Being approved to read this in advance was such a fortuitous opportunity for me, as we are having Grady Hendrix in attendance for a Southern Gothic Festival we are having at our library. I have been wanting to read at least one of his titles prior to his arrival. I love reading anything about witches, so I was thrilled to be able to start my Grady Hendrix adventure with "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls." The story started out as a slow burn, but I was quickly hooked into the storyline and the devasting lives of the pregnant teens at Wellwood House. Hendrix crafted the story well, pushing the reader in one direction (witchcraft is going to save the day and send retribution to the evil adults in charge!) then switching to another (the girls are doomed for using witchcraft!) to another direction still. It was an emotional rollercoaster, but a terrific ride nonetheless. This book is classified as horror, but the true horror depicted in this story is how these poor pregnant girls are treated, robbed of name, choice, and dignity.

This book was a surprise. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even read the synopsis. I saw Grady Hendrix and said, “yes, please!”. That said, the beginning of this book was slow for me. There were numerous characters and it took time to build their relationships. Once it got going though I was invested. Those relationships run deep and carry the entire book. I appreciate this look back to our not so distant past to see what women had to endure. How much changed with Roe V Wade and in turn how much things have changed again in our current political climate. I do hope this book doesn’t serve as a prediction of our future. The end of this book had me in tears. Just beautiful. It’s well worth the read.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow, just wow!! Thank you Netgalley for this ARC! What a powerful read, Grady Hendrix is amazing! What these female characters go thru is unbelievable and heartbreaking at times. This book had me turning pages to know what happened next. My eyes were filled with tears at times because as a female I could relate to these girls and what they felt. This is a must read!

A cozy horror novel with a witchy librarian and teen girls trying to make sense of the times. One of the best parts of this novel is that the reader is never sure who the bad guy is - is it the other girls at the home? Or the nurse? Or the cook? Perhaps the librarian? This lack of clearly defined bad vs good characters keeps the plot moving and interesting and wonderfully complex.

Like many young girls in the 1960's and early 1970's, a pregnant 15 year old Nova is sent to a Home to quietly have her baby. Renamed Fern (all the girls are blossoming flowers in the Home's garden) the young mother endures abuse and indignities from the staff, which encourages her and her fellow unwed mothers to turn to a mysterious librarian, who promises power and freedom when they're at their most vulnerable. Groovy and at times chilling, Hendrix transports the reader into the deep south of the near past. A great read for the Halloween season.

What I expected and what I got with Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix were two different things. I expected delinquent teen girls meddling with magic and getting in over their heads. What I got was teen girls who society had sent away to deal with unwanted pregnancies. I saw teen girls who, when faced with little choice, turned to witchcraft to try and take back control of their lives and bodies. At times sad, hilarious, graphic, and suspenseful- this story delivered a little horror, a lot of heart, and plenty of suspense to make it a page turner.

This is my first book by Grady Hendrix, but won't be my last. I'm a sucker for witches, and this creepy gothic was perfect for fall. At times the plot got a little too grotesque for my taste, but I loved the complex themes of girlhood, motherhood, and power.

Absolutely fantastic Grady Henrdrix book! Spooky, horror, witchy. What more could you want?! This was a quick read and I loved that. There are a couple of birth scenes that may be tough for some but it didn't bother me. The characters were done so perfectly! There wasn't a part of this book I didn't like!

This was an interesting take on witchcraft and power. Would definitely recommend to grades 9-12. Would have really resonated with me at that age. Some of the plot was slow, but it did add to how slow time must have moved for the characters.

my first grady hendrix, and perfect timing for spooky season!! i must say i was taken aback from the writing style, and had heard mixed things about this author beforehand. i dont know if that messed with my head, but this wasn’t AS thrilling/captivating as i expected? i nonetheless enjoyed my time but its also simply the fact that this was a book outside of my comfort genre and i’d still recommend!

TW/CW: Language, teenage pregnancy, use of slut, toxic family relationships, abortion (attempt), physical abuse, child sexual abuse, abusive family, gaslighting, grooming, cancer, depression, anxiety, racism, sexism, misogamy

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
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 knows she’s going to go home and 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.
Release Date: January 14th, 2025
Genre: Horror
Pages: 496
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. Loved the writing
2. The story was so good
3. Characters were so flushed out
4. Reads fast

What I Didn't Like:
1. Book feels too long
2. Two graphic birthing scenes
3. Some parts were disturbing

Overall Thoughts:
{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}

Since absolutely comical that all the parents have told everybody that the girls are away with an aunt. All an aunt.

