Synopsis
There’s power in a book…
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home 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. 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 knows she’s going to go home and 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 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).
Review
The biggest thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!
Power is a fickle thing, something that’s often controlled and kept from others on the basis of fear. And what if that power is discovered by those who have been kept in the dark? Grady Hendrix’s latest novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, is a close examination of these ideas of female empowerment and what this power looks like for every woman, not just all women. In the humid swamps of Florida, Wellwood Home exists as a place for “wayward” girls – pregnant, unwed, girls. The process is “simple”; a wayward girl is delivered by her family, she works for the Wellwood Home to earn her keep, she has her child who is then adopted, and the wayward girl returns to her life as she knew it before. But “before” is never as it really was, a truth that becomes apparent to many of the girls of Wellwood. This all changes when one group of girls discovers the possible power of witchcraft, the ability to alter their circumstances beyond normal means. Of course, all actions have consequences as these girls soon find out, leaving them with unthinkable choices to make. Hendrix crafts an emotional, moving examination of women’s empowerment through this lens, demonstrating the power of choices and those who make them.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is Grady Hendrix’s longest novel, knocking on around 500 pages in length. With this vast space, Hendrix chooses to leave no stone unturned concerning the inequalities women must suffer, especially expecting, unwed mothers. While the book is set in the 1970s, there is an unfortunate amount of truth to be found in these pages regarding the treatment of women in the world today, making Witchcraft another painfully timely read. I won’t lie and say this is a breezy, fun read from Hendrix; rather, this is an unflinching look at what happens when autonomy and choices are stripped away from individuals. Sure, there are still some signature Hendrix moments of levity, but on the whole, this feels like one of his more earnest, serious contributions.
This harrowing atmosphere is made possible through the character work implemented in these pages, with unique life breathed into the girls of Wellwood, chiefly Fern, Rose, Zinnia, and Holly. Most important of all, not one of these girls is written the same as another, each with their own personal wants, desires, and motivations. Through this diversity, we find so much to relate to with each girl who craves a different outcome for themselves and their unborn children. This feels like the most touching sentiment of all, this recognition of differences among women that does not take away from their essence of being a person, the bonds they forge with one another.
Of course, the horrors of this story can be found in the treatment of these girls as their lifestyle at Wellwood measures close to cruelty. Even more harrowing are the attitudes of those outside the home and their treatment of these girls in the real world. Yet, most horrifying of all is the withholding of information from these girls in regards to how their own bodies function, the falsehood perpetuated regarding their own being. Of course, to drive the true essence of horror home, Hendrix never shies away from body horror with no shortage of gore, blood, bile, and other stomach-churning bodily functions.
For all this horror, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is an emotionally fueled story with an ending that brought me to tears. Fern, Holly, Zinnia, and Rose share a relationship with one another that is cemented in the trenches of trauma, loss, and love. The final fifty or so pages of this novel contain poignant, heartfelt portraits of these female friendships, the ties that still bind these women together in ways that feel otherworldly. It’s powerful prose, a sentiment of beauty that drives this whole thing home and may even impart a little hope for a better tomorrow thanks to the helping hands of those just like us.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix releases on January 14th from Berkley.
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