Wowza. This book was a powerhouse. I have loved Grady Hendrix books before, but I couldn't put this one down. Creative characters dealing with the realities of life set in a home for pregnant young girls in the South in the 1970s with a supernatural twist - sign me up. The characters came alive and I was sucked into the drama and the humor and the unfairness of it all. As a librarian, I wish we were better represented, but you can't win them all. This book was gruesome when it needed to be but not too much. Recommended for horror and creepy supernatural fans.

Thank you for categorizing this book correctly! While the lead characters are in their teens, the themes and descriptions in this book are definitely adult.

Set Holly, Rose, Zinnia, and Fern were sent to a Home for “Weyward” girls somewhere in Alabama due to their teen pregnancies. Here the girls subjected to all the stigma associated with their “condition”, they were called names, basic necessities became privileges, with the biggest being only they deserve all the shame and punishment, and their baby daddies got of Scot free.

Until they met the librarian, Miss Parcae. What happened next are a series of revenge and punishment using witchcraft until they realized they’re way over their head and can’t pay the price of their curses.

If you’ve read any book by Grady Hendrix and liked/loved it then you won’t be disappointed with this. It’s the same style: fast, easy to read pace, unapologetic take on sensitive matters, graphic scenes, morally ambiguous characters, emotional storylines, and strong relationships. As a former teen mom who also went to a Home for Wayward girls minus the witchcraft, this story is personal to me. I loved every word and chapter, especially the ending. GHendrix skillfully presented the oxymoron of girls who were forced to mature into adulthood, only to be constantly reminded that they were still just girls—expected to return to their old lives as though nothing had changed after giving birth.



**Thank you for granting me an arc for this book. I also posted this review on Fable, I don't have the link for it though.**

I really liked the concept of this story. I thought the set up was good. The story at its core was enjoyable. The story itself wasn't scary, but there were parts that were extremely gory/graphic for no real reason. There were also two pretty graphic birth scenes and something about a man writing these graphic scenes about teenage girls giving birth really kind of icked me out.

Another absolute banger from Hendrix, replete with subtle terror, suspense that keeps you turning pages WAY too late into the night (and early into the morning), and the odd, but somehow satisfying conclusion you didn’t see coming.
As is so often the case in Hendrix’s books, the real horror isn’t the monsters; it’s other people. People who could have lived, analogues for people who certainly did and who were as heartless and cruel to girls who needed nothing so much as they needed compassion and care in a time when the worst thing a girl could be was the owner of her own body and an individual who set the course of her own life. People who live again and think we should return to the times when our bodies were subject to the choices of others and women who sought the power of bodily autonomy and social freedom were burned as witches.
WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS reminds us that freedom is, in fact, not free but that it is worth the price if we’re brave enough to pay it. That there are monsters on every side but we can win against them if we trust our coven and we trust ourselves. That we’re smarter and stronger than they are - monsters and men - but only if we work together.

This book started off with a fantastic premise: our main character, Fern, is an unwed teenage mother in 1970—a time when such a thing was a source of tremendous shame and societal taboo, such that Fern is sent away to a home for unwed mothers where she's expected deliver her baby in anonymity, give it up for adoption, and return to her old life like nothing happened. This "home", however, resembles a prison more than anything else, and the pregnant teenagers there are robbed of any remaining bodily autonomy they have. When a kindly, mysterious bookmobile librarian (it's always the librarians!) offers Fern and her friends a book called How to Be a Groovy Witch that promises them unlimited power—a way out of the hopeless situation they've found themselves trapped in—I thought we were in a for a bloody, triumphant reclamation of their power in the vein of The Craft. And while the girls do flex their newfound abilities to balance the scales of justice against those who have treated them cruelly, that wasn't quite the point of the novel.

No, this novel is much more about the ways in which society seeks to rob women and girls—especially teenage girls, who have so little power to begin with—of their autonomy for their own gain. It's about how power is often an illusion in a system that's set up to benefit the people who want to rob you of yours, and the hopelessness that can come with struggling for autonomy in a system such as this. And it's also just generally about how absolutely terrible things were for you if you found yourself pregnant and unwed in a pre-Roe America. My family has recently been reconnecting with cousins we didn't know we had, due to my own maternal grandfather being born to an unwed teenage mother and then given up for adoption; this book made me consider what her life might have been like in a way I never have before.

Apart from that, I thought the horror elements of this novel were very well done—there were moments that had me gasping for breath and having to hold back from flipping ahead because I was so tense and nervous. Hendrix does an amazing job of building a sense of tension and dread, and the creepy atmosphere was perfect—not just because the book is set in Florida, which is, as we all already know, a damn freaky place already.

