Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

By: Grady Hendrix

Narrated by: 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).

I’m not crying! It is just the witchcraft!

Damn Grady! This book broke me, it was so powerful and so overwhelming and so unflinching a look into the horrors of obstetric violence.

This is not a regular Grady Hendrix book! Was there engrossing atmosphere? Complex characters your heart connects with? Was the humor laced with absurdities and horror? YES! So in those ways it was a traditional Grady Hendrix book, however THIS BOOK was also raw, gritty, heart wrenching, disturbing, traumatic and at times sickening. But all of that made for a powerful story of the horrors of womanhood, sisterhood, the banality routine of cultural and patriarchal evil. There were a few times it felt like Grady Hendrix left the page and Nick Cutter stepped in to write a few scenes, because that is how unbelievably traumatizing vivid and accurate these unflinching looks at what it is like to give birth were. I am also so amazed by Hendrix’s ability to flawlessly write from the perspective of a girl, a teenager, a woman, a mother, this fact is also traditional in all his other books.

There were a few times I had to set this one down because of how raw it was it was overwhelming. I literally scream cried my way through one part. “You are a wolf! And you are destroying everything and no one can catch you!”

But if you are anything like me, you spend your life looking for books that make you feel THIS HARD. When you finish reading this review please just read this book!

Also 3 of the best narrators in the audiobook game bring this story and all of its characters to life! They we were not just narrations they were full on visceral performances!(Seriously when I pre ordered this forever ago I saw Hilary Huber, Leslie Howard and Sara Morsey listed as narrators and thought “well if these 3 are involved this will definitely be amazing …and spoiler alert! It was!)

Interesting story, terrible narration

While the story was compelling enough to keep me listening, the narrator had me turning down the volume several times due to all the wailing and chanting scenes. For the rest of the book, she reads at what I can only describe as a loud, raspy whisper, reading every word like it the most important word in the story. With this narrator, I would go with the hard copy of the book and read it old school.

This is horror.

This story caused visceral reactions, physical, emotional, mental. The narration was good and the whole thing kept me engaged. Just, wow.

Oh my goodness!

What an exciting listen! Whew! Sorry for all the exclamation marks. Listen and you’ll understand. The story spoke to me on so many levels.

Such a powerful story

I cried so many times listening to this book. it's probably the most powerful book I've ever read. Grady Hendrix is a true master of horror.