"Kids in Ohio were getting shot by the National Guard. Kids in Los Angeles were breaking into houses and killing everybody they found."
How are they mentioning these two different events that took place so far from one another? August 1969 was the Charlies Manson deaths and May 1970 is the Kent State shootings. Some of the girls were already so far along pregnancy that they would have had their kids well before May 1970, but it's not mentioned.

Miss. Parcre is smart. She gives them a taste of the magic and shows up to say that she'll help the girls understand more of the book if they pledge their obedience to her.


Wow Holly actually said something. Turns out Holly's been molested by the Reverend Jerry since she was 8 years old and no one has believed her despite telling her mother, her father, and her sister. Then the Reverend lied and said somebody else in her choir class got her pregnant. And everyone believed him because they love him. Oh my God and his wife Helen would help prepare Holly for Reverend Jerry before he would sexually assault her. Plus now Reverend Jerry wants to adopt the baby and Holly is worried when the baby turns eight that help continue the cycle of abuse to her child. What a real piece of work.

“You’ll look like this one day,” she said. “They hate us enough . Don’t let them make you hate yourselves, too.”
What a great line. And it's so true. Why judge somebody because they've just gotten older and their body has changed everything is inevitable.

Trying to understand why now Zinnia is now against the book just because a glossary is there, but wasn't bothered standing around a fire naked and doing a blood oath denouncing God.

I found the section of Fern thinking about Holly being sexually assaulted by the Reverend and thinking about her bleeding very uncomfortable. Sometimes I wonder about why the author writes these things. Honestly I don't think a girl would wonder these things about a girl being sexually assaulted. It's not like Holly chose to have sex at 8 years old so it would be weird that Fern would be thinking about it in that way.

Thought it was great that Rose put up a fight about not giving birth to Blossom just because the doctor wanted her to get it over with. This is how a lot of hospitals run things. The doctors always want to have the baby early they say it's to protect the baby but for thousands of years women have been giving birth up to the point of when the baby's ready to come out. Suddenly in the last 100 years babies have to be told when to come out just because it's convenient for the doctor. It did make me sad though that Rose's water broke in the middle of that argument because she had such a valid point. It's hard to say though if roses point was more about that she didn't want to have the baby right now because she was scared she wasn't going to get to keep Blossom or if it was more about the principle of it.

We all knew that Rose wasn't going to get to keep her baby but the fact that they said she was incompetent and unable to think logically because she wanted to keep the baby is like such a witchcraft way of thinking. How like back in the days if you sunk you weren't a witch but if you floated you were a witch so it's a no win situation. Of course if you sunk you died but you were proven not a witch. Poor Rose all she wanted was the baby.

Miss. Wellwood is cursed with pregnancy at 50 plus years old but we also find out that she had previously been pregnant once before. When she was 28 she was pregnant to a man named Charles who she was swindled into believing was a traveling salesman but was actually a man who fixed the pipes at the church. She decides to not keep the baby so she goes to Columbia and never thinks about the baby again. I just confused cuz it says that they were going to get married but her father said he wouldn't honor the marriage so that's why she decided to not keep the baby and get married. I mean she was almost 30 it's not like she was destitute. I know it was a different time so it was weird to get pregnant outside of being married, but I found her life a little odd. If she was going to get married what did it matter if she was pregnant? She wouldn't have baby outside of wedlock.

I wish it was more explained why Hager knows magic...spells and stuff. She says that she grew up in the area and just knows. I grew up in an area with tractors but do you think I can just turn one on and off I go baling hay - nope. There's a part of me that was disturbed by this because I started wondering if because she's Black that's why she knows magic but then that felt wrong for the author to include. Like there's this stereotype (The Magical Negro) that all Black people know magic and help save the day. I'm hoping the author isn't implying that here but feels odd that the two Black characters are the ones that know magic.

The knocking on the door - does Nurse Kent think that both phones are on a different lines? Why would she think if the phone downstairs doesn't work the one in the office would?

Okay okay there is a very graphic birthing section for Fern. I don't want nor need to read about her 15 year old vagina being exposed and cut. Also also reading about the episiotomy made me hurt so badly. Ferns whole birthing section just felt weird to me knowing this man wrote about a young girls body in a way at times that felt kind of sexual. The doctor then gives Fern two extra stitches so her "husband" won't know she gave birth. Ew.

Well now we know that Fern is an unfit parent - keeping the name Charlie Brown for her daughter. What a bad name. Seriously, I mean Charlie is a cute girls name but Charlie Brown. No.

Fern is suddenly having a change of mind in wanting to keep Charlie. I'm kind of hoping that Miss. Parcae will show up and Fern decides to go with her to keep the baby and then they get Holly too.
No Fern turned into this stone faced person that did sign her daughter away and didn't want to help anyone.

