Grady Hendrix did it again! Such a good book. I was so excited to see this new title. It did not disappoint. I feel like reading Grady Hendrix is like riding a rollercoaster: exciting, emotional, and a little stomach rolling.
Witchcraft For Wayward Girls was set in Florida in the summer of 1970. The girls were all sent to a home for unwed mothers. The characters, as usual, were very well developed. I loved each of these girls and felt the pain and the triumph of what they were going through. I was deeply saddened by their mistreatment. Their circumstances drastically demonstrated how life has improved for women today.
The supernatural theme of the book was scary and exciting. I love a good witch story, they scare and intrigue me. I could imagine the power the girls were feeling and trying to regain through the use of witchcraft.
I loved the girl power of the novel. I loved how they stuck together and overcame. The ending was touching to me and I got a little emotional.
It was such a good book! When I started reading it, I thought it would make a great movie. Then I saw an interview with Mr Hendrix where he stated he was working on the screenplay. It should be amazing! I highly recommend this one!

Oh Mr. Hendrix has DONE IT AGAIN!

The horror of this book is OH TOO REAL and every single girl and woman needs to read this book; especially in the political climate that we are in now! There was so many things that I didn't know horrible people did before Roe v. Wade and if you are not scared.... after this book, you will be.

This book made horror all too real and with a splash of magic. Magic, like all choices, has a price and honestly in some of these girls situations, I would gladly pay...

This story captivated me from beginning to end. However, it was heartbreaking and made me so angry, I had to put it down a few times.

Overall, I'm truly blessed to be born in the time period I was and I will continue to fight so that young girls never have to resort to the consequences of witchcraft.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted e-copy.

Grady Hendrix has a talent for taking a regular situation and turning it completely inside out in the best, most twisted way. This book starts out with some historical fiction vibes. Neva is a pregnant teen, and her dad is taking her to a Home where she can spend the rest of her pregnancy and have her baby, then come on home after like nothing ever happened. Her name gets changed to Fern, as they don't use given names at the Home, and as upset as she is, she does get used to the house and the other girls. None of them are in great situations, especially Holly (no spoilers) and a few of the girls band together to try to save Holly and her baby from their future.

Enter the bookmobile.

I know, right? Bookmobile? Well, the lady that runs the bookmobile gives Fern a book of spells and the girls try one to cure Zinnia's constant nausea. Once they see the results of that, they want more...and it all goes completely haywire and twisty and crazy from there, in typical Grady Hendrix fashion.

There are definitely some trigger warnings, lots of gore and scenes that will make you think EW, but I had a lot of fun reading this one. It was a nice change of pace from my last few reads. I didn't like it as much as his other books, but still enjoyed it! 3.5 stars.

This book was interesting, to say the least. It started off like a retelling of ones thoughts, morphed into a fairy tale, and then became a modern day soap opera. Being someone who grew up in the same time frame as this book was set, I can relate to the characters in a way that many younger generations cannot. It is almost bone chilling to realize the lengths that parents actually went through to do exactly as this book reads. It almost makes it hit too close to home. Almost.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because at times, I struggled to want to keep reading it. The very beginning was almost too long in setting the story up, almost as if the main character was struggling to remember what she needed to put down on paper. And although that may have been intentional, it is a little discouraging for the average reader without the dedication needed to plow ahead looking for the "good part."

Now, I will strongly encourage any who read this review to "plow ahead" the set-up in the first few chapters. This book was totally worth the read, even if it borders on real-life history of a troubled teenager in the 1970's and the aftermath of giving a child up for adoption and then reuniting with that same child in the early 2000's.

The ending left me yearning for more, wanting to know what had happened to the child that was given up; what had happened to the fellow young women in the home; and how life would continue for the main character now that she found her long lost child. The ending almost makes you want to shed a tear or two for the characters but the sudden SLAM of the door, right in your face, right when the book almost was reaching the climax of another tale...left you with a need for more closure.
I want to thank NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

Wow. This was incredible!

I would count Grady Hendrix as one of my favorite authors, based, now, on the last six fiction novels of his I've read. His books are dark and quirky, a fantastic blend of horror and coming of age.

I thought that this book was the least dark and horrific (in the supernatural sense) and not nearly as gore-filled. Oh ... there's plenty of blood and gore - there are teens having babies, after all. But while it seems lighter on the gore, it's got a powerful message that really is as dark and sinister as the witches.

