There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to 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, 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 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 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, Grady Hendrix has created a stunning and powerful narrative. Between the visceral quality of the words chosen and the situation the girls are in, the novel is about true magic, the power to bring life.

From the very first, when you meet Fern, you feel her presence on the page. But really what reinforces the difficulties the girls face is when we hear Holly’s story, one of abuse. This is when the girls come together to try and save her if not themselves. But we see how knowledge is powerful and how dangerous one small book can be in the right hands. This is the power of the female and of motherhood written with reverence. It is also how much power and magic there is in the world. I absolutely love that magic is neither good or bad but that the witch’s magic comes with a price. I also appreciated that wisdom and knowledge is its own kind of magic, when Hagar, a kitchen cook, helps the girls. 

If you like stunning and powerful novels that empathize with the magic of women, of motherhood, and of birth, this novel is for you. There is darkness but there is also brightness and love. There is a beautiful ending that highlights the bond between mother and child. There is sisterhood and friendship. And all those powerful bonds are what make this book such a powerful read. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 girls 

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