So, that was my first book by the author, and I thout it was ok. It wasn't exactly to he kind of horror I like and I thought it was a little childish. I didn't hate it anyway and I love the characters and their love for each other, and I plan to try and read other books by him.

3 stars.
Fern gets sent to a home for wayward girls, young unwed pregnant girls, over the summer to have her baby and return home free from “sin”. The horror of this was unusual; it was more subtle in that we are looking at body horror, the horror of childbirth, the aftermath of that and the realities of sexual abuse.
The pacing of this was simultaneously slow and perfect, unusually for a Grady Hendrix it took halfway for the “true horror” to start but it felt like an easy read.
The characterisation is fantastic, you can truly feel the desperation of these young women in making the right choice for them and their babies. The relationships are complex, like how real life is, it throws characters together that have but one thing in common.
Despite its easy readability and the horror of the book based in the complexities of real life, I felt that for a Grady Hendrix it was very mid. Grady Hendrix to me, is always just pushing the boundaries of what you can handle with graphic imagery. I feel like the ending just fell short of the mark, satisfying in the way it wrapped up the story but not enough to be “horror”. That being said, I’d pick up another Grady Hendrix in a heartbeat!
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for the opportunity to read this early.

This books has it all; horror, suspense and drama! It left me truly speechless so many times 😶 The Mother and baby homes in Ireland are no longer hidden history but I just never thought about how homes for pregnant girls would have also been a thing in other countries. It makes sense that before Roe v. Wade Americans would have forced unwed pregnant girls to hide away in these secretive homes.

The story is slow to start with our MC Neva renamed Fern arriving to Wellwood House. We learn about the mundane daily routine of the girls lives and how some of them ended up in the home. The story mainly focuses on just four girls Fern, Rose, Holly and Zinnia. Holly’s story was the most heartbreaking 💔

The plot really begins with the arrival of the bookmobile library and the librarian Miss Parcae who gives the four girls a book of spells. The spell book gives them hope and a taste for power but not all magic is good 🫣

The paranormal aspects were great but the truly horrific moments were the birthing scenes 😬 Grady Hendrix also went deep in to real life horror that girls were forced to face including abuse, forced adoption and shame of being unwed pregnant mothers. I was not expecting such a heartbreaking story but I did love it overall especially the ending ❤️

If you are looking for a horror witchcraft story with a mix of real life issues that sadly is still present in today’s world you need to read this book!

Oh, Grady Hendrix, you’ve done it again.

I’m usually a little wary of going into horror media that I’m aware ahead of time is going to deal with themes of pregnancy/body autonomy. It’s a very heavy topic in general, and lately, but also so much so to me specifically that I woke up with the worst cold I’ve ever had the morning after I started reading this book. And yeah, maybe this isn’t the best way to convince other people to read it but I mean this in the best way possible: this book actively assisted in fucking up my immune system enough that my nose is still running a little, a week (and tons of medicine) later.

In any case, the helplessness I felt from how weak I was contributed significantly to my immersion in this story, and even through the worst of my pain and lethargy I still had to force myself to stop reading this book and sleep. These girls haunted my dreams and nightmares and two therapy sessions so far.

There’s so much I want to say about it, and I have so many thoughts on the dehumanisation of little girls, and abortion should be a universal constitutional right! and god, witches are so fucking cool, but I can’t without spoiling it all. I'm a firm believer that this is a story that needs to be experienced first-hand. So, tl;dr: this book literally made me feel sick, and it’s one of the best things that I've ever read. I cannot recommend it enough.

How have I never read anything by this author before ? This book was just great, I have been missing out ! Will be seeking out more books by this talented author.

In St. Augustine, Florida, Wellwood Home stands, a home for unwed mothers, where girls are hidden away by their families so they can have their babies, put them up for adoption and everyone can forget the horrible sin they committed, and the families don't need to live with the shame of having a loose daughter.

Fern arrives at Wellwood Home on the summer of 1970 and is promptly abandoned there by her father, there she meets lots of other girls in her same predicament, like Rose, a hippie that insist she will keep her baby and have a home far away from the society that shuns them, Zinnia, a musician that knows she will go back home and marry her baby daddy and Holly, a mute girl barely 14 years old, pregnant by a stranger.

The home is oppressive, the rules too hard, and the girls are treated barely better than criminals. No one cares how they feel, no cares of this is the very first experience they have of strangers having access to their bodies… They were loose enough to get themselves “in trouble”, so anything that happens to them is their own fault.

So when they find a witchcraft book that promises to give them power, to finally give them the control over their lives and bodies, they take it without questions. Even if the price to pay for the power is more steep than they believe.