I'm not an established fan of Hendrix the way some other readers will be—I've only read, and had lukewarm feelings for, Horrorstör—but this book definitely made me want to read more of his work.

To start, I’m already an enormous fan of Grady Hendrix. I think to start, this book needs to have a large sign that it does tackle all the ins and outs of birth, motherhood, and sacrifice.

While we had a whacky and fun twist of witchcraft, it so effortlessly tied the entire story and horridly no so fictional events of this book. What these girls endured, is what real girls endured, and that’s that.

Overall it was something different than the normal Hendrix novel, something so much deeper and hard hitting, and I cannot wait to buy a physical copy of this.

Atmospheric and even more terrifying that this was inspired by a real time in America where young girls truly went through this. Gripping, emotional, terrifying and compulsively readable! Grady has done it again!

Grady Hendrix has some balls. A white, cis, man writing about unwed teen pregnancy and the oppression of women, from a teen girl’s perspective, is risky, to say the least. But goddamn, he did it with heart, honesty, and allyship. He uses the historically accurate setting of “homes” for unwed pregnant girls to craft a story about loss, abuse, the stripping of bodily autonomy and choice, trauma, friendship, and female power. Fern, our main protagonist, is real, is scared, is confused, is broken, and is tragically forced to give up her baby to be accepted by a pre-Roe society at just 15 years old. The systemic oppression and injustice of women is a real and visceral thing.
Hendrix uses witches in his plot, yes, but that isn’t the point. The horror in this book is the collective, and very real, trauma of women.

As a mother with three pregnancy losses and two very much wanted and planned for births, this cut me so very deep. How have we allowed this to be part of our history?

Another review by Esta said “Beneath the witchy vibes lies a defiant reminder: women have always been powerful, even when systems tried to dismiss, control or snuff them out. Hendrix doesn’t just ask us to rage, he reminds us to rise” and, honestly, I couldn’t say it better myself.

4.5 starts

Alarmingly topical, in a time when reproductive rights are being further restricted. A timely read.

“Everything they say is bad is good, and everything they say is good is bad. So maybe we should stop marching along like a bunch of sheep and start thinking for ourselves.”

I don’t typically read a ton of horror, but I have really enjoyed Grady Hendrix’s books in the past so I was excited to get an early copy of this one. This could have really gone badly, but Hendrix centers this story so completely on female rage and the injustices of pre-Roe America that it feels powerful. I was in it from the quotes at the beginning of the book that are so infuriating they set the tone for what’s to come.

This can be difficult to read. Following Fern’s journey as an unwed teenage mother is harrowing. She’s dropped off at a home for unwed mothers by her furious father, left to face the consequences of her actions. It’s constantly emphasized that it’s her actions (and those of the other girls) that got her in this position and hers alone. In their desperation, they turn to witchcraft. Hendrix really captures the fear and desperation the girls feel, and for me a big part of the horror was how they're treated. The owner of Wellwood House, the doctor, the nurse, and the social worker all see to have ulterior motives and display little to no empathy for what these girls are going through.

I will say this feels like a cross between historical fiction and horror, and I wished there was a bit more witchcraft. It felt like a bit horror adjacent, where a lot of my fear came from reading about how the girls are treated and how society viewed them. There is a lot of graphic depictions of pregnancy and also some gnarly body horror, which can be rough to read. The determination of Fern and the other girls feels great to read. As a reader, you worried and scared for the girls because no one is ever listening. This is a wild ride, that’s for sure.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank NetGalley, Grady Hendrix, and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

This has got to be my favorite Grady Hendrix novel to date. What I loved most about this one is how descriptive Hendrix is throughout the story. You can almost feel the sweltering heat of Florida; later, you can almost feel the contractions with Fern. The writing immerses you so deeply that you can certainly feel the desperation of these girls to better their circumstances and to avoid being discarded by society and their families.

I truly enjoyed the feminist aspect of this novel as well. It tackles some really heavy-hitting topics with grace and authenticity. Hendrix’s ability to balance these themes with compelling storytelling is truly remarkable.

I 100% recommend this book—I thoroughly enjoyed it.

First off, a huge thank you to the publisher for the digital ARC of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. This novel gripped me from the very first page and had me laughing out loud with the opening lines of chapter one: “She didn’t think things could get any worse, then she saw the sign. Welcome to Florida, it read. The Sunshine State.” From that moment, I knew I was in for a ride, and I couldn't put it down.

Grady Hendrix has long been celebrated for his unique ability to blend horror with deeper, often unsettling societal themes, and Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is no exception. Much has been said about his accurate—and chilling—depictions of pregnancy and childbirth, which add a visceral layer to the horror in this story. But beyond that, this novel delves into the harsh realities faced by young girls in the 1970s, sent away to places like the Wellwood Home under the guise of moral correction and societal shame.

