Shipped off to a home for unwed mothers against her will, Neva “Fern” is left to wait out her pregnancy, hidden away from ‘polite society’ until she can go home and act like she just went to Drama camp that summer.

*Teenage pregnancy, blood, child birth, self harm, vomit, racism, child abuse, sexism, cancer*

The book has a slow build up, really building into the historical fiction genre here. It’s quite thought provoking. The real horror is the graphic detail of pregnancy and child birth! Not for the squeamish! It’s quite disturbing! The books does also appear to have a ‘magical negro’ trope that I have a gripe with. While I recognise that Hagar and Miriam’s work roles were ‘true to the times’, Hagar is portrayed as a ‘black sassy woman’. It’s only the second Grady Hendrix book I’ve read, but it also happens to be two for two where I’ve noted concern for the representation.

I did however find myself getting hooked around half way through and felt quite invested in their individuals journeys. It’s gritty and raw, I think this book will stick with me.

3.5/5

Pregnant and single, the ultimate sin in 70s America, young Neva finds herself shipped off to Wellwood's, a home for unwed mothers to be, to give birth out of sight and out of mind of anyone who knows her. Once there she's stripped of her name, rechristened Fern, and forbidden to talk about her life before the home.

Quickly making friends with several of the girls she settles into a routine of medical tests and drudgery, the only escape the occasional visits of the bookmobile and librarian Miss Parcae who introduces her and her closest friends to the wonders of witchcraft.

Grady Hendrix's latest Witchcraft for Wayward Girls may on the face of it be a coming of age horror about girls and witchcraft, but that's actually the weakest part of the narrative and selling it short.

No, it's greatest strength lies in it's depiction of the very real horror of how young girls and women who found themselves pregnant at that time were handled by family, friends and society in general.

It also contains one of the most brutal depictions of childbirth I can recall reading. I suspect it would dissuade more than a few young daughters if a read were prescribed instead of a parental sex education discussion.

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Night fire and the author for an advance copy

Set in 1970, 15-year-old Fern finds herself pregnant, and her parents swiftly send her away to have the baby. When she returns home, she comes back alone; her parents put the child up for adoption.

While she's away, Fern is stripped of all control - adults around her make all the decisions, firmly believing they know what’s best. That is, until a traveling library introduces her to a book on the occult. Suddenly, power shifts in Fern's favor, but using it comes at a cost. Will the price be too high?

I was surprised at the book’s intense focus on pregnancy and childbirth (with some really really graphic scenes) and its lighter touch on witches and magic. That said, it reminded me of Haunted House in pacing and style, with a slow-burn, character-driven first half that builds tension until it’s batshit crazy.

The characters really shine here. Fern, Rose, Zinnia, and Holly are standouts, and the adult characters are equally well-written. The girls’ powerlessness is palpable, as supposedly well-meaning adults often end up making things worse. The librarian is especially intriguing, her sinister presence growing in influence as the story unfolds.

Warning: the hideously detailed vomiting scenes were torturous for me (phobia, anyone?), but that’s more personal than a criticism about the writing.

In terms of favourites, I’d rank this somewhere in the middle. It has a similar vibe to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, so if you enjoyed that, this one is definitely worth a read too. Out 16th January, 2025 (UK)

A huge thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book for review consideration.  All opinions are my own.

I was expecting full blown horror, having read Grady Hendrix before, but this book was far more subtle than that. To be fair, the start of the book had me wondering whether there was going to be any horror in it at all. Apart, of course, from the awful situation of the young girls sent to a home for unmarried, pregnant girls in Florida in the 1960s, where they would have their babies, who would be taken away from them, and then they would return to their former lives.

However, then the girls get hold of a book of witchcraft and want to change their circumstances. An interesting take on the subject, with a very definite price to be paid for using magic. I really enjoyed the book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review of the book.

America, 1970. A very pregnant Neva ends up in a Home, a place where wayward girls go. It's a home for pregnant, unmarried girls where they can deliver their babies in secret and give them for adoption. Being on a strictly regulated diet and doing chores is boring for young girls, so when traveling librarian recommends Fern (Neva) instruction book for witches, what's the harm in trying few spells with her rommates? It turns out, pretty much everything.

