This is my first Grady Hendrix book and I didn’t really know what to expect but this book really blew me away. It gives off the vibe of magical realism. I don’t know if it truly fits the definition of that genre, but that’s what comes to mind when I try to describe this book. It is absolutely fabulous.

As a woman, I am aware of how things were in that timeframe, but I don’t think a person can truly understand. This book does a wonderful job of putting the reader in the shoes of these characters. Anyone who reads this book is going to have a new perspective on what it means to be a pregnant teenager and all I can think is “I fucking hope we’re not going back to that.”

I am in awe of Fern and Rose and Holly and Zinnia. These girls fought for each other and it was amazing to read

Recommended for anyone who likes deep, thought provoking books with a magical twist!

Wow, that was a ride! Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a slow-burn and is a rather long read for a horror book, but it is worth the time investment. I really enjoyed the cast of characters and the setting in the 1970s.

To the people saying that this should be classified as historical fiction and not a horror book, I disagree, though it could be categorized as both. The point of this book was how the normalization of harmful childbirth practices within the modern healthcare system, childbirth itself, the adoption system, religious abuse, and not having control over one's own destiny are the truest forms of horror. There is plenty of blood (and vomit) in this book, but the point is that the power to say "no" remains one of the most potent powers we retain. We have the power to stand up to fascism and force when we band together and stand in our sovereignty. This isn't just historical fiction about the 1970s... It reflects the horrors of the world we are facing today. Hendrix does an excellent job of exploring how horrifying childbirth can be, without slipping into misogyny or criticizing mothers, though the judgmental atmosphere of 70s culture toward pregnant girls is woven throughout the narrative. How many horrors have we normalized? Do we even recognize the horrors of the everyday anymore? These were questions I was left with after reading.

Thank you to Berkley for my e-ARC! Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is one of my favorite Hendrix novels, and it is well worth the time you will spend reading it.

Grady is so back!!! Okay, so he never went anywhere, but since he’s my favorite working author and I didn’t enjoy How to Sell a Haunted House, I was a little worried going into this. I know he can write a woman’s pov and I know he can write a teen girl’s pov, but a man writing a book about being a pregnant teen in the south in 1970? He nailed it. I’m sitting here with tears pooling in my eyes at that ending. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. Funny, angry, heartbreaking, gross, powerful. I love that he knows there’s no body horror greater than giving birth, no rage stronger than a broken woman, no magic greater than women coming together.

This story is more historical than horror but is full of horrific circumstances that unwed teens faced in the late 60s and 70s. Fifteen year old Fern is sent away to a home in Florida for pregnant girls. Every minute of the girls day is planned out for them. They are told what to eat, what to talk about, what to read and what to study. They are given witchcraft that gives the girls back some control over their lives as well as confidence. Nothing is never easy though when you make promises and trade one type of control for another as the girls find themselves in way over their head.

This was a tough book for me to review. Grady Hendrix is one of my favorite authors. This was an unlike any of his other books. It lacked the campiness, the subtle humor that I really enjoy. So I was disappointed, however there are many other things to take into consideration, I admire the fact that he wrote something different. He absolutely nailed a woman’s point of view and pregnancy, which is also to be commended. The story was compelling and well written. It is emotional and conveyed the feeling of these poor girls who are just trying to find their way and be allowed to make their own choices. I wasn’t sure how I felt by the end of the book— the ending was muddled. I think this will appeal to the right reader it just wasn’t me in this case. I will continue to read his books because he always delivers a unique story. You cant love them all !!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

3 ⭐️

I could not finish this book and do not understand the hype of this author. I so badly wanted to like this novel, but the more I read the more I disliked it. I did not like any of the characters and the plot felt all over the place. I made it about halfway through and felt like very little happened and that the story was just dragging. I don't think I will try another this author's titles.

