“We were girls…bad girls, neurotic girls, needy girls, wayward girls, selfish girls, girls with Electra complexes, girls trying to fill a void, girls who needed attention, girls with pasts, girls from broken homes, girls who needed discipline, girls desperate to fit in, girls in trouble, girls who couldn’t say no.
But for girls like us, down there at the Home, the devil turned out to be our only friend,” (Hendrix 6).
After telling her family she’s pregnant, fifteen-year-old Fern is sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida to deliver her baby, give it up for adoption, and then return home as if nothing ever happened, a common enough though unspoken thing in the 1970s. As Fern settles in with her hippie roommate Rose, mute Holly, and aspiring musician Zinnia, the girls do chores, have their diets restricted, and have every moment of their lives controlled by the stern Miss Wellwood. But there is some respite from the bookmobile which visits the home every two weeks, and Miss Parcae, the old librarian who gives Fern a book that could change everything, for a price. Continue reading
Sarah O'Connor 