I am able to admit that if I haven’t particularly liked 2 out f 2 books by an author, then maybe I’m not the one to critique the book. No more Grady Hendrix for me. While I can give this 3 stars, I try to only read 4 or 5 star books. If I give it a 3, at least I finished it. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I have several books by Grady Hendrix on my e-reader, and for reasons I can’t fathom, they remain unread. That all changes now. My friends—Witchcraft for Wayward Girls popped my Grady Hendrix cherry, and there’s no going back. See what I did there? No? Keep reading; you will.
I know several of my readers here at Midlife Rewrite followed me from my romance book reviewing days. Hi, guys! Love ya, mean it! You all know the golden rule of romance books, so help me educate our non-romance readers. Say it with me: The one rule of genre romance is that there must be a HEA (happily ever after) or a HFN (happy for now) ending. If a book calls itself a romance and lacks a HEA or HFN, it’s lying to you. That’s it. That’s the rule. Not up for debate. If you disagree, go fight with your mother.
Now, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is genre horror, and guess what? Horror has rules, too. According to IngramSpark, there are five key elements every horror novel needs: memorable characters, an ideal setting, suspense and pacing, themes and symbols, and—most importantly—fear and uncertainty. Where romance needs a HEA, horror needs fear. But that fear doesn’t have to come from a bloody slasher tormenting sleeping teens with his hedge-clipper fingers. If that’s why you’ve held off on reading horror, fear not! Or, well… maybe do fear, but not necessarily the gory kind.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls blends horror, thriller, suspense, gothic fiction, and a dash of supernatural/paranormal fantasy into one spellbinding book. Set in the 1970s, our protagonist, Fern, is sent away from her simple schoolgirl life to a home for unwed mothers in St. Augustine, Florida. Her dream of playing the lead in the school play disappears because she and her crush had clumsy teenage renedezvous that resulted in a pregnancy. Naturally, he moves on unscathed while Fern pays the price. Of to the home she goes.
The rest of my review is on my Substack: Midlife Rewrite

✨Review✨

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix📖🎧

No book has ever made me cry as much as this one did. I started off crying, I found myself sobbing in a panic in the middle, fighting through tears to read the words on the pages toward the end. Then because I didn’t cry enough, at the very last section I found myself a complete mess again.

This book was an absolutely outstanding emotional read.

I must admit I was a little surprised to see that Grady Hendrix was writing about underage pregnancies, however this was extremely well researched. I learned things that I maybe didn’t need to know but now I do and so I’ll just bury that information for now.

The audiobook- was one of the best I have ever listened to. It completely immerses you in the story. I felt like I was there with this girls every single second.

Highly recommend listening instead of reading this one.

If you get past the first page without crying, good job you’re stronger than I am.

📆Release date: available now


✨Read this if you like✨
🧙‍♀️Witches
🏡Found family
🪄Magic
😭Strong emotions
🌪️Plot twists
🔪Revenge
💪Strength
…if you like to cry 😭

It’s going to take me awhile to recover from this read.

To Grady Hendrix- outstanding job.

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they sent them away to the Wellwood home in Fl under the eye of Ms Wellwood. But they were in fact, just girls. Fifteen year old Fern arrived, terrified, alone and six months pregnant. Where there are many other girls just like her. There she meets Rose the hippie, Zinnia a musician and determined to marry her child’s father, and Holly, who is mute and pregnant. When Fern meets a traveling librarian and receives an occult book about witchcraft the power finally lies in their hands for once, but there’s always a price to be paid.

This book was a wild ride. Honestly when this book started I was a bit apprehensive of a male author taking on the topic of the mistreatment of young, unmarried pregnant women in the 60’s and early 70’s, and the mistreatment of women during childbirth and the stigma that went with it, along with essentially brokering babies. Also encompassing what they were feeling during the whole thing. It’s not something you see often especially with the graphics of childbirth. *Don’t come at me I’m not saying it can’t be done, I’m just saying it’s not always done well* But he did it with such detail and grace, and really highlighted this part of history that isn’t really talked about much. I thought it was fantastic. Of course he sprinkled a bit of intensity in there that was crazy but this definitely wasn’t just your typical “thriller/fantasy/historical fiction ” this was in a class of its own. It even made me cry a few times. This is a must read.

