Book Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

 

From the publisher:

There’s power in a book…

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.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix was published January 21, 2025 by Berkley.

My Thoughts: I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. After reading a few reviews prior to reading the book, I wasn't at all sure that I was going to like this book, but I did. I liked the girls and felt for them. They were united by the way that their families had treated them when they found out they were pregnant. Also living at the home united them. They all had the same experiences and the same close supervision.

The magic system was different. Magic always has a price in order for it to succeed. What the price in this case was, is interesting. I hadn't seen this cost quite this way before. And there were some clever bits related to this. In particular, the girls use the magic against some adults. This held consequences both for the adults and the girls, but afterwards, it was like the adults forgot about what happened.

The book had a slow beginning. This was mostly because of what was needed to set the scene. Still, I would have liked the magic to start sooner. After that. things move faster. And there are twists and surprises. I liked that it was not totally predictable nor was it preachy. I would have preferred a tad more humor as in his other books, But considering everything - the weightiness of the topic, the timeliness, it makes total sense. I also was not a fan of the graphic birthing scenes. 

I would recommend this book to people who have enjoyed Hendrix's other books. And I would also recommend this book for people who enjoy magical realism in a historical setting. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This did not affect my opinions nor my review.