So here's the thing about Witchcraft for Wayward girls: I read it cover to cover, and it was definitely a compelling, heavy, moving book about a very real and serious blemish on the history of humanity. BUT, at multiple times throughout the book I couldn't shake the feeling that the story was coming across as frustratingly out of touch with its own subject matter. Yes it will keep you reading so you can find out what happened to the main characters, but at the same time, it doesn't do them justice. What I just kept coming back to was the thought that this wasn't Hendrix's story to tell. I don't know that I can explain it better than that, it was just a feeling I had throughout. I still think it's worth reading, it's very much Hendrix's darkly humorous, grotesque brand of social horror. But between his unfortunate reliance on the trope of the "magical Black person who saves the day" and shallowness of the characterization of some of the girls, to the fact that the villain ended being who it was, giving the novel a weirdly moralistic turn that left a sour taste in my mouth... I don't know. Somewhere the point got more than missed, it got sailed clean over and forgotten.

This 70s-era Southern mother's home horror story has a great sense of setting. It's spooky, sad, and looooong. The unwed mothers storyline is what attracted me to the story and was so well done. It's painfully tangible.

I didn't resonate as much with the witchcraft part of the story - I'm not sure what it added. The horror was complete between the body gore of childbirth and the social treatment of the girls in the story.

Overall, "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" is a striking social commentary with an interesting horror spin.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Grady Hendrix uses supernatural elements to examine society and its issues.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls examines what it meant to be a woman or girl in America in the 1970s. Hendrix creates a community of unwed teens who live together in a home to have their babies and give them up for adoption.

Is it their choice to give up their babies? Was it their choice to get pregnant? The answer is different for all the girls we meet, but the answer doesn't matter to anyone. The girls are treated with no respect, no compassion, and no autonomy over their bodies or lives.

Then enters the witch.

Hendrix uses the exploration of witchcraft as a way for the girls to gain power and to feel as if they have some say over something in their lives.

It's a fascinating look at a dark time in society and the dangers that popped up as a marginalized group struggled to find freedom.

This was an unexpected gem. I thought it was going to be a horror book filled with some paranormal elements. But it was a more of a coming-of-age book about a group of teenagers, unwed and pregnant, who were sent away by their families to a boarding house to have their babies and return home like nothing every happened. There was some witchcraft but it was an emotional/powerful read about how the girls didn’t have a choice about their babies. It was filled with anger, grief, confusion, and vulnerability. Such a different a different Grady Hendrix book, but I definitely recommend it!

I am a fan of Grady Hendrix, but this book fell a bit flat for me. I'll always read his books, but I really hope he gets back to juicy characterization and truly horrifying moments. For some this will be right up their alley!

WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS is a gripping horror novel that forces readers to accept some of the realities young girls faced when they were forced to live at homes for unwed mothers. From the beginning, to the last chapter and acknowledgements, Grady Hendrix had me holding onto every word.

Wow, this is without a doubt my favorite Grady Hendrix book to date! This book does an excellent job of revealing the historical horrors that have plagued women for decades, while also highlighting how powerful female friendships can be amidst trauma. While any 500-page book can have parts that feel a little dragging, overall this book was an intriguing read with dynamic characters that’ll tug at your heartstrings from start to finish

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Pub for my e-ARC of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
📚 believe reading can be powerful
👶🏼 would do anything for your baby
👩‍🏫 enjoy learning about new things
🧙 love paranormal books

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid...and it’s usually paid in blood.

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

Another 5 star read from Hendrix! I loved absolutely everything about this story! I was honestly surprised with how fluently he was able to write about girls, pregnant girls at that, and everything they went through and experienced, to such an extent. As a mom to two, I’ve been there twice, so it was nice to see it written realistically. I also enjoyed the entire setting of the home and the girls. They all felt like real people, and I can imagine that girls like this definitely existed at some point in time. The witchcraft was also very interesting as well. I liked that the book took a lot of twists and turns that I simply never guessed. Overall, I enjoyed the historical accuracy of it all and really learned so much about these homes where girls were forced to give up their babies. I highly recommend!

LOVED MORE THAN ANYTHING! THE BEST OF THE BEST! I absolutely loved Hendrix's newest book - it was so smart and engaging and I never wanted it to end. He beautifully and expertly crafts a story that feels so real - my favorite part of the way that he writes. I absolutely loved the characters and the way Hendrix made the setting a character in and of itself. This is going to be one of my 2025 favorites for sure!

I loved this book. All of the characters are memorable, the story harrowing. I felt myself praying and cheering for all of the girls. I cried and laughed. The dialogue was fantastic!

