly. She knew her sister had some mental health and developmental issues but they loved each other and Sage felt her loss keenly. When she finally learned that Rosemary was still alive she headed off, without any planning or telling anyone where she was going, to find her sister at Willowbrook. Unfortunately when she rocked up there they though she was Rosemary (being identical twins) and no one would believe her story. She was shocked and appalled at the treatment meted out to the girls in care of Willowbrook. The more she protested, the more she was threatened with the straight jacket or solitary confinement or some other horror.

I won’t spoily the story for you by relating how she finally gets out of there, how she learns what actually happened to her sister and how her life progressed after she was freed. It is a very heartbreaking story that had me reaching for the tissues and, trust me, that does not happen often! The staff were all horrid and brutal but Sage’s character shone like a light. She refused to give up or give in. She was a very gutsy young lady to survive her ordeal as she did. This story will stay with me for a long time. Many thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

This was an interesting historical fiction about the real-life Willowbrook State School, a mental institution on Staten Island with absolutely deplorable conditions. Thanks to @netgalley and @kensingtonbooks for the early copy!
*
So essentially Sage learns that her identical twin sister Rosemary is missing from Willowbrook, so Sage decides to go there herself to help with the search. Instead the hospital administrators think she's actually Rosemary and when she insists she's not, they dismiss her claims as part of her (Rosemary's) documented delusions.
*
I found this interesting, especially the descriptions of Willowbrook and how awful it was, particularly as that part was based on the actual expose about the institution. It was terrifying to think about what it would be like to be wrongly committed and have absolutely no recourse, because any complaint or protestation of innocence is seen as further evidence of mental illness.
*The story overall was fine, Sage was a bit naive, but she was 16, so there's that. I didn't find anything particularly surprising - there was a "twist" at the end that seemed fairly obvious but still entertaining. And the writing was also fine, a bit simplistic.
*
I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to recommend this, but definitely interesting to learn more about Willowbrook.

Sage and Rosemary are twins. Sage thinks that Rosemary died 6 years ago but finds out that is a complete lie. Rosemary was sent Willowbrook State School and was there until just a few days ago!! Sage goes to Willowbrook to search for her sister. What she finds there is the terrible things her sister has been subjected to these last 6 years. Where is Rosemary? Can Sage get the answers she wants? This was a great historical fiction book with amazing characters. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to review!
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 4
Pace: 3
Plot development: 3
Characters: 2
Enjoyability: 3
Ease of Reading: 3

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

This based on a true story novel is not for the faint hearted. It’s a dark and gritty story that will definitely stay with me for a long time.

Sage Winters learned the truth about what happens to her twin sister- she was told her sister died which is tragic, but then learns that she’s actually in the Willowbrook State School. It’s not actually a school; it’s a place for unwell, unwanted, and neglected children and adolescents to go. Once Sage hears her sister, Rosemary is missing; she goes in a search to the facility to find her. However she is confused for Rosemary and she is taken hostage as a resident of Willowbrook. Sage sees first hand how disgusting and vile the conditions are for these young women. She tries very hard to get her self out of the facility as well as find out the truth about what happened to Rosemary.

This book was absolutely fascinating and heartbreaking to know it was a real situation. Sage compares the facility to a concentration camp and it’s almost worse. Ellen does a wonderful (and graphic) description of the smell of the school and it’s enough to make your stomach turn. The employees take advantage of the women and brutalize their residents. They are also demeaned in every way. Sage finds a little help with Eddie, a janitor who realizes that Sage isn’t Rosemary and they begin a friendship. It’s after a reporter sneaks into the facility, does the light get shed on these inhumane conditions.

The journalist is actually famous reporter, Geraldo Rivera and that really did happen! It was his first big break and it was instrumental in getting the facility rehabbed and eventually shut down. It’s fascinating that the school eventually did become the College of Staten Island.

As always, this led to a fabulous discussion. This was a dark and heavy book, but it was so interesting I think we all enjoyed the novel. This is my first time reading this author and I will be looking for more. Her attention to detail was incredible.

A story that is fiction, but touches on fact. Yes, parents were encouraged to send their children to places such as Willowbrook, and yes, it really existed on Staten Island NY.
The author gives us a story that makes you want to yell "No", when Sage enters the facility to look for her sister Rosemary.
Yes, I was able to figure out whom the killer was ahead of time, but it took a bit, and this will keep you holding your breath as you turn the pages for answers.
Reads like this help us to remember that this horrible treatment of people should never happen again!
If you like suspense, this one will keep you guessing, and changing your mind, and waiting for more surprises!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Kensington, and was not required to give a positive review.

