Thank you for publisher for the eGalley!

Unfortunately this was a DNF. I got to 20%, and it wasn't for me.

I simply love a Grady Hendrix novel. I will read every book he releases. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls caught my attention immediately. If I see a librarian involved, especially a witchy one, I do feel obligated to read it. I couldn't put this book down. It was incredibly interesting and I always enjoy a spooky story set in the 70s. I'll absolutely be recommending this to people.

You'll fall in love with most of these Wayward Girls once you learn the backstories that brought them together. Set in a time of Satanic Panic, the girls soon turn to witchcraft as a means to save one of their friends, despite the dire consequences. Once again, Hendrix also gifts us an unimaginable showdown between the protagonists and the evil that lurks around the corner (or the trees, as it were).

If you were too frightened by How to Sell a Haunted House, you'll be pleasantly relieved at the level of horror in this one.

Wtf man 😫 justice for Holly.

I wasn’t expecting this book to be so heavy but as a mom of four, three of them being girls, I was raging from start to finish.

These girls were treated so poorly and failed by everyone meant to protect them. Their parents failed them by shuttling them off to the home the second things got hard, the home failed them by not preparing them for what was about to happen in any way, and Miss Parcae failed them by speaking in half truths and turning out to be a lunatic.

I know it’s a work of fiction but my heart was breaking for the girls and women who have had experiences exactly like this over the years..give or take the magic.

Hendrix's novel "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" is a novel that empowers the reader to fight against the patriarchy and its's tendency to shame women and their rights and choices about their bodies. This book is very relevant to the current social climate post the overturning of Roe V Wade. If you are a fan of spooky, witchy, coming of age stories, this book is for you! I will say it is a slow burn but once the reader reaches the climax, they will struggle to put the book down. The reader may question the choices the author made to some of the character development, but one must remember that these characters are children going through adult issues with a lack of support and compassion from their adult counterparts. I would go as far as to say this is what makes this story. The challenges these young girls go through with the pressure to be brave and to be a "adult". But this book challenges this thinking to allow characters to make mistakes and not be brave all the time because no human is perfect, especially a soon to be teenage mother.

3.75 rounded up to a 4. The beginning didn't grab me, but once the witchcraft was introduced about 1/3 of the way in, things really picked up. Grady has a real knack for exploring the dread of being a woman and feeling trapped and pinned down because the men/people in power just dismiss you. The body horror was disturbing (as intended), though I didn't find the birthing scenes, while also graphic, to be as viscerally unpleasant because they didn't ring true (thankfully) to my own experiences. The ending chapters were beautiful and emotional and brought the whole story together.

For a man, he is surprisingly good at writing books where the real horror is being a girl or woman in a world that hates you for being just that. He's also really good at writing books with endings that make me cry.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is so much more than a horror novel! I loved the time period and the fight against the patriarchy, but especially the bookmobile librarian/witch!

WOW. There was a lot going on in this one and none of it was what I expected! There were definitely some cringe gore moments but I really enjoyed this story. The characters were so vibrant! I couldn’t stop reading this one and really wanted to see the entire thing play out. This was really good book! I will definitely be reading more by this author!!!

This is hands down my new favorite Grady Hendrix! The detail in this book was top notch. Grady always makes you feel like you’re watching the story rather than reading it. This was a super fast paced read that kept my interest the entire time.

Some scenes were absolutely nauseating but in the best way!

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls gives us some of his best characters yet. Characters you’ll love and cheer on, and def some characters you can’t stand.

I usually love Grady Hendrix books but this was the exception. Having just read another book dealing with homes for unwed mothers, this was a familiar topic to me, and the author did a good job of painting the topic in a realisitic light. I was looking forward to the supernatural aspect, as well as Hendrix's humor, but didn't find much of it here. Other than a few spells, there wasn't a whole lot of excitement. In fact, there were several sections of the book that seemed to drag. Here's hoping for a more exciting follow-up.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is the best Hendrix yet! The main character, Fern, was forced to go to the home for pregnant teens by her parents in the early 1970s. While dealing with her pregnancy, being left by her family, and learning to live with a group of girls, Fern struggles to find her place in the world. When the bookmobile shows up with a homely librarian, who gives a special book to Fern and her friends. The girls quickly realize it is a spell book and try to cast simple spells to make their lives easier. The librarian/ coven leader starts to harass and stalk the ladies wanting their children to take her place in the coven. The girls must deal with giving birth and giving away their children while avoiding the witches. The unmedicated birth scenes were scarier than the witch attacks.

Grady does it again! Was there ever any doubt? Witchcraft for Wayward Girls was not only suspenseful and interesting, it was deeply emotional. I was hooked from the first page and devoured this book in only a couple sittings. I loved Grady Hendrix's previous books and I loved this one too! Spend some time in this garden of wayward girls. You will not be disappointed.

Supernatural forces are the least of your worries when you are a pregnant, unwed, teenage girl in Florida in the 70's. The true horrors in this book come a place of realism- young women kept in the dark about their own bodies and how pregnancy works, treated as commodities, and subjected to systemic mistreatment that has been perpetrated on women of all ages throughout history. Hendrix delivers another solid book, veering into completely new territory, and creating a classic witch tale that is also a feminist manifesto, a domestic history and and an expose of sanctioned abuse. Highly recommended, and an excellent book club pick full of discussion starters.

GOOD GOOD GOOD. I expected a lot from this, as Hendrix's last horror novel was my favorite of the year (How to Sell a Haunted House) and the plot here sounded like something I would love. It did not disappoint, this is fantastic.