It is 1970 and young girls who are unwed but 'in a family way' are an embarrassment to their families and subsequently shipped off to homes for 'loose girls' and 'wayward girls.' One such home is the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida where the no-nonsense matron runs a tight ship and makes the girls earn their stay by doing chores before giving birth. The girls are also 'encouraged' to sign the necessary forms to give their unborn children up for adoption when born.

The girls in the home are all teens - 14 to 17 - and they are not allowed to use their real names or share any personal information about themselves with each other, and each is assigned a name upon arrival. Our narrator is a fifteen-year-old Fern, whose father drops her off and can't get away fast enough.

Fern doesn't take well to the disinterested adults around her who constantly let the girls know that they, the adults, know what's best for the unwed mothers. Her only oasis is the appearance of the bookmobile. Even this, though, becomes just dull routine when Fern has read everything the bookmobile has and there never seems to be anything new. But when the librarian hands Fern an old book of witchcraft, life for the girls in Wellwood Home is about to change.

The girls rally around Holly - just barely 14, Holly never talks and no one seems to know who the father of her baby is. But Fern figures it out when a guest comes to check on Fern and the baby he's going to adopt. Fern convinces the other girls that they need to work together and help Holly.

But witchcraft is a messy business and it also requires a price.

Hendrix's writing style is incredibly smooth. It is easy to fall into a Hendrix novel and just flow along with the book because of the narrative. He takes a few risks - writing about pregnant teens, from a pregnant teen perspective is not the least of those risks.

This book really highlights the misogynistic mores of the 70's. It would be nice if we could say that things have changed, but have they? I think Hendrix asks us to take a hard look at where we've come from and whether or not we've improved. Without being political, Hendrix is throwing our political climate in our face.

On one hand I want to say that it takes a long time for the 'horror' to show up in this book, but on the other hand, the horror starts right away with the treatment of the teen girls. Perhaps it's safer to say that the supernatural horror doesn't show up until later in the book.

I did not anticipate the ending. And I like that. I like being surprised when I'm enjoying a book, and I definitely enjoyed this.

I wasn't quite sure I liked that this was set in 1970, but of course it's easier to make a comment on current society if it's being shown by some other means (just as Star Trek made comments about the Vietnam War and Race relations without actually going to Earth).

I've read some really good books lately, but this is outstanding.

Looking for a good book? If you like horror or dark fantasy, if you like reading a well-written story, if you like when someone pokes at political and social issues, you really need to read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgally, in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you @berkleypub and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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This books is straight up bananas in the best way. If you are familiar with Hendrix books it is definitely filled with horror, graphic details but also so much heart. Set in the summer of 1970 four girls bond over a book. This is not a normal book. This is also not a normal summer. The girls are spending the summer hiding away at a home for pregnant girls. This would be such a good creepy tv show!

This is my favorite Grady Hendrix. This was sad, thought-provoking, and it took on very real events and stories of women with a paranormal and horror twist. The comparison to The Craft and Girl, Interrupted is very accurate and if you liked or loved those movies, I would highly recommend this book.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls follows Fern, a teenage pregnant girl who finds herself in a home full of other pregnant teens in the 1970s. Powerless, confused and faced with a ticking clock of their own pregnancies they band together to try to take back some sort of control in their own destinies. They find this through a battered old paperback allowing them to harness the power of witchcraft. But every source of power has it’s price. I adored this book. But to preface, I am very, very scared of pregnancy and the depictions of birth, and this book had a lot of that going on. There are scenes of birth that I actually had to skim through because I found it so visceral. But the thing I latched on to, and the thing that made me such of fan of Grady Hendrix in the first place, was that he really nails the feeling of being a young girl and finding these bonds in extreme situations. My favorite Hendrix is “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” primarily because I think the core friendship in that book and the feeling of helplessness and hope of being a young girl is so weirdly nailed you kind of can’t believe a man wrote it. This book nails the exact same feeling. This book has a decent page count, which usually makes me hesitant to dive in, especially for horror/thriller books, but I blazed through it. It’s a large cast of characters, and at first I was really worried I wouldn’t be able to follow, but the plot pulls focus on a select group within the home for pregnant teens and that becomes the core group we follow for the main chunk of the narrative. Also, the ending of this book. God the ending absolutely killed me in the exact same way My Best Friend’s Exorcism’s ending just sealed the deal on that book too. This is quite the book. If depictions and descriptions of birth or the bodily functions involved with pregnant people are too much for you (it almost was for me) then this might not be the book for you. But even despite my own phobias, this one really worked for me.