Hendrix doesn’t shy away from exposing the deeply ingrained racial prejudices and Christian moralities that dictated the lives of these girls. The book serves as a powerful reminder of the limitations placed on women, particularly young, vulnerable girls, during a time when their agency was stripped away. In a post-Roe world, as we grapple with the uncertainties of 2024, Hendrix’s reflection on the past feels particularly poignant. He subtly drives this home when he writes, “Less than three years after we left Florida, Roe passed and the Homes disappeared in a wave of the magic wand. If we had only gotten pregnant two years later everything would have been different.”

At its core, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is about the power dynamics at play in a society that treats children as adults while denying them any real autonomy. It's a harrowing look at how these girls were unprepared for the world’s harsh realities and how they were stripped of control over their bodies and their futures. Yet, amidst this grim backdrop, Hendrix weaves a story about the strength of friendships, the concept of found family, and the resilience of women supporting each other through unimaginable circumstances.

While it’s undeniably a horror novel, the historical context gives it a sense of realism that is both captivating and haunting. Hendrix continues to grow as a writer, delivering stories that linger long after the last page. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a testament to his mastery of the genre, solidifying his place among the greats in recent horror fiction.

This book is a must-read, not just for fans of horror, but for anyone who appreciates a well-crafted story with profound emotional depth and historical insight.

This is Grady Hendrix’s best work by far.

This is a horrifying, infuriating, and heart-breaking story that follows a group of pregnant teens at a home for unwed mothers in 1970’s (pre Roe v Wade) Florida. Hendrix delivers a poignant story with relatable characters, tackles some very hefty subject matter, and wraps it all up in a fast paced witchy horror story. I simply couldn’t put it down.

I have seen a lot of reviews of this book start with WOW, and since I echo the exact same sentiment, I will say it too. WOW.

This book was not what I was expecting, but in the best way. Hendrix has a tendency to go campy with his horror- which I love- but he also has the capacity to get emotional and address deeper issues. For me, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is reminiscent of The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires- my favourite Hendrix- in that at its heart, it's about female friendships, fighting the patriarchy and taking back power in whatever ways you can.

The narrator, Neva, is 15, from the southern US in the 1970s, and pregnant. Her parents plan to 'send her away to spend the summer with her aunt' so they can cover up Neva's shameful mistake; in reality they send her to a wayward home for girls in Florida, where she'll secretly have the baby and give it up for adoption. As for Neva, she just wants to get it over with so she can return home and pretend nothing ever happened. At the Wellwood House girls are given names of plants and flowers to use as aliases and further remove them from their former lives; the names are sunny and hopeful, like Daisy, Laurel and Zinnia. Neva becomes Fern and Wellwood becomes her new reality, kept under strict rule with limited time outside, work duty, extreme dietary restrictions and rough medical examinations. Fern's only saving grace is the 'bookmobile', from which she obtains a book entitled 'How To Be a Groovy Witch'. With the aid of the bookmobile librarian and enlisting her roommates Rose, Zinnia and Holly as her coven, Fern uses the book to start to claim back power in small ways, until the price to be paid for using magic threatens her and the friends she has grown to love.

This story is complex and layered, with multiple levels of horror. There's some elements of actual horror that Hendrix fans have become accustomed to, including body horror, but there's also the more subtle but equally as powerful horror that these girls face in the way that they are treated as damaged goods and stripped of their autonomy, coerced into giving up their babies without hope of ever seeing them again and unprepared for what they have to go through at such a young age. Holly's story in particular will make you want to launch something across the room. Fern is a great main character and I felt heavily invested in her story. The elements of witchcraft were well done, as was the escalation to the final climax. The last chapter does the book justice by giving closure to the girls, though in different ways than they might have envisioned.

Kirkus Reviews referred to this book as having shades of V.C. Andrews, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Foxfire and I completely agree. I did find this book a bit slow to start, but once I got into it I couldn't put it down. This book is evocative and especially timely as it gives a glimpse into a pre-Roe world and the limitations faced by young mothers, and it can't help but make one wonder if elements of the past may once again become our future...

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for my earc in exchange for my honest review. I will certainly be getting myself a physical copy of what is an early contender for one of my top reads of 2025.

4.5 rounding up to 5

In the summer of 1970 Fern is dropped off alone, scared and pregnant in a Florida home for unwed mothers. Fern is surrounded by a dozen other girls like her. Girls who were dropped off until their “condition” is cleared up and their babies are adopted out to other families. Despite being told not to befriend other girls, so that when they have their babies they can go home and pretend it never happened, Fern gets close to her roommates. Rose, a hippy who swears she’s going to keep her baby; Zinnia, a musician who swears she’s going to marry her boyfriend when she gets back home; and Holly, a girl who doesn’t speak and is by far the youngest of the lot.

