Review: "Where the Girls Were" by Kate Schatz

Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz
Published March 2026 via The Dial Press
★★★★

It's 1968, and everything is falling into place for Baker. She's on track to go to Stanford, become a journalist, and see the world (beginning, of course, with Paris). But when Baker gets pregnant (because of course a nice girl from a good family doesn't know anything about contraception), she becomes one of the girls who are sent away.

They love her, they're proud of her—and they need her. And that's why no one can know what is really going on. Brilliant young Baker is their ticket, the proof to everyone that their little family has made it, will make it. The future is bright, because their daughter is bright. No one else in this family has gone to college. Baker is going to life them to a new level. This has always been the plan. (loc. 1222*)

I've read my fair share of books with this general context (girl "in trouble", including in times and places when society was especially unkind to girls in such a situation), and in some ways what stands out here is that the home Baker is sent to is not cruel. Oh, it's still a place designed to strip girls (and young women) of their freedom and agency, and there's still plenty of shame heaped on the girls. They're never allowed to forget that they made a mistake (nobody considers that it takes two to tango) or to think that they could be competent parents. They're discouraged from asking questions about their pregnancies, their bodies, giving birth, what their legal options are.

Baker feels like a reporter covering a story that no one else cares about, like she's back in her journalism class, trying to get the school paper edited before the deadline. (loc. 2994)

Overall this feels written with intense research and a lot of compassion. Lots of detail, lots of wrestling with time and place. Lots of reminders that there have always been girls who have been sent away.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

Thanks to the author and publisher for inviting me to read a review copy through NetGalley.