Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Format: Audio (Spotify)
Read: April 2025

This is my third Grady Hendrix, and it’s definitely my favourite so far. I enjoyed The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, but The Final Girls Support Group was a quick DNF for me when I tried the audiobooks; I just couldn’t get into the characters or understand the world with that one.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls takes on a lot of subjects that had me looking sideways at the male author! I mean, this is a book about pregnant teenage girls in the 1970s and the various societal, social and physical issues they faced… plus a bit of magic. I have to say I was very impressed with how he handled all of this and managed to write an emotional and very physical experience for Neva/Fern and all the girls that feels researched, thorough and realistic.

I am happily childfree, and the idea of pregnancy has always horrified me… and this book has only reinforced that idea! Holy shit I am glad I didn’t have to give birth [as a teenage girl] in 1970s America… those scenes alone can count for the “horror” label on this book. I felt traumatised just listening to them! The fact that these girls are physically uncomfortable all the time, especially in the Florida heat, is never forgotten, even when things get witchy!

The balance of characters in this was also good. Fern, Holly, Rose and Zinnia are all completely different personalities with different economic, racial, political and religious backgrounds, which always makes for an interesting story, particularly as Fern, Rose and Zinnia are each headstrong girls with different perspectives on almost everything. Holly is significantly younger than the others, and her background is horrifying and enraging, all the more so because it won’t be unfamiliar.

The staff at Wellwood House are also an interesting mix, and it would be easy to see them as villains given that they run the show with all the various restrictions, limitations and cruelties (most of them just 1970s medicine!). But Hendrix does make the effort to layer the society pressures and limited options that drive them. Likewise, the witches alternate offering a tempting power and understanding, but also significantly present a different kind of danger. None of the women in this book truly has a safe place to turn.

And there is some witchcraft in this book. Maybe not a lot, but they do spells, and this does get pretty wild towards the end! I’ll confess I don’t really know what was going on in the final section! I never really knew how the book was going to turn out because the characters’ motivations are kept so grounded that meant they don’t always do what you’d think someone in this kind of story would do, if that makes sense!

Its strength lies in the characters and the way the author is able to layer and weave through some difficult themes and complex societal issues into a surprisingly grounded, well-rounded and entertaining book. It isn’t a straight-up horror book, though, and I wouldn’t say it’s scary… unless you count traumatic scenes of childbirth, which I do!