THIS BOOK. it was so freaking good and i devoured it. I was intimidated by the length but honestly I read this faster than I read some books below 300 pages and i wanted MORE.

This book was definitely not my usual genre but I am so glad I gave it a shot!

The story was beautiful yet tragic, and so incredibly thought provoking. I will say that I was dubious when I saw a male had written about pregnant, teenage girls who were ignored by society. But I’ll give it to the author, they did a good job on conveying the emotions and message behind the story.

I would highly recommend you give this book a read if you enjoyed Gallang by VE Schwab or Wayward by Emilia Hart.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for granting me access to this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a character-driven supernatural horror set in 1970s America which tells the story of four teenage girls spending the summer at Wellwood House in Florida, a place where young pregnant girls are sent to give birth in secret.

Fern, Rose, Holly, and Zinnia have been abandoned by their families, cut off from everyone they know and forced to assume pseudonyms to hide their true identities. From the moment they arrive, they're treated with prejudice and callous indifference by the home's owner, Miss Wellwood, and the doctor and nurse who work for her. In exchange for food, board and medical care, they're expected to hand over their babies for adoption to the highest bidder and provided with little emotional support for the trauma they're going through.

By chance, they encounter Miss Parcae, an enigmatic traveling librarian who loans them a spell book and encourages them to use the information within it to reclaim power and control over their own destiny. The offer is understandably tempting, but the girls soon discover that witchcraft comes with a price. Like all the other adults in their lives, Miss Parcae has little regard for their thoughts or desires and the girls are quickly caught up in supernatural events beyond their understanding..

It’s hard to say whether the true horror in the book lies in its supernatural elements or in its raw and unflinching portrayal of teenage pregnancy. Set in a pre-Roe vs. Wade era, the story is chillingly relevant given the ongoing erosion of women's rights in the US today and it's a stark reminder of the grim reality facing many women during that time in history. Grady Hendrix's meticulous research shows throughout in the book, skilfully telling the story of these four young girls, pregnant through naivety, ignorance, or abuse, and then cast out and mistreated by the world around them at a time when they needed all the support they could get.

Powerful, emotional, and increasingly relevant, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a book that will leave you simultaneously heart-broken and filled with pure rage against a system and society that treated young women so terribly, that ripped children away from their mothers and that profited off human tragedy. In this day and age, it should probably be compulsory reading.

"We were girls: girls in trouble, unsocialised girls, fast girls, loos girls, emotionally immature girls, wayward girls. Whatever you wanted to call us, we were children."

Going into this, I already knew that Grady Hendrix is a solid pick for an absorbing horror novel to pass the time. But, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls exceeded my expectations, quickly landing itself a place in my favourite books of 2024.

WFWG isn't just a pulpy horror story. It's a story which takes its time to build its characters and setting, building atmosphere and suspense against the nostalgic backdrop of 1970s America. It's a touching story of friendship and strength against all odds. And, to top it off, it has witches.

The story revolves around Wellwood House, a 'mother and baby home' in Florida, where young girls who have fallen pregnant out of wedlock are sent. Fifteen-year-old Fern is the protagonist, and we follow her from her arrival on a sweltering hot day, scared and alone, as she slowly grows accustomed to her new surroundings and find solace in her new friendships.

The home is visited weekly by a travelling librarian, dropping off books to keep the girls entertained. One week, the librarian entrusts Fern with a different type of book, a special book which unlocks the power of the occult and gives these vulnerable young women real power for the first time. But, their newfound power comes with a cost, and the girls become embroiled in a witches' coven and entangled in a centuries-old curse.

The witches are creepy, but the most disturbing parts of this book are the graphic childbirth scenes and the horrific treatment of the young girls. The real villains of this story are the people of authority, who use that authority to exact power over women's bodies.

Overall, this is horror with a lot of heart, a multi-layered story which will evoke a whole range of emotions, and an excellent, empowering read.

This book was weird and creepy because first you can not call it horror at all, it was more witchy and supernatural. I was attached to the main character Fern from the very start and the character work was pretty immaculate. My favourite characters, however, are Rose and Zenny, both are strong in two different ways and I'm all for it. The pace of the story could have been a bit faster and I wanted to be more invested in the story but I could not.