Another birthing scene only this time with Holly that's 20 pages long. That's insane! Not all of the births need to be graphic. I guess the author was trying to show the differences in birthing that Fern and Holly had; Fern's was very sterile and clinical while Holly's was raw and animalistic. In any case it was way too long and honestly boring to me. We don't need 20 pages of someone giving birth, we know what birth entails.

In the end though it was nice because Holly actually got to go away with the coven and keep your baby. I'm happy she got the happy ending she needed. Plus we find out that with her powers she was able to get Jerry to admit to what he did to her and other girls.

Final Thoughts:
When I say I was hooked on this book I am not lying. I hung onto every word that was written. I was enthralled by the story and drawn in with the characters. This has to be my favorite Grady Hendrix's book written.

There is so much commentary in this book and heavy subjects that happen within it. The author talks about how women are the ones that pay the debt when pregnancy happens but the men continue to have the same life with no disruptions. And this is so true. Who pays the price when a woman gets pregnant? Certainly not the man they can just take off with no ties. I can't even imagine being pregnant at that time when men could deny paternity and just label you as some kind of slut who's trying to lie about who the father of her child is. It made me sad though when the author pointed out that things had changed with these houses because Roe had come into play and now we don't even have that anymore so are we doomed to repeat our mistakes and have these houses returned for women who have nowhere to go and cannot take care of a child, but are forced to give birth?

My heart broke for the characters. I felt for them with each chapter that happened and everything that happened to them I felt so terrible for them. Not only are they forced to give birth to these children they may or may not want but then they're also forced to work in this house up to two weeks of giving birth. Then rushed to the hospital to give birth in the most unhumane way possible.

So I will say that there was some things that did bother me about this book.
• The book is way too long. There was just too much filler that I felt could have been removed. The book felt like it went on and on for no real purpose.
• Reading about these young girls 14, 15, 17 being exposed so many times and naked kind of got on my nerves. Like we get it one time you can just say they're naked two times but when we're up to like the 20th mark of reading about them being naked it felt disturbing.
• The birthing scenes kind of bother me in ways they were described. Sometimes they were drawn out too long and sometimes they were so graphic to the point where they felt almost pornographic to the young characters. I wasn't comfortable with this in moments because it was a male writing about these young girls. I just feel like some of it could have been cut. I didn't need to read about a 15 year olds vulva being exposed to a crowd of people - it felt very wrong. And yes I know she was giving birth and this is the clinical term for a woman's anatomy, but the way it was written seemed off and not clinical feeling, almost like a why would the author write that in kind of feeling.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for this advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fantastic characterization, shockingly visceral body horror, lovely flourishes of prose, timely themes regarding reproductive freedom -- an absolute home run for Grady Hendrix fans and a perfect example of horror fiction written with wide appeal.

Wow! Such a fast read I couldn't put it down. I really need to see a sequel!! Great storyline and a way to wrap it up. Each girl was so different yet alike in one way or another. Great time of the year to read this book! A book for the witch in all of us ;-)

Wow, I had no idea what to expect with this but it was fantastic. Not only is this the perfect spooky, witchy book to read this time of year but the overall premise of the book is so interesting and unique I couldn’t help but be so invested in all of the characters and their lives/stories. Thank you so much to Netgalley for an arc of this book, I’m blown away by it! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 from me!

Rated between 3.5 to 4 stars. I really love Grady Hendrix books and the others I have read were 5 star reads. This book had an interesting premise and I loved the girl’s relationships. The overall lesson of the book was so good. I really found the idea of a girls home for pregnant teens to be so fascinating. I just wish the book was a tad shorter.

Grady’s books can be super descriptive so I would recommend checking trigger warnings.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! Easily the best Grady Hendrix book written! Absolutely fantastic!
Neva is on her way to being dumped off at a home for young, unmarried pregnant girls by her disgraced father. He literally can't drop her off fast enough. Once there she is encouraged to not give any real life details, including her own name, so she is given the name Fern by Miss Wellwood, who runs the home (inherited from her father). There she meets an eclectic bunch of girls just like herself. She gets bored and heads to the book mobile for something new to read and is recommended a New Kind of Book. Things take a very wild turn from there. Not only is this story about wayward girls and witches, but it's so much more. Mostly friendship and the need for their own Coven. It's so well written and I even teared up a bit. We need a sequel!!

When Fern gets pregnant in 1970, her family sends her to a home for other pregnant teens in Florida to live until she gives birth. The baby will be adopted out and Fern will return home without anyone knowing. For the dozen girls living at the home, their days are boring and filled with chores. They don't have a choice of what to eat or what doctor to visit. When a bookmobile visits, Fern is excited to having something to read. The librarian gives her a book about witchcraft. Without much else to do, her and her friends decide to create a spell on their doctor. They are surprised when the spell works. Slowly Fern and her friends delve into witchcraft putting themselves and possibly their unborn children in danger. The stories of these teens, while fictional, are heartbreaking. I know stories like theirs really did happen and still do to this day. Combining the stigma of teen pregnancy with witches makes this a unique horror story.