This review will post on my instagram @boozehoundbookclub

Witchraft For Wayward Girls (ARC)
Grady Hendrix
4.25⭐️

Pub Date: 1/14/2025

This was an awesome read. Horror, not just because of the witchcraft, but also the situations the girls were forced into.

Set in the 1970s, a home for unwed pregnant teenagers stood where girls were sent by their shamed parents to have the baby and give it up for adoption. It all sounded like a decent plan until they actually lived there. A lot of things went wrong that the girls explored and resorted to witchcraft for their revenge. Again, all seemed great until they have to pay their dues.

This is my first Grady Hendricks book and it was a great one to start with. I will say, it took a while for the "scene" and plot to set up, which was absolutely necessary. I do wish that it was a little faster. This had a very creepy feel to it, and not just because of the witchcraft aspect. All these girls were pushed into a corner by men in their lives, the home staff and the witches. They had difficult choices to make, none of them were in their favor really. There were parts of the book that got technical about the delivery and surgery aspects of childbirth. It's like reading a hospital note. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it even up until now but it did paint the picture well, albeit in a darker light. I appreciate that the ending gave us some sort of resolution and answers. I didn't feel like I was left hanging.

Thank you so much Berkley Publishing for a gifted e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A group of pregnant teenagers at a home for unwed mothers in 1970 learn witchcraft. Sounds pretty awesome, right?

The home is miserable and emotionally abusive. They're slut-shamed constantly, made to work like Cinderella, and banned from doing anything entertaining. There's a ton of horrific medical abuse. The girls are all given fake names and banned from telling each other their real names or anything about their real life. They all - every one of them - obey this absolutely, with the exception of a few slips. (VERY improbable!) Their babies are sold to adoptive parents. Girls who want to keep their babies are threatened with everything from homelessness to being locked up for life in an asylum until they give them up. But then one of them gets a book on witchcraft...

Based on the premise, I thought this would be about the girls banding together to get revenge on their abusers and forge better lives for themselves.

Haha nope! It's 80% pregnancy/abuse misery, 15% pregnant girls being exploited by witches, and 5% MAX pregnant girls doing anything for themselves including revenge.

I am not big on pregnancy in fiction. I did love the premise, but I assumed it would more about pregnancy being the thing that trapped the girls in a bad situation, and less about the physical details of pregnancy. It is EXTREMELY about the physical details of pregnancy. It has the most graphic birth scene I have ever read, and that includes in literal guides to childbirth.

I was really surprised by how little witchcraft there is. It doesn't even get introduced until about a quarter of the way in, when one of the girls gets a book on witchcraft from a librarian who is also a witch. Then there's a ton of time before they actually try a spell. Then, after they do a very successful spell - that they even use a blinded study on to make sure it's not a coincidence - all but one of the girls lose all interest in witchcraft and there's no more spells for ages. I think there's only three spells done in the entire (long) book.

Given the emphasis on how incredibly bored the girls are and how much they hate the people running the home, AND that the one spell they master is a very versatile one (Turnabout - give something you're experiencing to another person), this seems less in-character and more like Hendrix really didn't want to write the witchcraft, much as an erotica author might think, "Oh God, not another sex scene."

The afterword mentions that the first two drafts of the book did not have witches. That explains a lot. The book is mostly an expose on the horrific injustices done to pregnant teenagers pre-Roe (very earnest - Hendrix got the idea because this happened to two women in his family - but bordering on misery porn as a reading experience), plus tacked-on witches.

The witches/witchcraft elements are very inconsistent, as if Hendrix didn't know exactly what he wanted to do with them. The book on witchcraft has the kind of sisterhood and female empowerment rhetoric that was what I expected Witchcraft for Wayward Girls to be about, but the librarian-led coven (which wrote the witchcraft book) is a rag-tag group of basically homeless women who mostly seem pathetic and whose only interest in the pregnant girls is using the most powerful one for their own selfish ends.