This is such a powerful book.
I am a huge Hendrix fan, so of course I was very excited when I got this book and I have to say that it did not disappoint.

I was expecting the descriptions and the gory details, I was expecting the dreadful horrors… I was not expecting for this story to resonate so much. And there lies the true horror of this book. People, you better ready your hearts because this book will scratch you up inside and it will hurt. The disrespect, the medical violence, the audacity of everyone treating these girls the way they do, controlling them, manipulating them, lying to them… It made me seethe, it nauseated me, it filled me with rage.

I have to be frank and say that many times I struggled reading from Fern's POV. Many of her choices are questionable, but then I had to take a step back and think that she is just a 15-year-old girl, a scared girl, an abandoned girl, a dirty shameful secret… And then I was feeling her powerlessness and how scared she was, and in all that you could understand her deep desperation to endure this ordeal so that everything can go back to “normal”.

This was a tough read, but I loved it, it is a well crafted story, it has enough horror to please the fans and a very realistic ending that hurts, but it's satisfying.

I'm quickly becoming a fan of Hendrix's horror style, so it was a no-brainer I was going to enjoy this.

The story follows Fern in the 1970's after she's been banished out of society's sight to a secluded 'Home' where pregnant unmarried teenagers give birth. I found the political insight into this generation of missing mothers really interesting, and for the first part of the novel, enjoyed it enough to completely forget about the witchy magic coming up. When things started to get deeper into the witchcraft, I found myself thinking how much I preferred the novel without it. I saw a review saying this would've been better as a literary fiction, and I am inclined to agree. It had enough legs to stand on as a literary fiction, whereas the coven of witches felt vague and unexplored in comparison.

Fern lacked as a main character until the last quarter of the novel, however characters such as Holly and Rose kept things interesting and the pace fast with their stories and fierceness. All the girls serve as harrowing depictions of our everyday lives, no matter the time period, and are uncomfortably relatable in their grief and rage. In comparison to others, Fern appeared almost dissociative of the whole experience until the last quarter - however this may have been intentional given how traumatising living in the Home must have been. In a time where women's rights are under siege, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a shining spotlight on why women's stories matter, no matter how much they deviate from the narrative of what is expected of us.

One thing to say about Hendrix, however, is how well they write gory horror. Whether you have a phobia of pregnancy and childbirth or not, this novel is not for the faint hearted when it comes to descriptions of birth and body horror. It would be impressive, if I was not reading with one eye closed!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to review! All opinions are my own :)

With his usual dry humour, excellent description and gripping horror story this is Hendrix at the top of his game.

Grady Hendrix has recently become one of my auto buy authors - Horrorstor and The Southern Bookclub's guide to vampire slaying were absolutely epic so I had to request this book on Netgalley when I saw it.

I'm a recent horror convert, but I've come to love to adrenaline rush from speeding through the chapters where the final combat or conflict is happening. However, when the Southern Bookclub book got to a part where the character had literal insects crawling on them and then IN REAL LIFE a spider fell onto my face - I was a little bit freaked out to say the least. It added an entirely new dimension to the writing I was engrossed in.

I loved witchcraft for wayward girls nearly as much, and honestly the only thing holding me back from giving this book five stars was the face that I think it was slightly mis-genre'd (not a word). Pesonally, I'd class this book as a spooky witchcraft book with a dash of horror, not an entirely horror book itself.

Don't get me wrong I love that genre of books too - spooky witchcraft is the vibe of my life, and not just around Halloween. But being told this was a horror did make me feel like I was waiting for the big bad to jump out of the shadows at me, and nothing really hit the levels of horror-film vibes as I've got in Grady Hendrix's other novels. It hit 'eerie thriller' at the max maybe.

But it was a great read, aside from that issue. Seeing girls in the 60s who are pregnant and unmarried and what they had to go through at the time felt especially relevant in today's political climate. It fuelled my feminist rage.

The twists and manipulations they bombard these girls with to convince them that they're unfit and shouldn't keep their own babies was frustrating to say the least. And so many characters were built so well they all felt very 3d, with their own failings and good parts to make them seem especially real to me.

Honestly, if I were in the situation these girls were in, I could see the appeal that the witchcraft held to them too. The power that they had stripped of them in life, returned to them in a very different way.

This is a perfect read for someone looking for a feminist, witchy, and spooky read to sink into in the colder months. Just don't expect it to be at the super scary level of horror.

The Wellwood House for Unwed Mothers is home to multiple girls who are expecting a baby. All of them have been sent there to have their child, give it up for adoption, and then go back home and act like nothing happened. Wellwood House has seen more than its fair share of teenagers, and when Fern arrives, she’s just another Jane Doe to be added to a long list of Doe’s before her.

