The Museum of Wayward Girls began as a novel and became an archive. It is dedicated to women and girls whose lives were misnamed, misfiled, or erased. Those history labeled wayward when they resisted the roles assigned to them.
About the Book
Front cover.
First published in 2022, The Museum of Wayward Girls is not a conventional historical novel. It unfolds like a cabinet of curiosities—built from fragments, absences, and voices that refuse neat resolution.
The structure mirrors the records from which these lives were recovered: incomplete, institutional, and shaped by power. Names disappear. Narratives fracture. Meaning must be approached, not extracted.
The text remains unchanged. What has evolved is the context around it. This museum now extends beyond the book—through letters, exhibits, and ongoing acts of preservation
The Museum of Wayward Girls
Art, culture, and bottomless bits of time were precious commodities all controlled by one organization - La Famille Faux. Can Tessa-Marie, a reluctant historical custodian, mend her madness long enough to save the world she loves most or will she fall victim to her own crushing reality?
Available via Amazon
The structure mirrors the records from which these lives were recovered: incomplete, institutional, and shaped by power. Names disappear. Narratives fracture. Meaning must be approached, not extracted.
The text remains unchanged. What has evolved is the context around it. This museum now extends beyond the book—through letters, exhibits, and ongoing acts of preservation
The Museum of Wayward Girls
Art, culture, and bottomless bits of time were precious commodities all controlled by one organization - La Famille Faux. Can Tessa-Marie, a reluctant historical custodian, mend her madness long enough to save the world she loves most or will she fall victim to her own crushing reality?
Available via Amazon
Curator's Note
Museums should be built on absences, preserving what remains after loss has done its work.
Closing Invitation
The museum is not complete. New materials continue to surface through correspondence, reader recognition, and archival exploration. Those wishing to follow the work beyond the page are invited to receive Letters from the Museum. (March 2026)
A Letter of Introduction
My dearest friends, felines, and co-conspirators,
In all my years of hobnobbing with royalty and noshing with celebrities, I’d never met anyone as intriguing, absorbing, and enigmatic as the fabled Tessa-Marie Soliloquy Faux, the historical custodian of a most curious collection. She collected art and artifact and stories not told, the curation of which took centuries to complete.
Along the way, Tessa-Marie amassed the most exquisite assemblage of Wayward girls. A group of women she trusted—perhaps a little too much. Imagine human existence as a handful of multi-colored ribbons made of time, people, and places, woven together like a plait down a child’s back. Wisps of hair began to stray, ribbons frayed, and with enough naughtiness, eventually, everything became undone. Human existence horrified her at best. She became obsessed with fixing it all or at least making it appear that way.
We met in a speakeasy at the memory’s edge of town. Tessa-Marie had spools of stories to tell, and I was happy to indulge her insatiable tongue-wagging over nights of alcohol-induced euphoria. Moments I was dogged to follow the rest of my life resulted in merged realities and shared experiences. I couldn’t get enough of her. And now I shall pass her stories on to you. Perhaps you’ll remember them. Maybe you won’t. It might all be real. Or perhaps it’s not. Who are we to say what is truth and what is lie, what is real, and what is a pure figment of our beloved imagination?
Yours in faithful frivolity and other unsightly sins,
A.M. Curator