Sometimes witchcraft seems very powerful, sometimes it seems useless. The pregnant girls are mostly not interested in using it, and have no imagination in terms of what they might be able to use it for. At one point they have spells they could use to turn invisible, fly, etc, and they don't even bother to try them because there's no spell that fits a very specific goal they have -- without even considering trying out the magic they do have as part of an overall plan to accomplish their goal! They keep saying it's pointless to do magic because it can't get them money and a home, but some of the spells actually could do that, if they were willing to say invisibly rob a bank.

In general, the depiction of witchcraft is very negative. Most of what we see involves exploitation, self-mutilation, and general misery. The pregnant girls are miserable, but the witches are also miserable. The Magical Negro cook who helps out the white girls (the one black girl renounces witchcraft very early on) uses magic to fight the witches, but doesn't consider herself a witch and thinks magic is evil (I guess except the magic she uses? very inconsistent!)

The overall attitude to witchcraft is both inconsistent and annoying. The end implies that it's a metaphor for female empowerment, but nothing in the rest of the book supports that. Most of the time, the witches are evil or pathetic or both. When the protagonist finally has her baby, she thinks that bringing life into the world is the REAL magic that puts witchcraft to shame BARF FOREVER.

If you want a book where teenage girls get revenge and the upper hand, 99% of the book is not that. Also, the word "pregnant" is used about 5000 times, or maybe it just felt that way.

I generally like Grady Hendrix on women's issues, but WOW was this one a miss.

Content notes: Told not shown child sexual abuse. Upsetting depictions of medical abuse, emotional abuse, misogyny, slut-shaming, self-mutilation, and forcibly separating mothers from babies. THREE extremely graphic and horrifying birthing scenes. An absolutely classic Magical Negro. Pervasive and graphic pregnancy details.

My first book by this author! I really liked this. I don’t read a lot of “witchy” books and I loved this

Set in a group home for pregnant teens, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a story of hope, sisterhood, and the dark powers all women possess. It wasn't the strongest of Hendrix's works, in my opinion, but it definitely adds to his mastery of giving an authentic female voice to his protagonists.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

“Power is not a material possession that can be given. Power is the ability to act and that must always be taken, for no one will ever give that power to you. Those who have power wish to keep it, and those who want power must learn to take it.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First off, thank you @berkleypub for the free gifted copy of Hendrix latest release! #berkleypartner

Grady Hendrix is one of my favourite authors and that is because he is able to write strong, powerful, dynamic, and complex female characters so well. All while weaving an engaging, horror novel that manages to not take itself too seriously, but also poke at societal issues around misogyny and race.

Witchcraft for Wayward Witches delivers fully on those aspects, but in a more serious tone than I have seen in his other works. Yes we still have the comedic elements to lighten the very dark mood but they are fewer and farther between than what we saw in My Best Friends Exorcism, Southern Book Club, or How to Sell a Haunted House.

I have a theory that it could be because this story may hit closer to home for Hendrix. He stated that the book was inspired by family members who were sent to these Maternity homes when were teenage girls.

“I tried to understand what they had been through, but I couldn’t wrap my head around how scared and isolated they must have felt. I tried to imagine what it was like to have a child but not know if they were alive or dead, sick or well-and I couldn’t.”

This is, in my opinion, Hendrix’s darkest novel yet and it is my favourite.

If you do pick it up I highly suggest checking out the content warnings first and if you would like to know more you can swipe right for the synopsis!

“We weren’t girls. We were never girls. We were witches.”

This book took me in from the beginning and it never let up. A story about unwed, pregnant teenage girls and their treatment by society - family and others. Being shipped off to a home to have their babies in secrets, the mind games to get them to give up their babies - some are willing,others are not. It really takes you through all the emotions and the author was just brilliant with showing us the complexities as seen from multiple points of view. And then through in some witches, or another set of people trying to take advantage of kids in a vulnerable emotional state. Th story is told perfectly, with the right amount of detail, characterizations and an interesting plot.

I feel like, as much as I want Grady to be hit after hit, there are moments when misses sneak in. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls follows a group of pregnant teens in the 70s, all sent by their parents to spend the duration of their pregnancy "with an aunt upstate" or "helping an ailing relative" -- in actuality, they're hidden away at a group home in Florida. The summer Bookmobile introduces them to a mysterious librarian and an even more mysterious book.

