Wayward Girls DEALS
Susan Wiggs’ latest work, the gut-punching Wayward Girls, is the latest entry in a successful career of impressive, bestselling, and critically lauded books, exploring the dark, behind-the-scenes world of a Magdalene laundry where young women are held captive, abused, and exploited for labor.
Combining diverse representation with a decades-spanning storyline, this historical fiction novel delivers a powerful message about corruption and institutional wrongdoing despite the book’s shortcomings.
Due to be published this week, on July 15, 2025, this book is another addition to Wiggs’ impressive body of work, including multiple New York Times #1 bestsellers. It combines romance, historical fiction, and drama to consider the question: where would any of us be without the women in our lives?
Big thanks to the amazing book publicist, Angela Melamud, for getting us this ARC!
Wayward Girls Summary
The novel tells the story of young Mairin O’Hara, a first-generation Irish-American teenage girl growing up in upstate New York in the late 1960s.
After being sent to a Magdalene laundry, an institution where she and countless other girls are systemically mistreated, Mairin develops powerful friendships with other prisoners: Angela, a beautiful girl sent in because she’s gay; Odessa, a Black girl who is sent in after being victimized by police brutality, and Helen, a Chinese-American girl anxiously awaiting her parents’ return from a China in the midst of revolution. The novel, set primarily during the Vietnam War, explores ideas of religious trauma and female rebellion.
Halfway through the novel, we are transported to the present day and are given a glimpse into how Mairin and the other survivors of the Magdalene laundry reckon with their past, their trauma, the legal system, and their relationships with one another. The story explores five generations of characters, offering a moving family epic alongside the ideas of empowerment and friendship.
A particularly profound theme explored in Wayward Girls is the notion of family history and irregular adoption, shedding light on a real-life practice estimated to have impacted between 1.5 and 4 million mothers in the United States by the time Magdalene laundries were effectively closed in the late twentieth century.
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Strengths
The book’s undeniable strengths lie in its character development, its themes, and the relationships between the characters.
The characters in this book are impossible not to love and root for. I loved the humanity and complexity with which each character was depicted.
Janice, for example, one of the imprisoned girls, is initially introduced as an untrustworthy snitch to be avoided at all costs. But as the novel progresses, we see more to her story: her vulnerabilities, her intense fear of punishment, and her ultimate loyalty to her friends and moral integrity.
No one in this novel is wholly good or bad, and I admired Wiggs’s clear compassion for her characters.
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The themes of this novel are timeless and, unfortunately, as relevant now as ever.
Feminine oppression and rebellion are at the core of Wayward Girls, and the hope and solidarity we see in the characters inspire optimism, even as complications and difficulties plague the characters’ paths. I also admired how deeply this novel celebrated friendship between girls and women, highlighting a profound bond that isn’t always the central focus in popular literature.
What might resonate most with readers is the relatability of the relationships in this novel. While I hope that the majority of those who read this novel have never experienced imprisonment, it’s undeniable that most will be able to identify with the teenage friendships formed amongst the girls in the novel, from secret laughter to dance parties to silent support in hardship.
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While Wayward Girls is a worthwhile read, triumphing in its treatment of injustice and female coming-of-age, the book’s length is a mark against it. While Wiggs’s ambitious goal of painting a multigenerational story is commendable, the novel’s pacing halfway through falls a bit short.
When the novel pivots to modern day, the strength of the emotional closeness shared by the girls is temporarily lost, which may make readers feel restless or long for a swifter resolution.
For example, when we see Mairin, the protagonist, rebuilding her life after her incarceration at the workhouse, I missed the captivating spirit of her friendship with the other girls. Her connection with Fiona, a childhood friend, is explored on the surface, but Mairin’s budding romance with Fiona’s brother, Flynn, becomes the focus as Mairin seeks to find meaning in work, in family, and in other aspects of her life.
Readers with a shorter attention span might find this transitional moment of the book difficult, but powering through the final half ultimately yields a rewarding and satisfying conclusion to the ordeals faced by the characters.
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Key Themes And Takeaways
Wayward Girls is, ultimately, a beautifully moving celebration of feminine identity and female friendship. In this novel, there are few dashing or heroic saviors, and the majority of the problem-solving comes from Mairin and the rest of the girls in the reformatory.
The idea of girls-who-save-themselves is a powerful narrative today, offering readers the opportunity to consider who they or the women around them can be and have been empowered to enact change in their own lives.
Ideas of reproductive justice, solidarity, and institutional corruption are particularly relevant right now, and the book’s exploration of how girls and women respond to these topics is ultimately uplifting and inspiring.
Verdict
Wayward Girls is an unmissable read for historical fiction lovers or any reader who enjoys stories about female empowerment. Despite its imperfect pacing and occasional predictability, the novel overcomes these shortcomings through its emotional resonance and powerful depiction of friendship and female coming-of-age.
If you enjoyed the relationships in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, or the harrowing reality of Clare Keegan’s Small Things Like These, which also depicts a Magdalene laundry, this novel is a must-read.
The Review
Wayward Girls
A powerful, emotional work of historical fiction celebrating the power of female friendship as a group of young women come-of-age in a Magdalene laundry
PROS
- Moving female relationships
- Strong character development
- Positive representation of diverse women
CONS
- The book felt too long
- Certain plot elements were predictable
- Pacing was a bit uneven
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