Review of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

I absolutely love Grady Hendrix. I was so excited to be approved on NetGalley to read this book. It was so good. It did not disappoint me at all. I can’t remember the last time that I enjoyed the characters in a book so much as I did this one. I was so invested in the main character and her friends I couldn’t put the book down. I loved the entire set up and storyline. It’s clear extensive research was done on this book and it was perfection in my eyes. It’s probably tied with my best friend’s exorcism as my favorite book by this author with honorable mention going to the final girl support group.

Synopsis:

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.

This book was a gripping and intense read. The darker themes were handled with depth and complexity, making it both unsettling and thought-provoking. The atmosphere was immersive, and the storytelling kept me hooked until the very end. A haunting yet compelling read that lingers long after you finish.

Thank you so much @prhaudio for the ALC & @berkleypub for the eArc!

This is a story about girls being girls.

I’m super torn on this one bc it absolutely accomplishes what it sets out to do… but I did not necessarily enjoy the ride. I think teen pregnancy is just not a trope that I love, but the writing was immersive and compelling enough that I stuck it through anyway- with mixed results. I think if you’re someone who enjoys both witchy things & reading about pregnancy this could definitely be a fit for you!

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls falls outside of what I would consider my typical reading genres, but my curiosity got the best of me starting with the cover. This is the first book that I actually had to set down and take a break from in a bit. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this was a lot more horrific than I imagined. The way these girls were treated in the home was terrible. Young, unwed mothers abandoned by their families in a home that takes total control. They control what and how much they eat and drink, how they dress, how they spend their days, what they’re called…everything..then they have the baby and are expected to just give up any and all rights, go back home to their family and pretend that none of it ever happened. Absolutely absurd and the girls had enough. They cross paths with a traveling librarian who passes along a book of witchcraft. But what the girls don’t understand is that this magic comes with a very steep price.
Like i said above, this is outside of what I typically read, but overall I thought it was well written and interesting.

It's witchy & feminist, taking on a difficult topic, but Grady Hendrix manages to pull it all off for an incredible story. I could not put this book down and read long into the night, desperately rooting for these girls as they try so hard to take back power in a world that tries to strip it from them at every turn.

TL;DR: No one balances heart, humor, and yes, HORROR, like Grady, and Witchcraft is no exception: a truly scary and emotionally impactful story about a group of young women who decide to form their own coven and take back control of their lives. It’s “Wicked” fun, and I guarantee this one will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. It’s the perfect book to kickstart an incredible year of reading.

As one who doesn’t generally read much Horror, Grady Hendrix is my major exception and one of my favorite authors.
When @BerkleyPub gave me a chance to read his latest novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (out today!) I jumped at it.
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Really quick synopsis of an almost 500 page book; 15 year old Fern is pregnant and her father drops her off at a home for unwed mothers in the middle of Florida. We come to know and love Fern and the other residents, while hating the home’s director, doctor, and almost every man mentioned. The home is so oppressively strict that the girls jump at the only chance they see to take back a little power in their own lives. It just happens to come in the form of witchcraft.
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Hendrix is known for horror novels and I am not sure what is the most horrifying aspect of this story, witchy ways, childbirth descriptions, or the way young pregnant girls were treated in 1970 and before. There were some truly creepy scenes with scary knocks on doors, storms, and such, but it wasn’t the horror I expected. Hendrix does write very graphic, descriptive scenes that might make some readers queasy. I thought they gave it a very legitimate feeling. I was already so deeply involved with these girls and all they were dealing with, it seemed just right to know all the nitty-gritty details too.
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This was a a very feminist, f#%* the patriarchy book. You will read it and find little cause not to feel the same way. Yet the bonds these young girls formed, the strength they found, and lessons they learned were priceless.
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The humor I have always loved in Hendrix’s books was still there, just much much more subtle and hidden at times by the sad plight of these girls. The director’s revolving names for her “garden of girls”, the girls bumping into each other often with their bellies, and the cook’s attitude never failed to lighten things for me with a small chuckle.
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I loved it. I can’t wait for everyone to read it.

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.