It’s 1970 and the middle of summer in Florida. Despite the situation she’s in, Fern finds friends amongst the other girls, all trying to make their time at the home pass as quickly as possible. Under strict control by the adults, no real names or details about their lives back home are to be shared. Remaining anonymous leaves them free to return to their lives afterwards, and so each girl is named after flowers or plants.

Each day is the same, until Fern meets a librarian, who gives her a book that is not so innocent as it would like to appear to be. From then on, Fern and her friends are quick to snatch the power available, unawares of the true cost of it. Every debt must be paid, because power like this doesn’t come for free.

This was my first Grady Hendrix book. I’ve had a few of his books on my TBR for ages, and when I received an ARC of this, I knew it was finally time to dive into one of his books.

It started off so well, really sucking me in and giving me all the details I needed about the house, the time it was set, and the people who helped run it. I was so invested in what was to come, sure this was going to be my next 5 star read. Except the middle was a slog. Everything seemed to slow right down to a point I considered DNF-ing. Instead, I skim read until it picked up again because I needed to know the ending, and a big chunk had to be skimmed to get near it.

The ending felt in the same tone as the beginning, but it wasn’t enough for me to have really enjoyed this book and forgiven the middle. I finished the book with very mixed feelings, because it started so well, with the middle such a let down, and the ending being just okay. I wanted a lot more from it, going into it with high hopes, but it just didn’t deliver unfortunately.



Did I like the book? Overall, no.

Did I love it? In the beginning.

Would I recommend it? If you’ve read and enjoyed any of his previous books, then maybe. If not, no.

Loved this book! Grady Hendrix is a master of the slow burn horror genre.
I’ve only read one of his books previously (My Best Friend’s Exorcism) and I loved that so I went into this with high expectations and it did not disappoint!

I have read so many Grady Hendrix books before and when I got the ARC of his latest novel, which will be released next year, I was so ecstatic!

The Witchcraft of Wayward Girls follows the story set in 1970--when abortion was illegal and underage pregnant girls were whisked to a place in Florida called The Home run by a Miss Wellwood. Neva is one of those girls when she was dropped off to the Home. Her name was changed to Fern and she meets other girls who are like herself--Holly, Zinnia and Rose. Miss Wellwood basically controls everything in the house--from what the girls eat to what the girls should do and read. When Fern comes across a book about the witchcraft, Fern and the three girls decide to use some of the spells mentioned in the book. The spells became successful but then while using these spells, comes a price as well...

This was quiet an interesting read actually. Nearly half of the book describes about the girls' life in the house, particularly when they were forced to give up on their babies and controlling the things that they should eat and do. But when the girls start coming across the witchcraft book then things started to get interesting. Though the whole story was fictional, the situation that these girls faced when they become pregnant out of wedlock and underage was emotionally disturbing--the child birth scenes are also a bit disturbing to read as well. I am not sure if the early 1970's were like that mentioned in the book but nonetheless, the author had done some research about the life of girls in the 1970's. In my opinion, this was one of the author's best books. This book portrays about how society has a way of dictating and controlling the women's life in every possible way which makes it also sad that it used to be like that back in the early 1970's.

Above all, besides the emotional and disturbing parts, there were funny parts as well. Though it is a horror book, there wasn't much scary or jump scare moments in the book in my opinion.

I enjoyed reading this book and give 4 stars to this book.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

I really love Grady Hendrix as a writer so was excited to get an early copy of this new book. A group of teenage girls are taken to a home for unmarried mothers by their parents when they fall pregnant. The plan is to tell people at home they're at summer camp or wherever, the babies will be given up for adoption and they will return home like nothing has happened. The girls aren't treated well in the home and they are given a book by a mysterious woman that leads them down the path of witchcraft. It's a fun concept and there are some really good moments in this book but it's quite long drawn out and not as gripping as it should be at times. It's still a decent read though not the best I've read by this author.

I previously read and enjoyed Grady Hendrix's books so when I came across this one, I immediately requested it. Grady Hendrix's synopses are always so interesting and make you want to pick up the book. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is about teenage unwed pregnant girls who are sent to a home and anonymously give birth and continue with their lives. In a way, this home offers these girls a second chance. I found the pacing of this book to be slower than his other novels. While the plot was interesting, I was expecting more witchy elements. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I think that this particular story wasn't quite for me. However, if you liked the author's previous works, I definitely recommend giving this one a try as well. Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan | Tor Nightfire for the arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Firstly thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read this book early. It's actually my first book by Grady Hendrix and I'm looking forward to reading more by this author after this fantastic book.

This book is about unwed pregnant young girls in the 1970's.The young girls are sent away to a home for Weyward girls, where they give birth and then return to their families like nothing happened, a second chance at life. Their children adopted to others families more worthy to bring up.