In one of his earlier interviews, Grady Hendrix remember the first book that frightened him and it was an old book on folklore and witchcraft in England. It was illustrated and graphic and it installed in young Hendrix the notion that witchcraft is a brutal, bloody affair. Was that his inspiration for this book? I imagine it did play into it, so let's start there.
Witchcraft in this novel IS ugly. It's ritualistic, it's vindictive and it demands payment. Descriptions in the book of various requirements Fern and other girls should in order to get a spell or a hex to work are pedantic and complex, the villain is a proper witch with a lot of experience and scary powers and the stakes are off the charts.
But it's not really the horror part of the novel.
In a sense, I think that Hendrix wanted to interweave with the traditionally horror theme like witches a more recently conscious theme of mistreatment of girls and women in the time and place this novel is set up and specifically the unmarried, pregnant teenage girls. The judgement from society and the shame of their families, the existence of the Homes all over America where families can hide their shameful daughters and get rid of the problem. The girls can't even use their real names while they are in the House, they are given the names of the plants in a not so subtle proof that they are not just stripped of their rights, but their identity as well. The judgment these girls are met with constantly during their pregnancies from the figures of authority is infuriating to read. In that sense, I would say Witchcraft for the Wayward Girls a spiritual sister novel of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires where cloaked in a book about vampires was the horror of the racism and misogyny, but not as successfully done.
But again, all of that meta messaging fades from the memory of this reading experience because it's overshadowed by the thing that truly fascinates and, dare I say, horrifies Grady Hendrix and that is female body and biological ability to bear and give birth.
Let me be clear: every scary, chilling, gross, horror scene in this book is actually a body horror scene. Whether is the especially hard and difficult birth on a bathroom of a lavatory that was scream inducing or one slithery pseudo-birth scene akin to his previous book that was gag-inducing, nothing, nothing witches do in this novel is as scary and they will not stick in your mind. These graphic scenes of births are detailed, filled with blood and pain and above everything else, a primal fear of those who witness it and it's almost like author reveres women for going through something like that. Descriptions are repulsive, but you can't look away which is exactly how body horror works. And you realize that this fascination is present through point of view of Fern and other characters through whole ordeal of pregnancy: the coldness of doctor hands, the bodies that don't feel like they are their own, the morning sickness, the emotional state and confusing feelings about the child following unplanned pregnancy. It's projecting that THIS is really scary, witches are just there to make their lives even more difficult.
In my experience reading his books, Hendrix was always, in a broader sense interested in female perspective through the lens of horror and sometimes he nails it, sometimes he gets close. There were some great opportunities with this story left untapped:
-witchcraft as a theme is always strongly associated with female friendship and I was never convinced Fern, Zinnia, Holly and Rose were friends, but more like they were in the room and going along with the plan. Their convictions changed frequently, Fern went on her own often and they didn't think a lot of their plans through which fits because they are all teenagers. But it doesn't change the fact that I was never really fully convinced in their reason for doing anything.
Just think about The Craft or even The Witches of Eastwick. Female friendship is at the center, it's why the story works. And Hendrix didn't convince me into "coven" part of the witches, which is, I would argue, essential for these stories and something I would liked if he explored more in this novel. I wouldn't mind this as much if he didn't show me already he can write teenage girls and their friendship well the way he did in My Best Friend's Exorcism.
-Which brings me to Holly's situation. The whole thing about Holly hides the real monster(s) and it's one of those subtle underlying horrors he's done so well in TSBCtSV, but here it gets buried under visceral violence of birth scenes.

All in all, a well done, gory offering from Hendrix, but strangely focused on Wayward part of the story a bit too much for my liking and lacking the camp I am used to from him in Witchcraft part of the story where I feel would fit perfectly.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I'll start by stating that I don't think it's really of the horror genre though. There are a few yucky moments to but they're more linked to giving birth. This reads as more of a supernatural contemporary novel, albeit set in 1970.
The girls and their pregnancies are interesting and sadly indicative of a time when unwed girls and young women were treated disgracefully.
I chose this book because of the witchcraft element. I found it a little lacking but the girls and their experiences made up for it.

