Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

De: Grady Hendrix

Narrado por: Leslie Howard, Hillary Huber, Sara Morsey

"Superb ... a perfect horror for our imperfect age.” – The New York Times

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER

They were never girls, they were witches . . . .


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, to 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, frightened, 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 plans to 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 the 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).

Grady's best book yet

My favorite Grady Hendricks book so far. I was enthralled from beginning to the very end and am feeling heart broken that it is over and I can never read it for the first time again. The characters were well developed and I immediately liked the main girls. There were so many layers of horror, from the horror of the times to the horror of the situations I was left with my jaw dropped many times. I gasped, I cried, I left different. I can't recommend this book enough.

Such a great listen!!

This is the first audiobook I’ve been able to completely listen to. Had me hooked from the start!

Loved it

I absolutely loved this book. I went in blind, and it’s one of the best books I have read/listened to this year.

Such a beautiful, raw, angry book!

Do not expect this to be a quick fix, where magic does not cost a thing. This is a book about women, power, birth and friendship. About the cultural prisons built for women since, well, always.
Grady Hendrix, and this is a heartfelt compliment, has written an open eyed book about the sufferings of teenage pregnant girls in the seventies. About male privilege. About race. No condescension, no sugar coating.
I read a review in Goodreads, and the reader complained that this was not Harry Potter. She was very mean about it. I am a Potterhead myself. and no, this is harder and meant for more astute and mature readers; for people that can handle hard to swallow truth with their magic. There is no Hogwarts here, just the American South.
I always found a slanted feminism in the other books by Grady Hendrix, but always softened a little by jokes. Here, his feminism comes back and bites your ass, it is so sharp. Also, there a beautifully written parts.
It is always exciting to read how a writer comes into his powers. (And I didn't like How to sell a Haunted House at all; I am not an easy customer).

Amazing book

10/10 early in 2025 but this book is so good! Best book I listen to so far