Susan Wiggs is known for novels with relatable characters and narratives that hook the reader from the start, and her newest novel, “Wayward Girls,” is historical fiction at its best. In this gripping story, we meet young girls who were forced to leave school, their homes, and their families, to work at a Catholic laundry masquerading as a charity home for wayward girls in New York.

When Mairin’s father died, she was only ten years old. Her mother, a staunch Irish Catholic, afraid of not being able to provide for Mairin and her older brother Liam, remarried quickly. Her choice was unfortunate, and within a few years, Mairin’s stepfather seemed interested in being more than a stepfather to her. Liam intervened and beat their stepfather. He then taught Mairin self-defense, but he was drafted in the Vietnam War and would be leaving soon. Mairin would be unprotected. Her stepfather didn’t want her around because she wasn’t going to be an easy victim, and her mother was worried about her safety.

Their answer was to put Mairin in the Home of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic institution that took in wayward girls to educate them and teach them morals and manners. However, what no one outside the walls of the building knew was that there was no education going on. The girls did not study reading and math, did not know about current events, did not enter any classrooms. Instead, they worked long hours in the laundry, always behind locked doors. They were severely punished for the slightest infraction, fed poorly (while the nuns ate lavish meals), and isolated from everything outside the walls.

Mairin was spunky, and she was determined to escape. Time after time, harsh punishment after severe beating, she kept trying and planning and thinking about how to leave. She did finally succeed, but the secrets, the cruelty, the depredations of living enslaved left their marks on her. And while she was able to build a happy life with a loving family, she always felt the weight of the secrets she carried with her from her hidden past.

While Mairin is the main character, we also meet and grow close to three other girls who bonded with Mairin there and who helped in the escape. When they meet again finally, decades after their imprisonment, they decide to get justice.

While this book is one that is immediately engrossing and immediately informative (I didn’t know that adopted people needed a pre-adoption birth certificate in order to get a passport), it’s also a book that is, at times, difficult to read. The events which occur, the cruelty of life behind the church walls, are painful to read about. And the fact that they are based on real events makes it even harder to stomach. That such horrors were inflicted on young girls, often girls with no family, or girls who had been mistreated, is unconscionable and heartrending. And worse yet, that these things were done under the auspices of the Catholic Church is even more terrible.

But Wiggs presents us with girls filled with fortitude, resourceful girls who become women to be respected. “Wayward Girls” is about surviving and friendship, determination and courage, and ultimately getting justice. Fans of Susan Wiggs’ novels will also appreciate a few tongue-in-cheek references to at least one previous novel. This is definitely a book that I will continue to think about because of the characters and the shocking historical facts. I also will be keeping it to use as a future book club read.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.