Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

By: Grady Hendrix

Narrated by: Leslie Howard, Hillary Huber, Sara Morsey

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is a twisted Southern Gothic horror from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.

‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’

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, 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. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Every moment of their waking day 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.

‘Twisted and smart’ – Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street and Nowhere Burning

‘Amazing’ – Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of I Was a Teenage Slasher

‘A morally complex and genuinely haunting and moving tale’ – Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World

©2024 Grady Hendrix (P)2024 Penguin Random House LLC

Critic reviews

Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls will delight fans new and old with his convincing rendering of characters juggling pregnancy and magic, childhood and adulthood, helplessness and power – and of course good and evil. Another nail-biter not to be missed! (Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory)

This is Satan's School for Girls or The Initiation of Sarah . . . horror, social comment and wicked black humour (Kim Newman, author of Anno Dracula)

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is terrifying, darkly funny, moving, immersive, and deeply relevant – a page-turner that will keep you up until one in the morning . . . Grady Hendrix is at the top of his game (Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author of Murder Road)

Grady Hendrix does it again, only better . . . Enchanting and entertaining (Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor)

Full of hexes and heart, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is Hendrix's best novel yet! (Ronald Malfi, bestselling author of Come with Me)

Captivating from the start, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls takes readers on an incredible journey exploring female victimization and empowerment . . . that may or may not entail tapping into the dark magic within. A phenomenal read for witches everywhere! (Carissa Orlando, author of The September House)

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls asks how agency can be taken and what someone might do to keep it. Portentous and disquieting, it's a book that'll linger like a scar (Cassandra Khaw, author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth and The Salt Grows Heavy)

This book is going right on my ‘Favorites’ shelf. It’s been years since I’ve been so entranced by a novel. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is stunning, full of dread and heartache and unforgettable characters. It’s impossible to read this book and not be touched by it. What a triumph! (Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Last Resort and Road of Bones)

As pacey as it is insightful, and an absolute page-turner into the bargain. I devoured it (Alison Littlewood, author of The Hidden People)

Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is the most potent sort of magic – raw, fearless and powerful. I screamed, I sobbed, I devoured every word (Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your Heart and Cold Snap)