This was my second Grady Hendrix book (after My Best Friend’s Exorcism), and it didn’t disappoint! Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a chilling mix of witchy vibes, raw emotion, and skin-crawling horror.

Set in a harsh 1970s Florida home for unwed, pregnant girls, the story follows 15-year-old Fern, who discovers a book of witchcraft that offers her and a group of struggling girls a way to reclaim their power. The house is oppressive, the girls are shamed and controlled, and Hendrix doesn’t shy away from the brutal realities they face. His vivid descriptions—sometimes graphic and gory—made the horror disturbingly real.

As a mother, I felt every painful detail Hendrix poured into this story. His ability to capture the fear, bravery, and trauma of these girls, especially as a male author, is remarkable. This story also hit close to home, as my mum was born in a home for unwed mothers, making the pain and injustice in the story even more poignant.

The heartbreaking ending brought me to tears, blending horror with themes of rebellion, friendship, and the dangers of power. Even if horror isn’t usually your thing, this book might surprise you. Just don’t read it on a full stomach!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the advanced readers copy of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.

I was so excited to get the ARC of this book; I've read a few other Grady Hendrix books over the past few years and let me tell you, this one did not disappoint! We follow Fern, who arrives at a 'home' for unwed pregnant women in the summer of 1970, and finds friendship and a book of spells to see her through the long summer before she can go back to her normal life. But the girls discover that their spells have a cost that they're not necessarily willing to pay...

Grady Hendrix books are so SMART and so on the nose, particularly when it comes to issues affecting women. I have never read a male author who can write female characters half as well as Grady Hendrix does; the way the girls' pain and frustration is described in this book is really something. I really grew to love all the girls in this book, especially Holly. I'm so happy we get to see how her story ends!

It's not for the faint-hearted because there are some pretty graphic scenes of giving birth, but let's be real - no one writes grisly and gruesome details quite like Grady Hendrix.

I have given the book 4 stars, only because I felt that the beginning was a little slow and there was a little too much exposition. I think the story could have been a bit faster-paced.

I loved this book! It has spunk, humour and a lot of heart. I keep forgetting Grady Hendrix isn't a woman because I thought (wrongly) that only another woman can understand the pain of patriarchy and oppression that he's expressed in the book.

I loved these characters (Fern, Rose, Holly, Zinnia, Hagar, Miriam) and the adventures this book had. It surprised me with its intensity and at one point I felt like I was reading a Harry Potter book (back when I was a kid). There are places when the narration is off and the story is flat but on the whole, I recommend it to readers of all ages.

Thanks to Netgalley & Pan Macmillan for the e-copy!

4.5/5

Firstly I have to say I've been a huge fan of Grady Hendrix for a while now. So getting accepted to read this was like all my dreams coming true. So fast forward a quarter of the way into this novel, and I'm thinking to myself, is this really Grady? It didn't feel like any of his previous books, not one little bit. But... this hits differently, this is Grady in a more serious frame of mind, the kind that makes you feel the character's pain, and makes you root for them with all your heart!!!
So in the book, we start off following a young 15-year-old girl who is being taken to a facility miles from home due to her becoming pregnant out of marriage. When she arrives at this home she meets up with a bunch of girls in her exact situation and also finds a highly regimented set of rules and routines they all have to follow. This is a new world, a world of rules and regulations. The only thing is the bookmobile, surely that couldn't change anything, right? Well, that's all from me about the plot, but I will wind this up and state that despite being unlike his previous material, this is a fantastic book which deserves all the praise I'm sure it will get and is best approached with no set expectations.
Simply magical!!!

I unfortunately had to DNF this book 50% in.

I went into this expecting more magic and witchcraft than what we actually got. The beginning was super slow and I just felt like it was dragging a little bit. Albeit it was good to get to know the characters and learn more about them, I didn't actually connect with any of them, and therefore did struggle to care somewhat. It's horrendous what they're going through and I felt so sorry for them but otherwise, I just wasn't invested unfortunately.

I did also struggle massively with the body horror in this. I probably should have expected it, with it being a book about pregnant girls but it truly turned my stomach just a little bit too much. Which is obviously a me problem not the books. And I suddenly realised it was probably only going to get worse once we got more into the girls giving birth, etc. So I've made the decision for my own sanity and mental health to dnf this one.

Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a spellbinding blend of horror, nostalgia, and dark humor that grips you from the start. Hendrix masterfully weaves a tale of sisterhood, secrets, and the eerie consequences of the past. The story is equal parts chilling and heartfelt, with unforgettable characters and a sinister atmosphere that lingers. Perfect for fans of witchy tales with a sharp edge, this is a must-read for anyone who loves their horror with a side of depth and wit.

Thank you to the publishers for kindly providing this advance copy of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.

I was initially drawn to Witchcraft for Wayward Girls because of the premise, particularly the exploration of female rage and witchcraft as a form of rebellion. The first few chapters delivered on that promise, and set up a dark atmosphere. Though as the story progressed, it began to falter.
Despite being invested in the characters, the middle section of the book felt repetitive and the narrative was not moving forward.

Characters revisited the same conflicts and themes, which made the plot feel stagnant, so l had to DNF it at 64%. While I appreciate the initial ideas and themes Hendrix brought to the table, they weren't developed in a way that held my interest. The strong start gave way to a muddled middle and I couldn't justify continuing.

If you're a fan of Grady Hendrix, you may want to give this a try, but for me, the execution didn't live up to the potential. A disappointing read.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is my first Grady Hendrix book, though I’ve been meaning to try his writing out for years. I'm glad I finally did! The premise of this one intrigued me, with its historical setting and the very timely issues it raises around reproductive justice and bodily autonomy. I thought Hendrix handled said issues pretty well throughout, writing his pregnant teenage characters with compassion, especially Fern and her mini-coven.

This is one of those books where most of the Horror lies in human cruelty rather than anything supernatural. There’s a fair bit of body horror, but again, most of it relates to regular pregnancy and childbirth. I would not recommend this book to a currently pregnant person or their loved ones, that’s for sure. But that’s the point and Hendrix delivers it with expert precision. The horrors of pregnancy and motherhood, its (potential) loss of personhood and body horrors, are the focus. The fact that not much has changed in that regard between the novel’s 1970 setting and now also feels ominous in the context of the loss of Roe Vs. Wade and other assaults on abortion access. The casual misogyny and cruelty towards Fern and the other unwed “mothers,” even from relatively well-meaning characters, was honestly one of the scarier elements on the book and felt like a warning for our reactionary times. Add to that the medical misogyny and paternalism, threat of institutionalisation and complicity in rape culture and child sexual abuse and you don’t really need witchcraft for the book to be scary. In fact, the supernatural elements were not particularly frightening, and I wouldn’t say my fear threshold is that high. Instead, we get some suitably otherworldly and spooky scenes of witchcraft and magic, some gore and one particularly gross supernatural “birth.” All of which are overshadowed by the extended and excruciatingly detailed description of natural childbirth, which felt like a deliberate choice and an important point, given how pregnancy tends to be romanticised and its risk diminished.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls might not be for you if you’re looking for more straightforward supernatural chills, but I liked that the supernatural mostly took a backseat to the human drama. For me, said drama and the creeping dread and anticipation of childbirth was engrossing. I was rooting for Fern, Rose, Holly and Zinnia and the other residents of Wellwood House. Hendrix is very good at poignant little character sketches that quickly make us care about background characters, and I liked the solidarity between all the girls, even the annoying ones. I will say, though, that based on the book’s description, I was expecting much harsher conditions in Wellwood House. The girls are shamed and controlled, their wishes and concerns dismissed, but they are nowhere near as mistreated as women and girls consigned to actual historical institutions for unwed mothers, like the Magdalene Laundries. That said, Fern and all the other girls are decidedly middle class and are relatively privileged, which is a scary thought, considering how powerless they are. It might have been interesting if this point had been raised, I would have liked to see more commentary on class here.

Also, while I liked all the main characters, I found Rose more compelling as a character than Fern. That said, making the aggressively average girl the protagonist, rather than the non-conformist, was a smart choice. Fern is an Every Girl, and in a horror revolving around reproductive justice and autonomy, that’s important. Most people aren’t spitfire feminist hippies making principled stands at every turn. Most people are more like Fern, conditioned to go with the flow and desperate to get back to their regular lives. It made her perspective a little frustrating to read, at times, but I enjoyed watching her journey, realising the injustice of the world and her situation and mistreatment in particular, and learning to stand up for herself, even against “feminist” would-be “allies,” like the witches. I also thought the plot’s resolution with said witches was a little predictable and dragged a bit, but I really liked the epilogue.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. Minor criticisms aside, it’s a timely commentary on misogyny and reproductive rights with well-drawn characters and enough witty asides to lighten the mood. It would be a good choice for someone looking to test the waters of horror, assuming they're not too squeamish. Just don’t read it if you’re pregnant.

