The Broken Girls by Simone St James review
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A gothic boarding school, a murder mystery and a ghost called Mary.
Warning:
This article discusses a novel containing murder, child abuse, institutional cruelty toward girls, and supernatural horror elements.
CONTAINS SPOILERS
What it is about
The Broken Girls weaves two timelines through Barrons, Vermont. One unfolds in 1950 inside Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for girls no one wants. The other follows journalist Fiona Sheridan in 2014, investigating her sister's murder on the abandoned grounds of that same school.
I like the investigator frame. I've seen it used well in other novels, most memorably in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. When executed well, your curiosity runs parallel to the investigating character. This book does just that.
In 1950, Idlewild Hall houses the girls society discards. Katie arrives pregnant, sent away before she shows. CeCe's father is in prison for murder. Sonia crossed the Atlantic after the war, carrying trauma she won't name. Roberta's crime is poverty. Her family can't keep her.
Room 3 of the attic dormitory becomes their world. The school wants them silent and separate, but the four form something else. A private alliance against the cruelty around them. They share what little they have. They cover for each other. They become what the institution refuses to provide.
Then rumors about Mary Hand intensify. A girl who died at Idlewild in 1919. A presence that walks the halls. The four dismiss it as ghost stories meant to control them. Until one night, one of them vanishes without explanation.
In 2014, journalist Fiona Sheridan has spent two decades unable to move forward.
Her sister Deb was found dead on the abandoned Idlewild grounds in 1994. The killer was never caught. The case went cold. Fiona's family collapsed under the weight of it.
When a developer announces plans to restore the property, Fiona pitches a story to her editor as cover. Her real purpose is investigation. During demolition, workers find remains buried on the grounds. Not her sister. Someone older. A body hidden long before Deb died.
The discovery pulls Fiona into Idlewild's history and forces her to confront the possibility that her sister's death wasn't random but connected to something much older. The two timelines begin to converge as past and present harm reveal a shared architecture.
What works
In 2014, journalist Fiona Sheridan has been unable to forget her sister Deb who found dead on the abandoned Idlewild grounds in 1994.
The killer was never caught and the case went cold.
Now a developer plans to restore the property. As a writer Fiona seizes this as an opportiny and pitches the story to her editor as cover story, but her real purpose is investigating Idlewild Hall.
During demolition, workers find remains buried on the grounds.
But, they don’t belong to Fiona’s sister, the bones are older. A body hidden long before Deb died.
The discovery suggests her sister's murder was not isolated but part of a pattern stretching back decades.
The more Fiona uncovers about the school's past, the clearer it becomes that the two deaths are connected.
What happened in 1950 and what happened in 1994 share the same root.
In 1950, four roommates build a private world inside Idlewild's cruelty. Katie is pregnant, sent away to hide shame. CeCe's father is a convicted murderer.
Sonia fled Germany after the war carrying secrets she can't speak. Roberta's family couldn't afford to keep her.
They're the girls no one wants, thrown together in Room 3 of the attic dormitory.
The school punishes solidarity, but they form a bond anyway, creating their own small territory of loyalty in a place designed to isolate them.
Then rumors gather around Mary Hand, a girl who supposedly died at the school in 1919 and now haunts the grounds and one of the four girls disappears.
The two timelines begin to converge as past and present harm reveal a shared architecture.
Perfect for a cold case structure and an old-fashioned gothic mood.
The dual timeline lets St. James contrast two kinds of harm. Institutional harm in the past, personal grief and obsession in the present.
The pleasure of a good gothic setting
St. James describes the building with precision. The east wing stays ten degrees colder than the rest of the school. The chapel sits unused with its pews rotting.
The attic dormitory houses the newest arrivals, separated from established students by two flights of stairs and a locked door.
This isolation isn't accidental. It's designed to prevent bonding, to keep the girls controllable.
Idlewild was built to contain girls society wanted hidden. Pregnant teenagers. Daughters of convicted criminals, girls born out of wedlock.
They had many reasons…
The school charged fees most families could barely manage, provided minimal education and staffed itself with teachers who couldn't find work elsewhere.
The building's design reflects this purpose and the ghost story grows from that foundation.
What stayed with me is that Idlewild isn't fiction. Ireland's Magdalene Laundries operated until 1996, imprisoning 30,000 women and girls for moral failings.
The United States ran reform schools that functioned identically through the 1970s. There were dozens of schools like it. Probably still are.
That’s the real ghost in this book.
Scanned by Eloquence* from Finnegan, F.: Do Penance or Perish. A Study of Magdalen Asylums in Ireland. Congrave Press, Ireland, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny (2001).Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Similar books
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The original template for gothic atmosphere that doubles as psychological investigation.
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman. Another boarding school, another murder, another journalist returning to face what she left behind.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. For readers who want their gothic horror rooted in institutional rot rather than personal madness.