This was an interesting book. I have read quite a few books by Grady Hendrix and they are at times hit or miss for me. I know that places like this certainly existed and the book bus was an enjoyable diversion. Once you realized that Miss Parcae was a witch and that Fern was the intended victim, things really started to pick up.

It started innocently enough, but when things get out of hand and they are unsure what their antics have done to Miss Wellwood, the girls (including Fern) agree to stop with the witchcraft. But, when the book of spells that was given to Fern gets burned by the cook, Miss Parcae reveals her dark side and tells Fern she won't have a choice to live up to the promise that she made.

I did feel that the ending was a little rushed but overall really enjoyed the story.

Heck yeah! Grady Hendrix always has these books with fabulous titles and super intriguing blurbs, and every single time I give in and pick one up I end up disappointed. This one, though … this one is absolutely fantastic. I've read some of the other reviews and everyone keeps on commenting about how very un-Grady Hendrix-y this particular book is, so maybe it's a fluke but I'll take it. It's feminist and witchy and heartwarming and heartbreaking and unputdownable and did I mention witchy?

I mean, there's a witch that moonlights as a librarian. Or a librarian that moonlights as a witch, I dunno. Probably the first one. But there's a librarian and a bookmobile and a witchy spell book and I am all about books that are about books. Not that this one is just about a book, mind you – it's also about patriarchy and helplessness and power and feminine rage. I was only alive for approximately 6.5 months of the 70s so I have no idea how accurate of a portrayal this book is of how unwed pregnant girls were treated in 1970, but it's absolutely enraging.

Be forewarned that this book includes some very graphic childbirth scenes. Sweet baby kittens on a cracker, I have never been so happy that my son was adopted in all my life. But if you've ever wanted to learn how many layers of muscle a doctor cuts through during an episiotomy, this is your book.

There's not much outright horror to be found here (well, other than the childbirth scenes mentioned above, ha), but there are a few delightfully creepy bits. Most of the “horror” has less to do with anything supernatural and more to do with how the young girls in this book are treated by the people in their lives and by society as a whole.

So, yeah. Great book. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a little creepy and a lot enraging and kind of makes me want to go out and fight the patriarchy. Grady Hendrix might just make a fan out of me yet. 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review. Its expected publication date is January 14, 2025.

When people say Hendrix can't write women, I want to throw this book at them. This is a slow burn horror, embedded in the realities of being a woman, a young girl, of being pregnant, of having no rights, freewill, or respect. The type of horror women face every day but rarely does society turn inward to pay attention to it. Hendrix writes this horror so well, so clearly, that it makes my stomach turn and my anxiety bloom. Because this horror isn't about something that doesn't exist, it's not about vampires, haunted houses, or possession. It's about how our society does not give women ownership of her own body, a horror so incredibly real and terrifying. Reading this felt like reading Handmaid's Tale in our current day - it's a fictional tale of the past but one that we are on the knife's edge of in our current day, foretelling our future, illustrating how we are repeating past sins.

Pregnancy and birth horrify me and the subjects are perfect for body horror, but Hendrix does not tread into the fantastical. He doesn't exaggerate the horrors of birth -- nobody births demon babies -- but instead he shows us what giving birth is truly, graphically like. We see different scenarios, from a young girl who is methodically cut apart to allow her child to pass through her tiny birth canal, in a hospital that has no empathy for the girl and does not do anything for her pain; to a home birth, surrounded by her coven, which nearly kills both child and mother. I am in awe of a horror book so masterfully built on what is true. It's not a book for readers who are looking for exciting, fast-paced masculine-based horror, but for ones who like slow, quiet building of tension.

The only criticism I have is that Hagar and Miriam serve as Magical Negros who support and save the (mostly white) girls in their moments of need, and who we know nothing about and do not hear follow up on their future after risking their lives. It's so obviously a Magical Negro trope that I was sincerely hoping Hendrix was going to turn it on its head but he does nothing with it except enforce it. We also do not see Zinnia give birth and do not learn of the horrors she faces as a Black woman giving birth, not only racism from the system but also the statistical reality of Black maternal mortality rates. Maybe Hendrix felt this was not his story to tell and wanted a happier story for Zinnia, I don't know.

I'm sad this is coming out next year, as this was the perfect book for me to kick off the fall season. I couldn't put it down and Rose, Zinnia, Holly, and Fern will be with me for a long time.