Reviews
Heartbreaking. Exhilarating. Powerful. I could not put this book down. It was so outside my comfort zone genre-wise that I wasn’t sure what to expect. Saying that I loved this book doesn’t feel quite right but it definitely left an impact. I’ll be thinking about this story for a very long time.
This book was clearly well-researched and it was remarkable to me how well the author captured the voice of a teenage girl while handling such heavy topics. The witchcraft was just spooky enough to make you believe in it without taking you out of the very real world setting. Overall, I foresee this book being at the top of my recommendations list for a long while.
The ending of the book was almost perfect because it satisfied every craving that I had while reading the rest of it. I love Grady Hendrix and will be the first to rave about his books. This one, despite being full of women empowerment and the ultimate fears and sacrifices women inevitably had to go through back then, fell flat for me. I know this book is perfect to someone but the delayed satisfaction to me was just not enough to keep me fully invested.
I long for the day when I can pick up a Grady Hendrix book and keep it around for more than a few days, but this is not that day, and this is not that book.
I devoured Witchcraft for Wayward Girls just like I've devoured every one of Hendrix's books. Pregnancy and childbirth terrify me, and my mother did go through some of what the book outlines when she was a teenager, so I found every part of the novel fascinating and horrifying.
I do find it strange that a childless, middle-aged man would write this book, but Hendrix pulls it off, and he's very aware of his position going into the subject matter. He handles it incredibly well and doesn't shy away from any aspect of teenage pregnancy. The book doesn't feel voyeuristic or trite or preachy, it just feels like the truth.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls follows young, unwed mothers who are sent to the Wellwood Home to be hidden and have their babies, giving them up for adoption and forgetting it ever occurred. Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home for ‘wayward girls’ in 1970, pregnant and scared. Along with other girls in the same predicament, Fern is stripped of her rights and autonomy and forced to live under the watchful eye of the austere Miss Wellwood. The girls carry our mundane chores while hostile doctors control everything they consume, trapped until after they have given birth. That is until they meet an eccentric librarian who shares an occult book about witchcraft. Viewing this as salvation, the girls feel empowered for the first time and plan to escape; however, power has a price to pay, paid in blood.
Grady Hendrix has based Witchcraft for Wayward Girls on the horrifying history in which young, pregnant girls were shunned from society, forcefully locked away and forced to give up their babies. This poignant horror highlights the harrowing aspect of women’s history as a result of conservatism, religion, and patriarchy.
If I could give this book 100 stars, I would. It was gritty, gory, heartbreaking, scary and so much more. A few times I had to put the book down and leave the room, but I picked it right back up again. Love everything Grady Hendrix writes and this is no exception. Definitely recommend.
