Where the Girls Were

The illuminating latest from Schatz (coauthor of Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book) looks back on the impact of the sexual revolution before Roe v. Wade. In 1968, high school senior Elizabeth “Baker” Phillips is at the top of her class and expects to attend Stanford in the fall. Her plans are thrown into doubt after she meets a hippie named Wiley at a New Year’s Eve party. Baker and Wiley embark on a secret relationship that ends when she catches him kissing another girl. Shortly after their breakup, Baker realizes she’s pregnant. She initially seeks out an abortion but gets scared and doesn’t follow through. Her mother sends her to a maternity home to have the baby, where she bonds with a roommate whose partner is being shipped off to Vietnam and becomes fixated on past resident Kitty, whose unsent letter asking for help she finds under her bed. During Baker’s final trimester, she races to unravel the mystery of what happened to Kitty and grapples with whether to give her baby up for adoption. Some readers might be frustrated by the cliffhanger ending, but Schatz convincingly evokes the confusion and conflicting emotions of an unplanned pregnancy at a time when abortion was outlawed across the U.S. This resonates. Agent: Jesseca Salky, Salky Literary Management. (Mar.)