We follow these girls as they develop friendships,
try to help one another face their problems.
Part way through the book the MFC Fern discovers a book for witches and they try to take some power back against the situation they find themselves in.

I found this book both heartwarming and heartbreaking and full of feminine rage with an undercurrent of witchy vibes.

I found Grady's writing style, unique plot and storytelling remarkable. I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters and their back stories, especially Fern, Rose and Ms Parcae.

The book initial pacing is quite slow but still has the power to drag you in from the start. But once the pace picks up you won't be able to put it down.

I don't want to give anything away, so there you have it, you just need to read it for yourself!

I've heard that Grady Hendrix can be quite hit-or-miss as an author and I've definitely found that to be the truth in my case too - with the 3 books I've read being a 5 star, a 3 star and now a DNF. This could have been such a different experience for me had I felt any kind of connection to the characters in here. They fell very flat - particulary our main character, Fern and I had a difficult time distinguishing between characters because their voices didn't feel unique enough. I know Grady Hendrix can write teenage relationships and drama well; I've seen it in My Best Friend's Exorcism. I know he can make me feel tense and on edge like he did in The Final Girl Support Group. So why were those things lacking so much here? Not to mention, the first 30% is incredibly slow, which left me feeling no desire to go back into the story and cementing my decision to DNF. Overall, a big miss for me.

At once surprisingly original and comfortingly familiar, this fantasy-horror is akin to a young-adult version of the Handmaid's Tale.
A school where pregnant mothers can give birth - and 'cleanse' themselves - in anonymity. The girls who don't have anything to go back to, and the magic they find.
What I liked: the girls themselves. Most of them are fiery, brave amidst the horrors of their lives, and determined to make it out alive. The camaderie between them, eventually, was nice to read about.
What could've been better: the role of the magic in the story felt a bit forced, because it didn't do anything except fill the space between the girls' birthing. Also, for a book about childbirth, it had a very strongly anti-childbirth stance that some readers might find uncomfortable to read about. Additionally, the one coloured character in here felt a lot like she was thrown in for the sake of it - I really wanted to like her and was glad to see the representation but as the book progressed the more it felt like she was underdeveloped compared to the other side characters.

Ooh this is so good

The first section of the book set up the story of a group of girls and utterly powerless in a mother and baby Home in the 60s it’s very naturalistic and immediately got my attention. As the book progresses the magical reality is added as the girls tired of their repression meets the local witch and learn some spells which ultimately get out of hand.
I’m a little worried that some of the pregnancy timeline advice is incorrect whilst this may have come from 60s centric books I think it’s important that we don’t give incorrect advice perhaps without meaning to some readers might take the advice literally for example there are comments about bloodstained vagina discharge and itching both of which are not normal signs in pregnancy and medical help should be sought
I like the fact that the story is timed around a pregnancy. There’s an element of the story gestating and coming to fruition along with the main characters pregnancy
The scene with the fingernails made me feel physically sick and I’m a doctor
The birth scenes, however very accurate descriptions of normal birth and shoulder dystopia very real
What a brilliant ending the book is tied up so perfectly in the last chapter which whizzes along at a million miles and a minute and ties it all together perfectly
Reading this book I never imagined from moment that the author was a man probably add to its triumph as it really is a female voice
The timing of this book is perfect as the USA repeals Roe versus wade and young women again face the possibility unwanted pregnancies having to go to term and facing the possibility of having to handover their newborns at birth
I read a copy of the novel on NetGalley UK. The book is published on the 16th of January 2025 by Pan McMillan.

This review would appear on NetGalley UK Goodreads, Storyville and my book blog bionicSarahsbooks.wordpress.com. after publication it will also appear on Amazon UK.

1970s. Florida. Unwed pregnant children and trauma. So much trauma. And so much room for the kind of hell and fury promised from scorned women (children, I must stress AGAIN). What a sad and frustrating book.

I wanted more witchery.

Like, Grady Hendrix, I love your campy style of horror but please can you not write on things that you will not provide a satisfy resolution for. The premise was there. The characters had a lot of potential. As a mother, I found a lot of the worries relatable. And yet, I did not get the kind of ending I needed. It was just sad. And real. Too real.

He’s done it again!!!

Grady always knocks it out of the park for me and this was no exception. The atmosphere, the setting, the girls and their bid for revenge was nothing short of fantastic writing. It’s interesting to read about places like this in a fiction setting as even though they were popular back in 50s and 60s you never really come across them in books so it was refreshing to read the struggles and how girls were forced to get rid if they got pregnant (after they’ve gone through the hardship of pregnancy and birth!)

I can’t wait to see what Grady brings out next