When it was good, it was excellent. But when the chapters slogged this one felt every bit of its 500 (!) pages.

› Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at Wellwood Home in St. Augustine Florida. She's 26 weeks pregnant. The Wellwood Home is where "unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened". Miss Wellwood is very strict and the doctor that helps care for the girls is judgemental and gaslight them when they don't feel well. Fern meets many other girls here and forms friendships with Rose, Zinnie and Holly.

On a hot summer day, the bookmobile arrives and a librarian helps them choose a few books each, giving a spellbook to Fern. Could these spells be real? Who wrote the book? Will they be able to learn magic?

› I do want to warn you, that there is a lot of talk about pregnancy and graphic childbirth scenes. Told from Fern's perspective, this is a relevant story considering the current climate in the United States and the conversation around women's rights. A lot of the horror in this book comes from how women were treated in the 1970s (and honestly it looks like we're going back to that time sadly).
APPEAL FACTORS
Storyline: character-driven, issue-oriented, tragic
Pace: medium
Tone: emotional, heartwrenching, high-drama, nostalgic, suspenseful, thought-provoking, magical, challenging, dark, bleak, haunting
Humour: dark humour
Writing Style: well-crafted dialogue
Character: authentic, awkward, brooding, complex, flawed, likeable, mischievous, quirky, relatable, sarcastic, strong female, unlikeable, well-developed, diverse
Racial Representation: Multiracial

Read Alikes:
The Girls We Sent Away by Meagan Church
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
Foxfire

› Final Thoughts
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a dark, emotional, and powerful book about motherhood, feminism, witchcraft and abuse of power. These "wayward girls" are really children and this experience destroys their childhood. With strong female characters who build unlikely friendships, this thought-provoking book teaches us that using magic comes with a cost.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Amazing as always, Mr. Hendrix. Obsessed is an understatement! Grady writes female characters so incredibly well, and this one is no different. I was rooting for all the young women, and I empathized so much with Neva's journey.

Witchcraft or Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix is a moody, slow-burn novel with shades of The Craft. The story follows a group of pregnant teenage girls sent to a group home to await the births of their babies. As they bond and navigate their challenging circumstances, they stumble upon witchcraft, setting the stage for a dark and eerie exploration of their newfound powers and some sweet revenge.

However, it takes about 30% of the book for the witchcraft element to even appear, which slows the pacing considerably. While the premise is intriguing, the story felt flat to me, lacking the gripping energy and action I expected. If you’re a fan of Grady Hendrix’s signature style, you’ll likely still enjoy the atmosphere and tension, but it may not hit the mark for every reader.

For me, it wasn’t as strong as some of his other works, but if you love slow-building stories with a focus on mood and character, you might find this one worth the read.

I was ready to sell my soul for an advanced copy of this book and luckily I received one and my soul remains intact! The synopsis of this story sold me from the get-go. Young girls in the early 1970s who get sent to live down south in a maternity home when they find themselves pregnant. Add in witchcraft, a thirst for revenge, and a thirst for bodily and matriarchal freedom and I was hooked!! I read my print copy and simultaneously listened to the audiobook on @prhaudio and I thought the narration was done so well!

I will say that this book is longgggg! I feel like it could have been shortened some but I really loved the ending of this book. The epilogue was so powerful and had me tearing up at the thought of what these young girls went through with birthing their babies just to have them taken away and put up for adoption. It's heartbreaking and infuriating that this is something that many young girls and women really went through and still go through. I love that Hendrix had these young girls fight back for power and control.

For a Hendrix novel, I will say this book is on the tame side of horror compared to many of his other books. There is some body horror and I am grateful that I already gave birth to my three children before reading this or I may have been scarred after reading some of his birth scenes!

I do think this book is worth the read and I recommend picking it up today on pub day!! You are guaranteed a book that packs a lot of emotion, power, and resilience within it!

This is my second Grady Hendrix book and I loved it! This story takes place in the 1970’s and things get a little crazy. We meet girls that have found themselves in a not so great a predicament and are sent away. How my mind was blown on the ways things were handled in the 70’s era. This story is about friendship and resilience. I loved how Grady pulled me into this story, it was so hard to put this down once I started it. I highly recommend to anyone looking for the next addictive read!