I do not do horror books and this is my third book by Grady Hendrix - if that is not a testament to how good a write Hendrix is, I don’t know what would be. This book left me speechless. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could. This book was not what I expected. I went in blind and honestly what a ride! Grady Hendrix absolutely nails all things horror. The tension was exquisite. The detailed graphic descriptions of scenes were honestly next level. Some books stay with you forever and I truly think this will be one I can’t shake. I loved the glimpses of history at the time the book was set which just added an additional layer to fully immerse you into the book.

Plenty of gory birth scenes and witches, but the real horror is the treatment of the wayward girls. I don't think I would describe it as an enjoyable read, but it surely packs a punch.

DNF at 50%

I have decided to DNF this book out of sheer boredom. I truly could not believe I still had 50% to go and I just couldn’t bring myself to keep reading. For context: I’ve given Grady Hendrix’s books everywhere from a 1 to a 5 star. How to Sell a Haunted House was my least favourite book of 2023, yet My Best Friend’s Exorcism is one of my favourites of all time.

In this book we follow Neva, a pregnant teen, as she is shipped off to a home for unwed mothers. Neva, who now goes by Fern, befriends a group of also pregnant and unwed girls. The girls, having been stripped of their identities and treated like inferior human beings, are in need of regaining some power and control. Until one day when a librarian, so conveniently, hands Fern a book on witchcraft.

The start of this book was so promising; with a focus on the real-life horrors faced by young mothers mixed with Grady Hendrix’s signature humour. And then the transition into witchiness felt so…clunky. We get to read some really poignant and heartbreaking moments that are interspersed between some very long and uneventful filler. I just could not stay engaged. I didn’t feel connected to the characters, who felt flat and underdeveloped. Nor did I feel connected to the plot, which also felt flat and underdeveloped. And with 50% of the book still to go, I couldn’t see where we were going and to be honest, I didn’t care to find out.

I was so excited to read this book and I am left feeling severely disappointed.

If you’re interested in reading this book, I would definitely check for content warnings - it does contain some upsetting scenes surrounding the topics of pregnancy and childbirth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read this book.

Grateful I was approved to read this early, it was one of my most anticipated reads.

This is a dark beautiful story that touches on the sensitive issue of womens rights. The book is set in the 70’s and follows the character Fern who is 15 and sent to a girls home to give birth then give the baby up for adoption. It’s emotional, cruel and turbulent with some powerful bonds formed amongst the girls also in Fern’s situation.

The girls are given a book on witchcraft which they use to take back some of the power and autonomy they are deprived of during their experience. However, everything has a price and sometimes the price may not be worth the return.

This elicited emotions out of me I did not quite expect, it had true horror and cringe worthy moments. There’s beautiful bonds and friendships formed. You get to feel the true persecution of women in the 19th century, and how it’s not that much different from the days of witches.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Emoji synopsis: 🤰🏼 + 🏠 + 🤫 + 📕 = 🧙‍♀️ + 🌙 + 🩸

Review: I didn’t know if or how a book about pregnant teenagers in the 1970s, a home for unwed mothers, and witchcraft would work, but it did 🤩 Hendrix combines the topic of teenage pregnancy and the stories about how these girls got pregnant, with spells, sacrifices and spilt blood 🩸 I really enjoyed the seriousness of the original storyline, and the mystery/paranormal element 🌙

The character development of the young girls in the home was admirable and really added to the story. The girls are negatively perceived by society, but are good, strong people. The adults are held on a pedestal by society, but their true colours are shown as the story develops.

This was my first Hendrix book, and I can’t wait to read more of his work 🙌🏻

2.5 stars

I am so gutted that this wasn’t better, because in theory it had every ingredient it should’ve needed for me to eat it up.

We follow fifteen year old Neva Carter, with her new alias ‘Fern’, as she settles in at Wellwood’s Home to wait out her pregnancy in hiding, amongst a band of other young unwed mothers. Fern meets Rose, Zinnia and Holly (can you see a theme with the names?) then mostly spends her days doing chores, trading ‘bippies’ (cigarettes because, 1980’s), and hanging out with her new friends.

