Kori Frazier Morgan

Bone China Girls Kori Frazier Morgan

On October 26, 1965, the body of sixteen-year-old Sylvia Likens was found in a ramshackle house in an Indianapolis neighborhood. Left in the care of Gertrude Baniszewski, an ailing, middle aged housewife, while her parents traveled as carnival workers, Sylvia became the target of unspeakable abuse and torture at the hands of Gertrude and her children. Approaching the Likens case as a crime against a young woman by women, Morgan uses persona poetry to explore the points of view of the female players in the event, from Sylvia and her sister, Jenny, to Gertrude and her daughters, Paula, Stephanie, and Shirley. Full of surprising revelation and use of form and language, Bone China Girls is a disturbing portrayal of what causes women - particularly young women - to victimize each other, as well as why Likens' murder continues to bear relevance fifty years later.