Thank you Libro.fm/PRH Audio for the ALC of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls in exchange for my honest review. I purchased the book for my own collection.
Publisher: Berkley / PRH Audio
Published: January 14, 2025
Summary:
There’s power in a book…
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home 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. 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 knows she’s going to go home and 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).
My thoughts:
This was the inaugural book club subscription box pick for Jordy’s Book Club and I was so excited to be part of it. Grady Hendrix is still a relatively new author to me – I had only read one other book by him before this one, How to Sell a Haunted House, which I ended up enjoying. Plus, horror is still a genre I’m finding my way in…I love it when it’s blended with other genres, like Hendrix seems to do.
This book definitely hit all the right notes for me. The way the author blended historical fiction with horror, and added elements of witchcraft and real life was both addicting as well as horrifying. This one just got me in all my feels, especially in light of all that is going on the world right now. This story is so richly drawn, with characters that come alive and have shades of us all in them. Watching them go on a journey to self-discovery was as empowering as it was chilling for all they went through.
I cannot recommend this book enough. If you like stories of witchcraft and female empowerment with a little horror sprinkled in, this one is for you!
Audio thoughts:
This was amazing on audio! Narrated by Leslie Howard, Hilary Huber, and Sara Morsey, I was mesmerized by the story and felt each of the three narrators did a fantastic job bringing the story to life.
Purchasing from the link below supports independent bookstores and my blog!