A young girl sent to give birth at a home for unwed mothers well girls really. Now she's Fern with her life strictly monitored and controlled but despite all that she finds a kindred spirit or two. Then a librarian gives them a book that might change their lives forever or could it end them?

I am such a fan of Grady Hendrix's books, they're always so unique and thought out. You just never know quite what to expect. This was no exception. It was a dark and twisty, suspense filled ride. Its a little slow to get going as the scene is being set but the drama soon ramps up and I was gripped. The plot was clever, creepy and heartbreaking at times. I really liked Rose but had a true soft spot for Holly and all she went through. This does touch on difficult themes but they're handled honestly for the time the story is set in. A brilliant read.

This book really made me squirm. It was a great combination of gory and creepy, had my heart racing in places. I loved the sisterhood throughout, solid storytelling and had me hooked the whole way through. It reminded me a little of an American Horror Story-type vibe.

#Review: *Wichcraft for Wayward Girls* - Grady Hendrix [16+]
4.4/5✨
0/5🌶️
[Contains a couple of detailed scenes about giving birth or self harming]

I saw this book available on Netgalley and its blurb made me really curious about this story. Thank you for accepting me Netgalley and Grady Hendrix!

Neva was a teenager who had decided wrong about her body and to whom she should give up her purity. So, she ended up pregnant at fifteen years old. It was a time where this was a preposterous thing and Neva's parents were determined to cover everything up. This was how Neva will end up at Wellwood House and was going to transform into Fern for a while, until she gave birth to that baby and gave it away.

Wellwood House was a place where girls, who were in the same situation as Neva, came. There, Fern met other girls like her and had bonded with them. Until this bond made them think that they could still have those babies without giving them up. In their help came an old lady, Miss Parcae, who brought them books. But her appearance was deceiving. Why? Because she wasn't as innocent as she looked, being keen on fulfilling her mission.

The situation got out of control and these girls had to pay for those favours they asked for themselves. They fought hard against evil, but they couldn't be the same after those events and after the traumatic experience of giving birth at their young age.

This book had many sensitive moments, from a physical way and psychic side. Some parts were described in a very detailed manner and I could feel the rush running through my veins too. The last part of the story was more to my liking, because at some point there were moments where nothing was happening.

This book hit me in all the feels that I wasn't expecting it to. I found it to be absolutely heartbreaking and actually quite difficult to read. Although set in the 1970s, the subject matter was extremely relevant to what's going on in the world today and I think that only made me feel more sad.

I wouldn't describe this as fast faced and some sections did feel a little slow, but the plot was definitely rich and kept me heavily engaged. Although witchcraft features heavily in the story, it didn't feel like the main thread of the story to me and it was the characters that I clung on to the most.

Those poor poor girls. I fell in love with each and every one of them and got so angry about what they were forced to go through. There were some pretty dramatic and graphic scenes in the book which were harrowing, but it was also the mundane scenes that broke me. The girls trying to make the best of the situation they were in and create fun for themselves was a stark reminder of how very young they were and that was tragic.

This book struck a massive chord with me and left me feeling really quite down. The characters were failed; whether intentionally or out of desperation. I didn't love the last Grady Hendrix book that I read but this was one hit the spot for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m thinking this shouldn’t have been the first Grady Hendrix book I read because I’m not excited to read anymore.

It was long, boring and dragged. I get it’s about unwed girls being sent away but it was focused more on them being pregnant and their daily lives at Wellwood House than witchcraft & reclaiming their power. I mean It took up to 57% before there was a vague resemblance of anything gory & the witchcraft was very simple and lacking, coming across as more cute than eerie.
I didn’t like any of the characters, they were all surface level with not much about them.

The stories of how/why they ended up at the house is sad and, for one in particular, harrowing and did tug at my heartstrings so please check trigger warnings.