That is, until the mobile library comes along and Fern finds herself in possession of a book which may well be the answer to all of the girls’ problems. Yep, they’re gonna learn how to be groovy witches, and they’ve only gotta pay for their power with a little bit of blood here and there.

This book was boring. I didn’t connect to the main characters, and I didn’t feel a driving force behind the plot. I mostly felt like I was meandering through instead of reading with purpose. Some scenes were truly creepy and there’s imagery that will stick with me for a long time (hence the 2.5 rating), but you’ll read through a lot of filler to get to these nuggets that then pass all too quickly. The first 25% had Hendrix’s camp vibes and silly humour with some moments that made me laugh out loud, and then it just dried up entirely. But then while that first quarter had some laughs, it had absolutely 0 witchiness, so it was swings and roundabouts.

It was just a slog and it got so frustrating. Our MC, Fern, had no interesting qualities at all. Rose, Zinnia and Holly all had a bit more going for them, but it was Fern we were stuck with. There was never any explanation given as to why Fern was of special interest to the librarian other than ‘she read the book’; tell us why she deserves power, or even my attention! While you’re at it, please explain how you can change your mind so quickly and frequently about whether Holly is good enough for the coven. And then Zinnia, she changes her mind and goes back on her word so often that I barely understand her character at all. Rose was my favourite, though we spent the shortest amount of time with her so even she isn’t fully rounded.

I will say there were impactful moments reading about the real-world horrors these girls were facing, including the birth scenes, the dehumanisation and the epilogue catching up with some of them later in life (yes I cried, yes I’m an easy crier). For those reasons my rating comes in at an *okay* 2.5 stars. I won’t be rushing out to buy a copy of this one unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC of this book for review.

I was so excited to receive a copy of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. This book had me hooked from page 1!
This book was really raw and really brutal. It didn’t shy away from controversial topics but also didn’t try to wrap them up neatly or answer them. The characters were fabulous and had a lot of depth to them, and I was really rooting for all of the girls. Their backstories were so sad, as was their treatment at the home, and it’s hard to believe that while this is a work of fiction, girls have been through similar experiences in the past. The occult elements were genuinely quite scary and the feeling of foreboding increased as the story went on. Highly praise this book and looking forward to picking up more by this author!!

Miss Wellwood runs a tight ship. Having taken over from her father the esteemed Dr Wellwood, she is now the owner of the tired but stately Wellwood House in Florida, a home for young girls of low morals. These girls have been placed in the home by their parents so that they are out of sight, out of mind whilst their “problem” is dealt with. Then, and only then will the wayward girls be welcomed back into the fold.

In 1970 Neva Craven from Alabama is one of these girls. Led to believe that boyfriend Guy was “the one”, at fifteen she is pregnant and an embarrassment. Firstly sent to live with Aunt Peggy in Montgomery, she let herself down, so her very angry father drove her to the home and deposited her in the care of the staff there.

Whilst not a physically cruel regime, the girls are expected to earn their keep, chores are allocated, and unkind words spoken. For Neva, now know as Fern, boredom soon sets in and it’s a relief when the mobile library start’s its fortnightly visits, and librarian Miss Parcae becomes a beacon.

Well!! This book certainly draws you in . Frustration and anger on behalf of the girls, loathing of the staff (Doctor Vincent, eeeekkkk!!!), the story is so graphically told. When Miss Parcae arrives, what a saviour! That is, until she isn’t.

I loved this book. Even without the coven aspect the story of what was considered the norm in those days for dealing with teenage pregnancy was brutal. In light of today’s political arena, it seems all the more relevant to remember and learn from past events.

One I didn’t want to end. First Hendrix book for me but I’m hooked, just have to read more.

A perfect 5* for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan.

Thank you to the author, publishers Tor Nightfire and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

They made a mistake and are sent in secret to a house where they will live under a different name. Not returning to their normal lives until the secret they are growing has been born and taken to a new life. But, when girls are stripped of their power they can find a new source in each other.

This isn’t a supernatural horror story. Yes, there are witches. Yes there is magic, but the horror is in the reality of girls who are blamed and punished for pregnancy out of wedlock and sent away to protect the lives and reputations of the boys and men who fathered their babies.