The adults looking after them decide what they can eat, what they can talk about and everything they can do because they “know what’s best”. Then Fern meets the librarian on the bookmobile. She’s given a book of witchcraft and it changes things for her and her friends. For the first time ever they have the chance to have power over their lives but power has a price and when it comes to witchcraft that price is usually blood.

This is what I categorize as a “good for her” book. Cue the feminine rage soundtrack I have saved on my Spotify library. The rollercoaster of emotions this book gave me…. I don’t have coherent words. This was, even though not specifically stated, a reaction to the recent overturning of Roe v Wade. And really a commentary on treatment of women over the course of history. Some of it was really hard to read and I would highly HIGHLY suggest reading content warnings. I’ve given birth to two children and the descriptions made my skin crawl. Child abuse, SA, body horror, in depth description of a birth, blood, self harm and I’m probably forgetting a few are included in the major warnings.

This reads more like a historical fiction and less like a “regular” horror novel. It’s slow to start but the payoff is worth it. Oh and I almost forgot! The 70's slang? Groovy man.

Alright so characters:
The book is told from Fern’s pov, with exception of a few bits that switch a couple of times. I didn’t particularly like the sudden switches but I get why they were done, to see parts of the story Fern wasn’t involved in to get that information. Grady Hendrix writes women exceptionally well, I don’t have those “ew, this was written by a man” moments.

Having that many girls made it hard to differentiate them all but really just certain ones were important. And the main ones were easy to keep separate. The adults were all nightmares. Even the cook who was helping wasn’t pleasant (her sister was pleasant but she was the quiet one), Miss Wellwood was awful and preachy and exactly what you’d expect as the head of a wayward home. Nurse wasn’t as bad as Wellwood but she was an enabler of the terrible stuff. The doctor was a man and hoo-boy. I hated that guy. Then the last prominent adult, Mrs. Parcae. Mrs. Parcae is the librarian that gives Fern the book on witchcraft. I’m a librarian and was a tad offended (not really but you know what I mean) when she wasn’t exactly the glowing good guy I was hoping she’d be. She comes for her dues.

I know I say this every time but I believe horror books are enjoyed much much more when you go in without details. I will say there was a point in the story where I had no idea how it would turn out even remotely ok for them. It wasn’t a happily ever after but it was in general, a happy ending.

"Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" by Grady Hendrix is an engaging horror story that tackles difficult themes. Despite its graphic content, I found it enjoyable and admire Hendrix's writing style. This was the most exciting horror/supernatural story I have read in a while. I recommend.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about a feminist rage novel written by a privileged white man. That being said, he really told this story well, and came across as a real ally in the fight for female equality and rights. It just goes to show that limiting authors to writing about their own lived experiences can rob us of important stories. All of that said, was this perfect? No.

The treatment these girls are subjected to at the home is truly horrific, so I wanted this to be a story of women reclaiming their power through witchcraft, but it didn't quite turn out that way. Rather than portray the witches as righteous avengers giving these girls the power to save themselves, the witches are just another horrific system trying to oppress them to some extent. I appreciated that there was some hope presented at the end, but this was such a hopeless novel until the very close of the story.

My other beef with this novel is its treatment of BIPOC characters. There is a strong sense of tokenism happening here, and the "mystical African American" trope is leaned on quite heavily. I just wish that these characters had been more important to the story other than as supporting actors to a white drama.

If you are a fan of body horror, then I think you will enjoy this book for that alone. The childbirth scenes are visceral. I feel like, overall, Hendrix did a decent job of portraying the helplessness of these girls and the horrific treatment to which they were subjected. All the trigger warnings for pregnancy related horror.

Review published on Cemetery Dance Magazine - https://www.cemeterydance.com/extras/review-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-grady-hendrix/

Oh man this book was so good and I really loved that it dealt with the harsh reality of what it was like for girls before roe vs wade and the stigma of having an illegitimate child while being a teenager who doesn’t know any better and isn’t educated about the consequences of sexual contact. That these girls had no agency, no actual way to keep their babies even if they wanted to when they were sent to these homes for unwed mothers and that they were expected to just go back home and pretend they didn’t have a baby and that nothing happened. I really enjoyed the witchcraft aspect of this and while it wasn’t the main story, it was great how it was interwoven in the story and that it reflected how much these girls needed to get some of their power and agency back and how they used magic to do that. This was a great read and I really loved the comradery between the girls at the home and how they tried to take care of each other.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

The new king of horror is back ! Although this installment was a bit different than previous works by Grady, it was just as fun and faced paced than others ! And as always, there is a story about womanhood and girl hood at its core.