This book was absolutely spooky. I was so intrigued by all of these characters. They had such dark stories. I loved reading about them discovering witchcraft. They used their powers for what they believed to be good, even if it was not always the case. My biggest issue was how long and graphic the birth scenes were. It felt weird to have something involving children described in such graphic detail. I know that seems weird for a book involving teen pregnancy, but I just felt like the births went a little too far. Overall, this was an enjoyable book.

Neva Craven is a 15 year old unwed pregnant girl in 1970 in Alabama. At the start of the novel she's being taken by her father to 'stay with her aunt for the summer' a.k.a. shipped off to Wellwood House, a home for 'wayward girls' to wait out their pregnancies, give the babies up for adoption, and then return home as if nothing ever happened. When Neva arrives she is renamed 'Fern' (all the girls must adopt floral monikers) and told to keep personal details to herself. Under the questionable care of Miss Wellwood, a rule-following nurse, a creepy male doctor, and a social worker, the girls bide their time by smoking cigarettes (it's 1970 after all), watching television, doing chores, and never leaving the property. But when a chance encounter with a library on wheels provides Fern and her friends with a spell book, they are ready to take fate into their own hands and fix the power imbalance they've suffered under for too long.

As Fern and the other girls experiment with spells, the line between innocent mischief and real danger begins to blur. Strange occurrences start to rattle the staff, and secrets about Wellwood House's dark history come to light. Will Fern and her friends be able to harness this newfound power to break free? Or will the forces they've awakened prove too unpredictable—and too dangerous—to control? What is the true nature of Wellwood House, and how far will Fern go to reclaim her own story?

Similar to Grady Hendrix's other novels, there is a definite campy quality to this horror story. It's both evocative of the times and yet takes a modern critical lens to it as well in a way that is both harrowing and hilarious. The fate of these young girls, many of whom did not ask to be in these positions, is terrifying and their helplessness at the hands of both well-meaning and more sinister adults is palpable.

Of course, when Hendrix writes a disturbing scene, it does its job and disturbs. There are some truly gruesome and uncomfortable moments in this book that he wrote excellently, but be warned: if you are sensitive to anything pregnancy-related, horror-fied or not, this book may not be for you. Even natural birth scenes were depicted in a way that felt like horror scenes, and there are a couple of more amplified moments surrounding childbirth that definitely were upsetting. Whether that is received well by readers or not will depend on their threshold for the imagery and message its trying to convey.

However, I took quite a few issues with this story, namely the pacing and character development (or lack thereof). The first 20-30% of this novel is quite slow; it reads more like a historical coming of age and spends A LOT of time on the set-up, introducing you to nearly a dozen primary characters in this pages. Many of these characters were girls at the home and from the start were nearly indistinguishable from one another. Over time you do get a sense of who is more important to the story and focusing on those makes it easier to follow; but I think the book could've seriously cut out a significant number of pages and minor characters in the opening act to push the story forward at a more engaging pace, similar to his other books.

Fern herself was also a fairly vanilla main character. She had no real personality from the start that endeared me to her; and her growth over the story was almost completely lacking until the last 10% or so. Rose, one of her friends, was far more interesting and I think shifting perspectives or making a different character the main one we follow, someone with more interesting qualities would have made this more enjoyable for me. I can see the concept of using someone like Fern as a stand-in for the reader--someone not divisive, someone who serves as a canvas on which the other characters could paint their perspectives, someone who simply narrates--but I prefer his characters that have a bit more personality to them.

Another major issue I had with this book was how he wrote about Black characters. Another reviewer called out his 'use of token black characters and the Magical Negro Trope' and I couldn't agree more. From his first description of a Black character (a maid who only pops up to solve problems and has no other identifiable characteristics) I was uncomfortable with how he continually utilized Black characters in service of the white character's story. The problem comes especially when the campy, silly tone and attitude he has over the story as a whole began to overlap with his portrayal of characters who become nothing more than stereotypes.

I really wanted to love this one, and while reading it I thought it was fine and never felt like giving up on it, by about the 60% mark I knew this was not going to be a hit for me, and sadly the ending (other than the prologue which was very moving!) did nothing to save this book for me.

Grady Hendrix has such a big fan base, and they will likely eat this book up. Witches, a home for pregnant young women, a desire to escape the trappings of powerlessness, the discovery of a coven in the woods … these make for a very interesting story, indeed. I must say that this is not a horror book as his previous titles are categorized, but the characters and Home setting are well crafted. The story fell flat for me, however, as the story itself seemed to wander about and not land with any satisfaction. It lacked the scary, gory scenes that Hendrix is known for, although there is one unnecessary labor and delivery scene with a surprising amount of detail. This one did not hit the mark for me.

DNF @ 60%

I usually LOVE Grady Hendrix (especially Final Girl Support Group and How to Sell a Haunted House) and had high hopes for this one because I thought the synopsis sounded brilliant, but after a promising start it started to read more like a sloggy retelling of The Craft and less like the witchy feminist dream I thought it would be, so I gave up.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a captivating story about pregnant teenage girls sent to a home to have their babies hidden away from society’s eye. I found the characters to be well developed and the story compelling. The witchcraft elements blend well with the overarching themes of bodily autonomy and women’s rights. This is probably my favorite Grady Hendrix book so far. Very fun and recommended

Thank you to NetGalley for an opportunity to read the ARC