It starts off in December 1971 on Staten Island. 16 year old Sage Winters is still grieving her twin sister Rosemary who died of pneumonia 6 months earlier. Sage gets in a fight with her girlfriends. Her friends made fun of her for believing the rumors about “Cropsey.” The rumor is that he was an escaped mental patient from Willowbrook State School who now kills children.

Sage overhears her stepfather on the phone. He’s told Rosemary has been missing for 3 days. How can she be missing when she’s dead? Well, Sage discovers that Rosemary has been a resident of Willowbrook for the last 6 months until she disappeared. Willowbrook is a school for kids with disabilities and mental illness. Sage secretly goes to visit Rosemary. When she arrives, the attendants are happy to see that she’s back. They think she’s Rosemary and they start talking about split personality disorder. So are Sage and Rosemary actually identical twins or one person with split personalities?

This definitely reminded me of Girl, Interrupted but much worse conditions. The book was based on a real “school” from the 70’s. Robert Kennedy visited and condemned it and Geraldo Rivera did a story about it. Both of which brought light to the terrible and tragic conditions there. Murder, rape, extremely unsanitary conditions and more. Kids were barely showered and fed. I believe there’s even a documentary about Cropsey. Such a gross name.

Premise: A+

4.5/5

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