Pregnant in a pre-Roe vs. Wade era, 15-year-old Fern is sent to a home that basically warehouses pregnant teenagers. They’re kept out of sight, far from the judgement of their hometowns, until their babies are born and adopted out to more “worthy” parents. Fern feels both hopeless and bored, until a librarian gives her a mysterious book on witchcraft. And when Fern learns that one of her fellow teen moms needs help escaping a desperate situation, she thinks casting a spell just might be the only way to save her new friend. But magic—and freedom—come at a great price…

You know when you finish a book and it’s so good that you just need to sit and bask in the satisfaction for a moment? And you can’t start another book right away because you know it won’t live up to the last one? That was my experience with Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.

The 1970s vibes were absolutely flawless, and I could vividly picture each scene. It felt like watching a horror film, but one directed by Sofia Coppola. The characters were complex, dynamic and morally grey. The plot was quick paced with a taut sense of tension. But the absolute best part of this book was its strong feminist message. My heart broke for these young mothers who had to battle societal judgement and oppression at every turn.

This was my favourite Grady Hendrix book yet. I’m calling it now: this one is going to be huge!

Pregnant and scared, young Fern is driven to a home for unwed mothers in Florida. It's 1970, well before Roe v Wade and there aren't a lot of options for girls in her situation. The home provides prenatal care in an unforgiving environment where every patient is forced to hand over their child for adoption. But, the women in the woods offer an alternative if Fern and her group of friends are willing to pay a high price.

10/20/24: Full review will come later, but my gosh this was fantastic. I think this is the author’s best work. And I totally didn’t cry reading the last couple chapters. And I’m definitely not still wiping away tears. Nope, couldn’t be me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

Update 11/13/24: This is definitely one of my favorite reads of the year. The subject matter is already horrifying and upsetting on its own, but Hendrix really digs deep into how horrendously these girls are treated. I appreciated the quotes the book starts with; they truly set the tone for what’s in store and also contribute to the disgust that these things were ever said/sometimes still said.

There are also several descriptive scenes that reaffirmed why I never want to be pregnant/give birth, and I’ll leave it at that.

The end is bittersweet, and I found it to be a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, my favorite Hendrix book by far and I’m excited to see how it’s received early next year.

In “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls”, we follow teenage Neva who is being taken by her father to a home for pregnant girls. She’s expected to live there until she gives birth, the baby will be given to a couple to adopt, and she will return home and continue her life as normal. As she befriends various girls in the home, they begin to question the system and things they are taught and start finding their own voice. Enter: witches and things get hectic from there.

What I liked about this book: the bring-down-the-patriarchy, female rage, anti establishment themes woven all throughout. The girlhood in this book was equally as empowering to read about as is was heartwarming and emotional. The friendship and having other women’s backs no matter what was beautiful. The writing was great as always, with many hard hitting lines that I adored. The ending was the perfect ending, wrapping up various storylines in a satisfying and deeply emotional way.

I think I felt about this book as most people did about How To Sell A Haunted House. It was *really* campy, bordering on cheesy. This felt much more juvenile than Hendrix’s other works, which granted does make sense considering we are in the minds of teenage girls. But I wasn’t expecting a young adult feeling story that didn’t meet the mark of horror for me. It did deliver on the gruesome body horror scenes as always, but that aside this didn’t read as horror which was a bit of a letdown.

Overall I did enjoy this book but it did feel different from what I’ve learned to expect from Grady Hendrix. It was a fun time but not a favorite!

I've always enjoyed Grady's work, and this one is no exception. I did enjoy the story, buy thought they could have done more with the witchcraft element. I wanted to see the girls hone their powers.

Too long to get going. Body horror, no thank you. Meh characters except for the librarian witch? Witch librarian? She was definitely the best part. needed to be about 100 pages shorter.
A miss for me.

Grady Hendrix delivers a new and fantastic story of witchcraft, empowerment and the need for control in a timely story with Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Hendrix crafts a story of girls with zero control of their lives beautifully and doesn’t holdback on the pain unwed mothers felt or the issues they faced in the 70s. Overall Hendrix continues his streak of fantastic books with WfWG!