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a slow burn suspense with a dash of horror/fantasy/magical realism thrown in about a "home" for pregnant girls whose children will be taken from them and who turn to witchcraft as a way to take back control. The majority of the "horror" in this one is in the way these girls are treated at the home, by their families, by the men who impregnated them, by society, etc. But there are a few creepy bits in there.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the electronic copy.

Grady Hendrix's latest is an incredible story about remarkable girls. Set in the 1970s before Roe v. Wade, maternity homes are one of the only options for unwed mothers. They go there once they're visibly pregnant, have their baby, give up their baby for adoption, and go home as though nothing has happened. The way in which Hendrix writes about pregnancy and birth is impressive and graphic. When Fern and her friends (all renamed after flowers when they enter the Home) come across a book about witchcraft, their entire lives change. They realize that by vowing to devote themselves to witches, they can transfer Zinnia's morning sickness to their insensitive doctor, give Miss Wellwood (the owner of the home) excruciating pain following Rose's heartbreaking separation from her baby, and might even be able to save Holly from going home to the reverend who raped her. There are so many layers of complexity in this story, and they're at satisfying and horrifying in their own way. I found Grady Hendrix's acknowledgements at the end to be especially illuminating. Highly recommended!

Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls was my most anticipated read of 2025, but lucky for me I was approved for a e-arc by @netgalley and @berkleypub . I read this book back in September and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

The story revolves around a group of pregnant teens sent by their families to a home for unwed mothers in Florida. Scared, abandoned, and judged by loved ones, they are unsure of what to expect. Traumatized by abuse and abandonment, they are hidden away and their voices silenced and ignored to endure the horrors of pregnancy on their own. But soon the local book mobile pulls up and the odd librarian hands them a book on witchcraft and there is a glimmer of hope that they can find a way to help themselves and seek retribution against those taking advantage of them.

This book is completely different from anything Hendrix has done and I loved it. Gone is the camp, but some humor remains, in this thought provoking novel. Anyone who thinks books are not political, should read this. It is set a few years before the passage of Roe Vs Wade, when there were no options for females who find themselves in the family way. Ambitions can be lost, the hope of keeping a child left up to their parents, and the young and abused forced to carry their attacker’s child. There is a lot to think about here and it is an intentional commentary on our current national political debate.

Hendrix cloaks all of this in the guise of a well constructed horror novel. And a really good one at that. Yes, there is witchcraft as the girls clumsily play around with spells, but it’s only a metaphor for claiming control over their lives and bodies. The horror created here comes not from witches but from the adults and their greed and lack of compassion and even from pregnancy itself. Pregnancy is the perfect vehicle for body horror- these young girls bodies are changing in a myriad of ways and that can be terrifying to the uninformed and there is one particular scene in this book that I will be thinking about for years to come. This book both infuriated me and broke my heart and most of all it made think- a lot. Hendrix’s beat work to date.!

I had a really hard time getting through this one. As you can see, it took me over a month and a half to read. In my opinion, it didn’t need to be almost 500 pages long. Thankfully I was able to get my hands on the audiobook to help out with the last 150 pages! Highly recommend the audio for this one! I was also hoping to have more witchcraft since I thought that was what a majority of the book was supposed to be about?

I loved learning about all the girls and watching them navigate pregnancy during an extremely challenging time period. My heart quite literally broke for these girls. And yes, they are GIRLS 😔
It made me so happy (given the circumstances) that they were able to go through this experience together.
This was such a tough book to read and puts so much into perspective about society today. I thought Grady did a phenomenal job expressing the mistreatment of women in this story.

I would recommend this one if you enjoy
•covens/witches
•found friendship
•contemporary horror? (Not scary)
•magic

3.5 stars rounded up to 4!

This teetered on absolutely perfect for me, but I think there was a bit too much going on, and some things weren't as fleshed out as I wanted.

This had me hooked from the beginning. I cannot relate to the experiences of the wayward girls - I'm not even a mother - but I think any woman CAN relate to being treated like an idiot, like you don't know best, because you're a young lady, and what do young ladies ever know when there are men in the room? That is a distinct kind of rage, and Hendrix managed to wrap it up perfectly in a spooky, witchy story for the girlies.

I really loved this and so many other people will too.