Timy reviews Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, a standalone horror/fantasy novel by Grady Hendrix.
An eARC was received by Tor Nightfire via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is out on January 16, 2025.

Series: | standalone |
Genre: | Horror, Fantasy |
Publisher: | Tor Nightfire |
Date of Publishing: | January 16, 2025 |
Trigger Warnings: | pregnancy, blood, gore, self-harm, graphic description of birth, mental abuse |
Page count: | 496 |
Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2025 prompts:
Joker prompt that goes with anything: Freed from Desire
Strange Girl | I Think I Killed Rudolph |
Protector | Miles Apart |
Adrenaline | Sick Cycle Carousel |
I Run This Jungle | The Truth Is… |
Should Have Known Better | Beer Never Broke My Heart |
Dancing on Our Graves | Our Song |
Home | Chalk Outline |
Own My Mind | Immortals |
New Kings | Mother Nature |
Blue Side of the Sky | Words as Weapons |
How Much is the Fish? | Hey Brother |
Mr. Vain | Viszlát nyár (Summer Gone) |


‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, 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. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
Every moment of their waking day 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.


“The upstairs walls were painted to match the Pepto-Bismol carpet – a peachy color that was supposed to look feminine and sweet but made her feel like she was walking through the inside of someone’s ear.”

I decided to pick Uncomfortable by Halestorm for a couple of reasons – 1) it fits the book, 2) uncomfortable kept popping into my head as a feeling while reading and 3) this book made me wish I’d picked Uncomfortable over Strange Girl for The Sound of Madness challenge, because this book would a great fit. Although it’s great for Strange Girl too. Anyway.

As I already read a couple of Grady Hendrix‘s books (We Sold Our Souls being my first and still favorite), I had a general idea of what to expect from Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. In hindsight, I so wasn’t ready for this book. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read it in 3 days, I totally was sucked into it, but holy shit was it an uncomfortable read. And I’m saying this as I used to read grimdark fantasy novels.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is set in the summer of 1970, in Florida, in a private Home for pregnant unwed girls and women who are tucked away far from their families under false names until they give birth, their babies are given away (or sold, more like, although it’s only hinted at, strongly, but still) and they can return home like nothing ever happened. Yep, it’s as bad as it sounds. As I never lived in the 70s, I can’t comment on how accurate the portrayal of the era is (I suspect very accurate), but it’s hard to imagine now how these girls were treated (and I have a feeling in some parts of the world they still are) not only by strangers but by their own families. Like they were trash, like everything was their fault, like they stopped being human beings almost.
Hendrix in this novel tells the story of four particular girls: Fern, Rose, Holly, and Zinnia. Well, that’s mostly how we know them anyway, named after flowers by Miss Wellwood who runs the Home that happens to be her family manor and was run by her father, a doctor, before her. While I didn’t like Miss Wellwood’s character much, I sure appreciated the layers Hendrix applied to her personality, which became clear during one particular episode, which goes to show that you can never know what lies in one’s past and how they cope with trauma. And that sometimes people delude themselves into thinking they are doing the right thing as it was done to them before.
Powerless, belittled, scared, and learning things about the world they never imagined, the four girls grab the first opportunity that’s dangled before them to take things into their own hands. Little do they know that the price might be more than they are willing to pay. And I’m leaving it at that, as I wouldn’t want to spoil the plot for you.
I generally prefer character-driven stories, or books where I can connect with the character(s), Witchcraft for Wayward Girls drew me in with the storytelling. Reading it felt like a bit when you can’t take your eyes off of a tragedy happening right before your eyes. But as I’m not a mother and I’m not planning to be one, it was harder to connect with the story in a deeper emotional level. Then again, I’m not sure I would recommend this to people who do plan to become pregnant because some of the scenes of giving birth might give you second thoughts. I honestly could have done without some details, which I’m not 100% convinced were entirely necessary.
And therein lies my problem with rating this book. Hendrix touched a topic that’s not easy to write (or read) about at the best of times (and we all know that similar or even worse things happened to young women all over the world in homes kept in much worse state, just look up Ireland’s past with such homes ran by the Catholic Church and nuns). In that regard, Hendrix’s version of a Home is pretty tame, even if the way doctors and nurses handled pregnancy and pregnant women would raise quite a lot of eyebrows today. Such as letting them smoke. I felt like Hendrix captured the era very well – again, as I never lived in it, I don’t really have a comparison – and the whole atmosphere. I could easily feel like I was there sweating with these girls in the Florida summer. And we are in the middle of the winter here, so that’s saying something.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, Hendrix is a very accomplished and skilled writer who I’m pretty sure could write about anything – and make it look much, much worse – but this might be a too sensitive topic to turn into horror fantasy. I mean, it’s horrific enough in itself – and I guess that just makes it even more bone chilling if you think about it – I’m not sure adding witchcraft to the mix was quite necessary.
I’m also not sure who would be the right audience for Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. You definitely need to have a strong resolve, because apart from the gory bits, it’s still not a light read. It crawls under your skin, makes you uncomfortable and refuses to leave your mind for a long time. Under anyone else’s hands, this book could have been a disaster, but Hendrix approached with care, and nuance. At its heart, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is about the power of women and how far you would go to get it back from those who took it. That, and karma is a bitch.


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