A random thing that annoyed me was them calling cigarettes bippies. It sounds so childlike.
Were cigarettes called that in the 60’s?

I’m not sure if this is YA but definitely reads as such.

I already own My Best Friend’s Exorcism so will, one day, give GH another go but this one wasn’t for me.

Thank you, Pan MacMillan, for the eArc.

#WitchcraftforWaywardGirls #NetGalley #panmacmillan #gradyhendrix #earc #arc #bookreview #bookstagram #bookworm #witchcraft

Grady Hendrix consistently comes up with great premises for Horror (I’d recommend ‘Horrorstör’ and ‘My Best Friend’s Exorcism’). Yet, two of the four Hendrix novels that I’ve read, I rated with only a single star, because I’ve experienced issues with his presentation of BIPOC characters (in ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’) and with his presentation of female characters (in ‘The Final Girl Support Group’). So I was disappointed - yet not surprised - when I encountered both of those difficulties in ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’.

Firstly, Grady Hendrix ascribes socio-economic divisions according to the colour of his characters’ skin. Or: Hendrix ascribes skin colour to his characters according to socio-economic divisions. It makes me feel itchy. And though it might seem presumptuous for a white woman to declaim about the portrayal of race in the American Deep South in the 1970s, the last thing I want to do is cause offense to someone for whom racism is their lived experience. I’ve no touchpoints with these specifics; I’ve never been treated as ‘different’ for the colour of my skin. But I’ve been treated differently when I was an Irishwoman living in England - often told to ‘go back to your own f***ing country’ and other delightful vulgarities along the lines of ‘NO IRISH’ (denied a bank account, turned away as a ‘foreign national’) – and daily I’m treated as ‘different’ for being a lesbian. So, I’m familiar with some types of prejudice, and I’d say my radar for exclusion of marginalised ‘difference’ is attuned with a greater sensitivity. And Grady Hendrix novels do read to me like the author draws BIPOC characters as different, divergent, deviating.

Something unpleasant happens in my belly when I see Grady Hendrix time and again making BIPOC characters the ‘help’ within contemporary settings In ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’, Hendrix draws the cook and the cleaner as women of colour. Why make this distinction? Why aren’t the doctor and the property owner BIPOC if the cook and the cleaner are? Why can’t a cook and a cleaner be white if a social worker and a nurse can be? You tell me! Hendrix is drawing a line between occupations using skin colour; or, vice versa: drawing a line between skin colours using occupations. I’d be interested in hearing what other reviewers say in response to this. I allow that there might be much going on beneath this division, and – wow – would I like to hear about it if there is. I’m sure there’ll be reviewers out there who dismiss this dilemma citing ‘historical accuracy’, but are storm-conjuring and spellcasting and all the ‘groovy’ witchcraft including girls learning to fly, really more believable than a homeowner who’s not Caucasian in the Deep South?

Hendrix dehumanises his BIPOC characters, at times animalising them: Hagar and Miriam are ‘both short and solid with midnight skin, square jaws, strong noses’ – he might as well be describing horses or dogs. Accordingly, he follows this description with Hagar ‘barking’ abuse and threats, and ‘correct[ing] the girls with snarls’ as they help her cook. Miriam instructs the girls in housecleaning, ‘her big hands fluttering over them like hummingbirds.’ My brain can’t help making comparisons with Steinbeck introducing readers to Lennie in ‘Of Mice and Men’ as ‘a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders: and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.’

So, why do I keep jumping at Grady Hendrix novels, when I find his writing problematic like this (especially when, as a personal rule, I don’t read male-authored fiction)? I suppose I keep hoping that Hendrix will redeem himself. So, a little way through ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’, after Hagar and Miriam’s characters are established, Hendrix does introduce a character to the Home for Unwed Mothers who’s described as ‘the one Black girl’, whom they dub Zinnia to disguise her identity (our other main characters are Fern, Holly, and Rose). Hendrix hammers on the point that she comes from a higher social class than some of the other teenagers, and has Rose proclaim that putting her in an attic room away from the other housemates is ‘segregation’ and that ‘None of us are free until we’re all free’:

‘Rose raised her fist in the Black Power salute at Zinnia, and Zinnia looked like she’d prefer to be in the attic room at that minute. Maybe an attic room in another state.’