It’s hard to know what to say about this book. I feel like my words have weight. The subject-matter is heavy and timely and targeted.

It’s about mothers who didn’t want to be mothers.

It’s about mothers who weren’t allowed to be mothers.

It’s about girls who were abandoned by everyone they knew and chose witchcraft as an attempt to escape. Which is exactly what modern witchcraft seems to be about: women making choices for themselves when God has failed them.

I would not recommend this book for teens; I’m worried they might try to hurt themselves in the name of witchcraft or misunderstand what happens in a hospital when you give birth (they don’t shave you anymore, and episiotomies are rare). That said, as a mother who gave birth naturally, I support women having a doula or other support person present to make sure your preferences are taken into account when feasible and your body is respected. I didn’t need this and was very go-with-the-flow, but I had a good OB.

In a post-Roe world, this book is poignant and sad. Our choices have been stripped away from us. Homes like this may appear, once again. Women like me may decide they’re done having children, for safety. Giving birth, even when everything goes perfectly, is life-altering to your body and mind.

4.25 stars because the story, while poignant and compelling at the end, drags a bit in the middle. It took me a long time to read it.

This is my favorite Grady Hendrix so far. The characters are all really well developed and realistic. The horror is different-- there is body horror and scary situations, but the situations that cause the "horror" are realistic-- disempowerment, loss of autonomy, and bad people.

The Grady Hendrix books that I have read before have had a great blending of supernatural horror and humor, so I was expecting that humor with a focus on witchcraft. Instead, this book is an intense combination of real-life horrors mixed with witchcraft in an atmospheric, realistic fiction setting. It starts off slowly, introducing a number of unmarried teenage, pregnant girls who have been sent away to a home in Florida in 1970 where they wait to deliver their babies and give them up for adoption. The story builds as the core group of characters are given a book on witchcraft which they use to make their doctor feel their pain and nausea of morning sickness. Events get progressively disturbing and graphic; there is a strong sense of place; and the rage that these unseen girls feel is explosive. Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for letting me read the advance copy of this book!

Grady Hendrix does not ever want the reader to be comfortable. No matter the subject, something is always just slightly off from the beginning. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is no different. Fern arrives at Wellwood House at fifteen and pregnant. Everything is stripped from her, including her name. She meets Rose, Holly, and Zinnia, also "wayward" pregnant teens. Every aspect of their lives in controlled, what they eat, who they talk to, whether they can keep their babies or not. When Fern meets the librarian and gets a book on witchcraft, the girls finally feel they have some bit of power. But power always comes at a price.


This book offers a scathing look at how unwed teen mothers were treated in the 1970s, the horrors of the homes that existed, and the essential powerlessness of women. It also offers hope through friendship and self acceptance.

Wellwood Home is full of pregnant teens just trying to make it through the endless chores, moralistic lectures, and sweltering Florida heat until they can give their babies up for adoption and go back to their real lives. The cruelty they endure is casual, deliberate, endemic, and vicious. When Fern picks up a book on witchcraft from the bookmobile, she and her friends try a spell out of boredom and desperation. Their little cantrip works, but real power will require great sacrifice. The traditional horror elements are less stomach-turning than the misogyny.

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
I just closed the book and I don’t even know what to say yet. I need to process this for 5-7 business days but I’m absolutely blown away.


UPDATE:

It has been 10 days since I finished this book and I have thought of it everyday since. This is BY FAR my favorite Grady Hendrix book and I have loved all his novels.


I'm MIND BLOWN at the writing in this book and the topics covered especially as it relates to womanhood, sisterhood and motherhood. I was very unsure how this book would go for me as it covers womanhood and was written by a man.


I honestly believe the way that he described the topics above was so absolutely in alignment with my personal experiences within each category.


I feel like his writing transported me directly into the experience of the Wayward girls and how scary/sad that era in time had to have been for many of them. This book made me feel so many emotions. I was grieving, enraged, scared and felt empowered all within the course of reading this story.


Feminine Rage was depicted beautifully in this book.