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook is an amazing mashup of fact and fiction. This book follows Sage Winters as she is mistakenly locked up up a state school while searching for her long lost twin sister. The book follows her as she attempts to escape the abuse and torture in the school. Shockingly, the story does not end up with eventually release, and she ends up back in the terror again.
This haunting tale kept me hooked and on edge right from page one. Highly recommended.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Kensington Books in exchange for my honest review

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman took a close look at the institute that was known as Willowbrook State School. It was located in Staten Island, New York was still in existence during the 1970’s. Although the characters were fictional, much of the descriptions of how the residents were treated, cared for and how they lived were based on truth. Ellen Marie Wiseman was able to blend enough accurate facts with the right proportion of fiction and known legends about the school to deliver a compelling yet heartbreaking novel. Her talent as a masterful storyteller was easily recognized throughout the pages of this novel. I have read several of her books and have enjoyed them. The Lost Girls of Willowbrook was no exception.

Sage Winters was your typical sixteen year old teenager. She enjoyed hanging out with her girlfriends and sneaking behind her stepfather’s somewhat watchful eye to do things he probably wouldn’t have approved of. Sage’s mother had died in a car crash several years ago. Her stepfather drank a lot and left her to her own devices most of the time. Sage also had had a twin sister, Rosemary, who had died of pneumonia. Six year’s after Rosemary’s death, Sage overheard her stepfather on the phone commenting to someone about his concern that Rosemary was missing. Had Sage heard her stepfather correctly? How could Rosemary be missing if she had died? Sage’s stepfather admitted to Sage that he and her mother had put Rosemary in Willowbrook State School but did not want anyone to know so they told everyone she had died instead. Sage was livid. How could her mother have blatantly lied to her? Sage was determined to go to the school and help look for her sister. There were lots of scary rumors about the school but Sage decided to take the bus there by herself to help find her twin sister. She decided not to tell anyone that she was going. Sage took the bus there but just as she was about to get off at the stop for Willowbrook she discovered that her pocketbook and wallet had been stolen. The bus driver took her name and phone number and said he would contact her if they were turned in. Sage got off the bus and entered Willowbrook State School. When she entered the building she explained why she was there. An attendant noticed her and went to get someone to help her. Sage was mistaken for Rosemary. As much as she tried to explain that she was Rosemary’s twin sister Sage, no one believed her. The doctor, nurse and attendant thought they had found Rosemary. What occurred next was something that Sage could never had imagined. She was mistaken for Rosemary and was confined at Willowbrook. The conditions and way she was treated was so much worse than anything Sage could have possibly imagined. She was met with cruelty, overcrowding and abuse. The residents were drugged and ignored. How could Rosemary have tolerated all this for six long years? Sage’s mission became to find her sister and save her. The time she was held against her will at Willowbrook haunted her throughout her life.

Willowbrook State School existed in Staten Island, New York under deplorable conditions of uncleanliness, overcrowding and staff shortages. It was underfunded and mismanaged. The way the residents were treated was as bad as those that were in concentration camps. It was quite disturbing to read about the abuse the residents suffered and the lack of compassion they were shown. I had not known about the existence of Willowbrook and was appalled to find out how long it took to shut it down. In Ellen Marie Wiseman’s author note, she gave many details about the steps that were taken to change and rectify the treatment of these children. Although the subject matter of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook was heartbreaking and hard to read about, I thought it was well written and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Kensington Books for allowing me to read this advanced copy of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Publication is set for August 30, 2022.

This book was so dark and insanely disturbing, particularly because Willowbrook is based on an actual facility.

When Sage goes searching for her sister who she thought was dead at Willowbrook, the "school" thinks she is Rosemary and takes her into their custody against her will. No matter what Sage says to try to convince them she isn't Rosemary, they just think she's crazy and refuse to listen. Trapped at the facility, Sage sees first hand the horrific conditions the children banished to Willowbrook are forced to endure. Sage witnesses and experiences abuse and even sees some of her fellow residents die. Unhygienic conditions including feces and urine all over the walls and floor, no regulation and control over medications, poor sleeping environments and a lack of proper or appropriate attire, and a serious lack of nourishment are just some of the inhumane conditions the children were facing.

Much of this novel was really hard to read because it was just so horrific and graphic. Parts felt embellished and too unimaginable to be based on truth, yet they are indeed based on fact. Compared to concentration camps, Willowbrook is a blight on our not so distant past and I'm grateful to Wiseman for sharing this tale and educating me on its horrors. Admittedly, I was not familiar with the facility and it has piqued my interest - that a facility could be so over capacity, understaffed, underfunded, completely mismanaged, and fall completely under the radar.

The beginning of the novel was a bit slow but once Sage got to Willowbrook it did pick up. Though it's a fairly short novel, this isn't one that I was able to read quickly because it was just too much to bear at times. Thinking of these poor disabled and abandoned children was so heart wrenching and the writing really captured the filthy conditions, repulsive smells, and terror that took place within the walls of Willowbrook. I couldn't imagine being a parent that was forced (or worse, chose) to give up their child and then to learn how they were being treated.

I liked the authors note and acknowledgments that offered more details about Willowbrook and the inspiration for the novel. Learning there was approximately six thousand poor souls were living in Willowbrook at the time it was finally forced to improve conditions and transfer people out was truly unimaginable.

I did feel like I needed to suspend belief about some parts of the book, but all in all, this was a captivating and utterly astonishing novel that I definitely recommend.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for a copy of this novel.