Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice

Today's nonfiction post is on Ghosts of the Orphanage: A Story of Mysterious Deaths, a Conspiracy of Silence, and a Search for Justice by Christine Kenneally. It is was 384 pages long and published by Public Affairs. The cover is a black and white picture with a stairway in the back. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of twentieth-century orphanages and the children who survived them. There is foul language, discussion of sexual violence, and violence in the form of child abuse in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- The shocking secret history of twentieth-century orphanages—which for decades hid violence, abuse, and deaths within their walls For much of the twentieth century, a series of terrible events—abuse, both physical and psychological, and even deaths—took places inside orphanages. The survivors have been trying to tell their astonishing stories for a long time, but disbelief, secrecy, and trauma have kept them from breaking through. For ten years, Christine Kenneally has been on a quest to uncover the harrowing truth.   Centering her story on St. Joseph’s, a Catholic orphanage in Vermont, Kenneally has written a stunning account of a series of crimes and abuses. But her work is not confined to one place. Following clues that take her into the darkened corners of several institutions across the globe, she finds a trail of terrifying stories and a courageous group of survivors who are seeking justice. Ghosts of the Orphanage is an incredible true crime story and a reckoning with a past that has stayed buried for too long, with tragic consequences.  

Review- This is a tough read but also very worth it to give the survivors their voices. Kenneally started researching the topic of child abuse in Catholic orphanages around 2016. At first she was just looking in her native Australia but she dug deeper into the story she realized that this was more than just the odd priest or nun, it was systemic. The stories the survivors told were stomach turning and gave the survivors life long PTSD. Keanneally investigates the stories and gives the survivors room to tell the stories themselves. This book is a testament, like the Spotlight stories that broke open the sexual abuse of priests, to the will of the survivors . I would recommend this book out of respect to them.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.