Set in the 70s the story follows Fern, Rose, Zinnia and Holly. All brought to Wellwood House by their families to have their babies in secret.

Disempowered by being assigned a name and told to share nothing of their real lives, they aren’t even given details of what giving birth will really be like.

Is it any wonder that when a strange librarian gives them a book on witchcraft that they embrace a chance to exert some power over their own lives?

The characters are a strength of the book, the balance of naivety and shame with the freedom of gaining strength from each other.

The witchcraft element I’m in two minds about. Obviously there are a lot of layers in the way women are treated, either witch or virgin, sinner or saint. But, I’m fairly sure the story could have survived with all the witchcraft elements removed and not have lost anything really meaningful to the plot. The darkness of the price of magic never feels like a real threat compared to what the girls are being out through by their own families.

The true horror woven throughout this book doesn’t come from witchcraft or the supernatural (though the pages do contain plenty of both), but from the awful way young, unwed mothers were really treated in the 1970s.

With almost no knowledge of their bodies or the process of childbirth, they were abandoned to ‘homes’ and forced to give away their children, doomed to face the pain alone and convinced they were unfit to be mothers. Grady Hendrix, cleverly as ever, uses the story of young witch Fern to shine a light on this terrible truth, expose the abuse and champion the resilience of women who survived it.

I love the way this author captures atmosphere, manipulation and suspense, and uses horror tropes and scenes to make a point about society. That being said, I didn’t connect with this tale as closely as Grady Hendrix’s previous works. It takes a while to get going and remains at a slow pace even when the scarier elements kick in. It’s well-researched, deftly written and the characters’ rage and betrayal are believable, but it doesn’t have the same knife-sharp wit and tension I’ve come to expect.

There are lots of trigger warnings, especially around birth and abuse, so do look them up beforehand. But if you’re looking for spooky magic realism more rooted in history than horror, this might be for you.

Warning to those reading NetGalley reviews before requesting: there are some spoilers ahead (I wish I could spoiler-mark like I can on Goodreads, but here we are). I am aware of NG's policy against spoilers in reviews, but the (light) spoilers I DO mention I feel are extremely important to what I'm trying to start a conversation about this novel. Either way, they're towards the end of my review.

Honestly, it's kind of hilarious that I was given access to this book early, seeing as I am a Noted Hater of a lot of Hendrix's work - I'm considering going back and rereading the one book of his I enjoyed, just to see if it actually holds up at all.

Nevertheless, if Hendrix knows how to do one thing, it's come up with an intriguing book premise. After reading the book's blurb, I couldn't help myself from requesting an ARC, just to see if he could pull it off this time, since he's always failed before for me.

Unsurprisingly, he did fail to write a book that lives up to the premise. Honestly, the guy should stick to writing cool ideas for books, and then giving those ideas to authors who actually know how to craft something interesting around it, authors who are able to dig deep into the themes and provide their own worldview to create something thought-provoking and horrific.

All this being said, I did find myself enjoying the first half of the book. Teenage (heavily pregnant) girls hanging out, bonding, picking up a book of witchcraft and trying spells and curses out. It's like picking up a cheap D-movie horror from the 70s up at a Blockbuster (they still exist in this analogy because Hendrix is obsessed with making sure we know he remembers things from The Good Old Days) and knowing there's not going to be much substance to the film, but hey, at least it's enjoyable, and the horror's pretty effective. Some of the many jumbled, indistinguishable characters managed to capture my attention, and thankfully they were in the main cast of characters.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the main character, who was as boring and same-y as all the other women/girls Hendrix makes his protagonists. Look, I get why - she's a stand-in for the audience, she has her real name and identity stripped away from her at the Home, she could be any one of us (as long as a white woman is reading, which seems to be his target audience), etc. But the entire time, I was just wondering why the story couldn't have been told from the point of view of someone actually interesting, like Rose or Holly, who were the REAL main characters of this book. It's not fun to watch someone else be the main character.

