Book Review | Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Witchcraft For Wayward Girls

By Grady Hendrix

Pan Macmillan  |  2025  |  476 pages

Florida, 1970.

Fifteen-year-old Neva is taken to Wellwood House, a home for unwed mothers, to see out the final three months of her pregnancy. Her father turns tail without even a goodbye, leaving Neva to endure the isolated maternity home for one sweltering summer with the bugs, the boredom, the awful food, the shunned unwed girls just like her. There, she meets Rose, the righteous hippie; Holly, a fourteen-year-old who refuses to talk, and Zinnia, the cultured sceptic.

Miles from the nearest town and forced to abide by the home’s draconian rules, the girls are powerless, kept in the dark of what is to come. Only that their best option is to surrender their babies and move on as if this never happened

Then one day a travelling library arrives outside Wellwood House. And the librarian presses a book onto Neva, one that promises answers, power, even revenge. A book of witchcraft. But the book demands a sacrifice to work properly. A debt that must be paid. And, if she’s making deals with the devil, Neva must decide what price she is willing to pay.

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Okay, so I am torn on this book for different reasons. I think mainly because it isn’t what I thought it was going to be when I started on it.

I expected horror… and this wasn't. At least it wasn’t scary horror like I assumed it would be and maybe that is purely my fault for not understanding what I was starting on. But, the story in itself was one that appealed to me and provoked my… anger towards narrow minded opinions back in the day surrounding women and women in ‘trouble’.

So, I’ve now kind of decided to scrap the whole… good things, bad things, complete thoughts format that I usually do my reviews in. Now, I am just going to give my opinion about whatever comes to mind and run with it. 

As mentioned, this book was disappointing only in the way I thought it was going to be horror along the lines of giving me goosebumps and creeping me out if I read it at night but it didn’t… at all so I’m not really sure on the wisdom of labelling it horror. I suppose because it’s witches involved but at the same time… is that only really the reason for labelling it as a horror novel?

The writing style is informal and easy to follow. It was refreshing to read this after just coming away from a fantasy series and it was relatable. This is the first Grady Hendrix book I have read and aside from the non-horror aspect, I really enjoyed the read. The world building was also really enjoyable. The way in which Hendrix paints a picture of the 70’s in America. Now, I live in the UK and am part of an Irish family. This whole book made me constantly think of Magdalene Laundries or Magdalene Asylums which were of a similar nature as explained in this story.

Beyond anything else, it has to be acknowledged of the feminine rage intertwined within this book. The fact you have these teenage girls who have gotten into unfortunate situations and it is a less forgiving time, automatically makes you side with the girls, regardless. As the main character points out, they were just children. And yet, Hendrix depicts the bigoted and horrendous way that girls would have been treated back then, in the perfect way.

I felt so much anger for these fictional girls as a woman of a very modern time. They way they are treated and the way they are spoken to just boiled my blood throughout. The feminist thoughts plowed through and all I could think was, “But a man would never be pulled up on his involvement in this.”

And it’s true. Not once do you ever see any of the men involved with these pregnant girls get a punishment and the blame is solely and repeatedly on these girls. Even down to one character who is impregnated by a reverend. I just… it frustrates me so much, especially knowing that this isn’t completely fictional. This was the thought process of girls who got pregnant out of wedlock, back in the 60’s and 70’s. In some parts of the world, this is still the thought process of some small minded people. 

It’s crazy to me because all I could think after they were getting more daring with spells was that they should use spells on the people around them who blamed them for where they were and those that spoke down to them. I think it comes from a place of being a free woman in 2025. I know for a fact, if any man tried to shame me in any sense for getting pregnant, I would slap that fool down so quick and tell him about himself.

But, I recognize that this is a privilege I have that a lot of girls would have only dreamed of back in the 70’s. That’s why I particularly loved Rose’s character. She was so outspoken and fought any authority, tooth and nail and in the end, she comes out on top and shows them all up.

Each girl in the book has their own life drama and situations that got them to the Wellwood house for Unwed Mothers and although we only go more in depth with a few of them, they are all so interesting and relatable. 

The story itself, I felt, was a bit slow paced. I feel like we didn’t actually get to any witchcraft until almost midway through the book and even when there were full fledged spells, it didn’t feel very… it was a bit anticlimactic? I don’t know but I just felt the witchcraft wasn’t as interesting as I expected it to be when I started the book.

The main witch who encourages the girls to practice magic was a very good character. I liked how conniving she was at times. She initially seemed so harmless and yet as the story goes on, you realize that she definitely is not innocent. 

I loved the imagery itself. I could perfectly envision the house itself and I could feel the Florida heat through the pages and that stuffy, Summer embrace was stifling. It really did succeed in helping me imagine the scenery. I imagined a very dusty open plain with a house on it with not much else within a few miles. The imagery was fabulous and I loved that in particular.

Overall, I gave this 3.5 stars not because it is bad by any means but I think I was going into this with something else in mind and the story that did get delivered is great but… lacking in parts and I can’t quite put my finger on why. It just felt like there was something missing from the plot and a lot of chapters felt a bit like filler. 

I didn’t dislike that book and actually found the themes with the girls very relatable and thought provoking but overall, I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would.