I’m not convinced that the character of Zinnia redresses Rose’s ‘none of us are free’ point, when – at the novel’s climax – Hendrix again (as he did in ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’) employs BIPOC characters as the Deus ex Machina to solve the ‘white people’s’ problems. Without giving away spoilers, just when the plot seems like it’s fraying, Hendrix swoops in with a solution out of nowhere, facilitated exclusively through Black characters because they possess secret knowledge and access to what we’d term ‘the elixir’ if we were looking at this as an archetypal Quest narrative. If this isn’t drawing division using skin colour, I don’t know what is. And I just feel wibbly wobbly over the value of establishing these divisions so drastically through exclusivity.

Secondly, I’m uneasy with the way Hendrix uses women’s bodies singularly as the medium for indulging in violence, gore, and bloodshed. In ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’, he chooses to use not only the female body, but the pregnant female body to unsettle, shock, disgust, and distress. In fact, Hendrix goes beyond this and makes his pregnant bodies not women, but underage girls (Holly, the vehicle for arguably the most horrific scene in the novel – as many reviewers are singling out – is fourteen):

‘I need you to understand what they did to us when we were girls. […] We were unsocialized girls, fast girls, loose girls, emotionally immature girls, girls who grew up too fast.’

This goes beyond making me uneasy. We’re into Stephen-King-level provocation here (King has never had a thought about menstruation that hasn’t terrified him!). There’s been plenty written, both academically and in the public sphere on Feminist Theory and Body Horror, and about female representation in Horror, but I’ll reiterate: do we have to keep making women bleed, making girls bleed, keep using menstrual blood and female reproductive fluids in order to publish new horror novels? And just as with King’s ‘Carrie’ (the lazy female-reproduction-cycle-is-witchcraft original!), Hendrix’s main characters in ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’ are naked during the scenes of the most intense Horror (again, Holly). Why do male Horror authors circle round the same tired tropes? Why do male authors so enjoy inventing female characters so that they can abuse them (yet again, Holly)?

Reading this novel, I asked myself what kind of currency Grady Hendrix thinks these tropes carry. That led me to wonder with whom does Hendrix imagine himself cashing in? Does he choose always to write from a female perspective and use the bleeding female body as motif for a female audience, or for a male? And if Hendrix is writing in a female voice for a male audience, what are the dangers of misinformation given that he is taking it upon himself to write about women’s puberty, women’s pregnancy, women’s experiences of giving birth… And ultimately, I was worrying about the binarising of gender. Because I do think, as readers, it bears remembering that every thing the author writes is a choice that they’ve made, and it's worth considering whether we as readers bear an obligation to interrogate the making of these choices, and consider their consequences. Phew! All of that anxious cognition was exhausting, and it came at the expense of an immersive reading experience, because when I was questioning the authenticity of themes and motives, I wasn’t present with the characters.

So while Hendrix does shed light on the mistreatment of girls in the specific circumstances he writes about here, showing that what society termed ‘bad girls, neurotic girls, needy girls, wayward girls, selfish girls, girls with Electra complexes, girls trying to fill a void, girls who needed attention, girls with pasts, girls from broken homes, girls who needed discipline, girls desperate to fit in, girls in trouble, girls who couldn’t say no’ were young women having choices denied them, he does unabashedly use the denial of those same choices to bait his scare traps.

I remain unconvinced as to whether what Hendrix achieves here adds to the dialogue around, or societal awareness of, sex education for young people; access to contraception; sexual abuse; paedophilia; rape. I will excavate my feelings further, but I'm acknowledging here that my knee-jerk reaction is to be tired by, and kick back against, racial division in Hendrix’s novels, and his endorsement of the female-reproduction-as-horrific motif.

With thanks to Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

I liked the concept of this one. These young girls had all their rights and power taken away from them. It was heartbreaking to see them have their babies taken away from them, even though many wanted to keep them. They didn't get a choice.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is packed full of feminist rage, friendship, empowerment, and witchiness, with themes of bodily control and power. A sure intense read.

I really wanted to like this more. I've read a couple of other Grady Hendrix books and so knew that boundaries would be pushed and some uncomfortable situations may arise. However, I found the book to be a little too long in my opinion and was slow in actually moving the plot along.