And, like I said, at about 50% of the way through the book it becomes a boring chore to read. I was skim-reading a good chunk of it because I just wanted it to be over, really, and other than the parts of the plot that needed to happen, nothing else of substance was there.

I think my main issue, if I had to narrow it down, is that Hendrix always loves to tackle themes about women and feminism and empowerment - from his white cis male perspective - but, perhaps BECAUSE of that, everything he tries to talk about feels surface-level. "Women and girls should be able to be in control of their pregnancy and the baby they have been carrying, and no one else has the right to strip their decisions away from them!" is basically the message of this book, and, like...yes, that's true! Do you have anything else to add? Spoiler: he doesn't. This is why I think he should just stick to coming up with book ideas, and handing them off to other people. I think someone else could have done something so interesting and thought-provoking with this concept - particularly, someone who has the ability to carry a baby in the first place. Unfortunately, we're left with this drag of a book. Surface-level, corny, D-movie. And not even one of the FUN D-movies, either.

(This next paragraph's the spoiler part, but, again, I feel it's an important discussion that should be had about the book and Hendrix's body of work as a whole. It has been slightly altered from my Goodreads review.)

I also want to touch on another issue that arose with me throughout this book, and then, upon reflecting, because an issue that casts a stain across the rest of Hendrix's work: his representation of race, particularly Black women. One of the main characters, Zinnia, is a Black girl, and my issue isn't with how she's written - although, crucially, I am a White reader; perhaps there are people of colour who have problems with how she's portrayed. I didn't see any from other advanced copy readers who are PoC before/while writing this. My issue lies with Hagar and Miriam, who are Black housemaids at the Home. I grew increasingly uncomfortable with how Hendrix wrote them, starting from them being Black housemaids in the first place - even if it's historically accurate, I guess, but there's also literal fucking magic going on, but I digress - and then into how it's revealed they know about the witch coven, and know their own magic to circumvent it, which treads into the territory of the Magical Negro trope. These Black women help save the poor white girls with their magic and by the girls insisting that Hagar and Miriam risk their own safety and livelihood by helping them deliver a baby. Miriam barely even speaks; when Hagar does, it's sprinkled with aggression and sass. It's not great. And then I got to reflecting on how Black characters are treated in his past books and it puts a sour taste in my mouth. I have no doubt about it that Black readers have spoken up about this before; I feel a certain level of embarrassment for it only having hit me as a continuous issue with Hendrix this far into reading his books. Already, early reviewers are speaking up about how Hagar's written (I haven't linked them, but with this review being up so early on Goodreads before its publication date, just scroll past the walls of white reviewers dishing out 5-stars and you'll see them), and I hope that, when the book is published, people actually, finally, listen to Black readers and notice this concurrent pattern of Black mis-representation in the novels of Grady Hendrix.

Ultimately, this book is... well, it's readable. It has horror scenes that work, if that's all you care about. But there's better work you could be reading. Better horror by authors of colour are out there, and you should read them instead of this. I know, that going forward, that's what I'll be doing.

‘What do you think people do to witches when they notice them? They get burned.’

Wow. This feels so relevant in the face of the current political climate in America & the pain & fear that so many people are experiencing. This book was absolutely horror… but the most frightening elements were firmly rooted in reality. Was it gruesome in places? Yes. Were there supernatural elements? Yes. Was the part that filled me with a sick, nauseating fear something that ACTUALLY HAPPENS & will continue to happen over & over again? Honestly I could cry just thinking about it. This wrenched my heart as a mother but also just as a woman. Far scarier, in my opinion, than your basic slasher.

Grady Hendrix is an autobuy author for me at this point. Eerie, feminist horror with a grisly cut of commentary… *chefs kiss* a feminist man, raging against the system beside us - you have my heart forever.

’Every price must be paid. So why do the same people pay it, over & over again. Why do the same people always bleed?’