I don't want to give too much away in this review as I truly believe this is a book you have to experience on your own, but WOW. I'm absolutely mind blown STILL after finishing it 10 days ago.


This is the type of book and story that I will never forget.


I'm so honored to have been given the opportunity to read this as an ARC through Berkley Publishing Group, Netgalley and most of all Grady Hendrix.


This book was LIFE ALTERING good.


1000/10 you should read this.

Unlike anything Hendrix has written before...

I was anxious how Hendrix would handle writing the narrative of a 15 year old girl and moreso with such a sensitive topic, but I thought he handled it with great care and respect.

This isn't horror in the typical sense--it is more realistic horror; it's a look into the true horrors experienced by real girls (yes...girls) who were subjected to these "homes", "caretakers" and "doctors". Places of the past but realllyyy not that far in the past.

Reading this was simultaneously intense, rage-inducing, and heartbreaking...and there is A LOT of heart in this book. He created characters that felt genuine, characters I cared for and wanted to see justice for.

The witch element certainly plays a role but it always seemed to take a backseat to the rest of the story; it didn't bother me but it's worth noting.

Grady has range!

Neva is a 15-yr-old teen, pregnant by her boyfriend who has deserted her and placed into a home for "wayward girls" in Florida in the early 1970's. All the girls in the home have been sent there against their will, given new floral names for the length of their stays, and told that they will be giving up their children whether they like it or not. When Neva (Fern) is given a book on witchcraft by the traveling librarian some of the girls start to feel like they can possibly take their power back. The problem with witchcraft is that it always has a price to be paid.... I loved this book and reading it on Election Day 2024 just made me wish is weren't fiction.

Thanks to Berkley and Grady Hendrix for the chance to read ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’! Grady Hendrix is an auto-read for me. It was really emotional and gripping (once you got into it-the first parts dragged a tiny bit) but I did feel like this one was missing that sparkle that I’ve come to expect from his books. Maybe it was bad timing to read something on this topic (election week). Either way, I did stay hooked to the end.

Really enjoyed this book. It was a slight change from his past books. It had great character development and I enjoyed the perspective of the main character.

I was so excited to start October (my month of reading only horror books) with a new one from Grady Hendrix. I love his books! Each is different than the last, but they all have his signature style and wit.
I like the premise of this story a lot! Young, unwed mothers taking up witchcraft! A librarian who was once a groovy witch! All of this peaked my interest! I also really liked the characters of Fern and Rose. I was absolutely gutted when I learned Holly's backstory, and it is probably part of why I didn't end up finishing this book. I was also having trouble with some of the really graphic labor scenes.
It was not as spooky as I had expected, though it is also possible I didn't get to the part of the book with supernatural elements. The only horror was how these girls were being treated by society, and it turned out to be to horrific for me to keep reading.
I will be really interested to see what other fans think.

A handful of girls find themselves "in trouble" as unmarried women in the South in 1970. Their families have sent them to Wellwood House in Florida to wait out the birth of their babies before coming home. At Wellwood House, their every move is controlled by the adults around them. When the meet the librarian who travels to the home in a bookmobile, she gives one of the girls a book about the occult and slowly, they start taking their power back from those who have stripped them of it.
While I understand and sympathize with the message, it took me a long time to get into this, which is unusual for a Grady Hendrix book in my opinion. There was quite a lot of information and research done about these homes for "troubled girls", and while I appreciated the research, I wanted more occult and witchcraft because that's what I was expecting. While it was not a favorite of mine, I still encourage everyone to read Grady Hendrix. Even in a slower book, the writing was very atmospheric.

Despite its relatively slow pace, I found the first third of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls to be quite engaging. I was definitely turning (swiping) pages late into the night as I delved into Fern's story. However, it seemed to take forever for any elements of magic or witchcraft to be introduced and even then, the stakes seemed incredibly low. As the reader, I felt a bit like I was stuck in a cycle: the girls argue about using magic, they decide not to do it, one of them changes their minds, they still don't do it, etc. It was like being in a car with the wheels turning but not moving forward at all. Then there were multiple extremely detailed and graphic depictions of childbirth which was gratuitous to me. Overall, this was a disappointment.