I am a big fan of Grady Hendrix. His style has some very distinctive features. A big fan of 70s and 80s horror, he builds on it and reimagines it for a modern audience. His books can be very camp but they also often pack a surprisingly heartfelt and sincere emotional punch. He is, for a white middle aged guy, unexpectedly good at writing teenage girls. His Southern novels have a strong sense of place and identity, but they often suffer, as many white authors of Southern Gothic do, from his awkward inability to meaningfully engage with race. At his worst, he over-fetishizes the pain women's bodies endure in the horror scenarios he creates (I'll never forget that grandma from the Southern Vampire book). Overall, you know what to expect from a Grady Hendrix novel, the good, the bad and the ugly, and the specific mix of the features of his distinctive style can land anywhere between a 2 and a 5 star read for me, normally hovering somewhere around the 4 star mark.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls packs a very timely message, relevant now more than ever. Fiercely critical of mistreatment of teenage pregnant girls in the 1950s and 60s, Witchcraft makes a powerful argument for bodily autonomy. The novel is mostly a coming of age story of just how horrifying it was to be a (young) woman in America before Roe vs Wade. The story beautifully comes together by the end, and the epilogue, by far the best part of the entire book, leaves an emotional mark, whilst unapologetically delivering its key message.

Not everything worked well in the novel. The pacing is quite off - the slow build up without any supernatural elements in the first 40% or so is important but excruciating to get through. The more serious and sombre tone limits the extent to which Hendrix can indulge in postmodernist camp, something he excels at in My Best Friend's Exorcism and Horrorstor.

Not typical for Hendrix, the characters of the teenage girls are not very engaging. Fern, the protagonist, never quite comes into her own, Rose, the leftie, reads like a caricature, and Zinnia is a Black woman written by a well-meaning white man terrified to say the wrong thing about Black women, and thus quite sensible, bland and boring. Fern's character arc is very clear and well executed, but she never feels like a distinctive person, reading more like a protagonist archetype.

I found the treatment of the witch coven somewhat muddled. On the one hand, it continues Hendrix' pushback against glamorising traditional horror antagonists, central to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. Witches are not girlbossified, they are genuinely harmful and dangerous. I appreciated that the women of the coven were marginalised, as historic witches tended to be. As a professional early modernist, I am sick of the 'women accused of witchcraft were powerful and men wanted to rein them in' narrative. They were not. They were the most defenceless and most vulnerable women in the community - the old, the disabled, the poor. The privileged propertied educated women were very unlikely to be ever accused of witchcraft. I appreciated that Witchcraft followed the original historic narratives in this regard. By the end of the novel, Hendrix brings the themes of sisterhood, coven, care and communal power to the forefront of his depiction, which makes it more typical of the representation of witches in contemporary female authored narratives. However, it takes away from his push to write more 'evil' witches, and he U-turn is neither explained nor meaningfully justified narratively. Which one is it, Mr Hendrix? Are witches harmful ruthless harpies who will do what it takes to protect what is theirs because the world has taken away too much from them, or are they caring sisters in power?

The treatment of the Black characters really disappointed me. Similarly to the Southern Book Club, the very capable no bullshit less privileged than the main cast Black woman is pushed to the margins of the narrative. Moreover, she really suffers from the Magical Minority syndrome, only wheeled out when the protagonists need some help and support. She always delivers, even when it could hurt her personally and professionally, even though she tries to assert her boundaries. I'd like to hope that Hendrix tried to reimagine and consciously work with the stereotype, but he was not successful. I appreciated that Zinnia was written as a very wealthy Black girl among less privileged white ones, challenging some stereotypes, but at the end of the day she had very little going in terms of personality or anything that made her narratively identifiable as Black (sans a couple of details here and there). Would her experience in this house in Florida in 1969 really been as invisibly smooth as Hendrix wrote it?

The pacing, the tone, the indulgence of descriptions of women's pain and the decentring of Black characters all really reminded me of the Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. However, the Southern book had a more authentic sense of place and time. I really enjoyed the last couple of chapters and the epilogue, but I know that Grady Hendrix can do better.

I wasn't a fan of this. The beginning was so slow and boring that I had already lost all interest in the story before we even got to the halfway mark; afterwards it got a little better, but not by much. The plot was very simple, you could basically guess everything that was going to happen and it really didn't feel like a horror book. It felt more like a historical fiction. I also think there were way too many characters to keep track and we didn't need to know so much about every single person, no one was really that interesting. The book also could have been half the length and still cover the exact same plot.