I would like to thank Tor Nightfire for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Tor Nightfire

Published - Out Now

Price - £22 hardback £11.99 Kindle eBook

‘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.

It’s amazing how easy it is to blame a group for all the ills of the world. It’s the immigrants, it’s the young, it’s people on the internet (that one may have a point) and over centuries the single mother has long been a focus of contempt. Not just portrayed as a drain on the estate but a woman acting sexually out of wedlock! Never mind that biology says a man was involved all the blame goes on the woman or sometimes young girl. How they’ve been treated is shameful and often horrific, this is explored intelligently in Grady Hendrix’s historical horror Witchcraft for Wayward Girls taking to the America of the early 1970s to a time before Roe Vs Wade and where a group of pregnant teenagers are being hidden from the world, treated as sinners and may have a chance to find their own inner power to strike back. It’s a very immersive piece of storytelling I enjoyed hugely

It’s 1970 Neva is fifteen and pregnant. Her father barely talks to her as he drives her to the Wellwood Home in Florida. She is to stay in the Home for the next few weeks, have and give up her baby and only then can return to her life. Neva is soon renamed Fern as no one is allowed to discuss their past and just becomes one of the many girls going through the doors of Wellwood under its strict owner’s religious eyes. No longer a person, day managed by hours, dirt controlled and no freedom but a kindly librarian named Mrs Parcae has offered a way to push back via the handbook How To Be A Groovy Witch which Fern and her few new friends find offers a little revenge but slowly they want more. But all magic carries a high price and how far is Fern willing to pay it.

In this novel the concept of storms becomes quite key later on the story and structurally that’s the type of take we have here. A gathering, building summer thunderstorm which while can be pretty to look at from afar is something else far more disturbing when you’re caught in the middle of it. It’s a great story exploring its themes and combining this with horrors both human and supernatural.

The first act is completely non-supernatural as Hendrix immerses us into the period and Fern’s more immediate world. Her father refused to even say goodbye, very soon she is constantly judged for having had sex out of wedlock and social workers and doctors just see her as either a problem, a disgrace or a vehicle for carrying a child. This is the long stifling summer of building pressure. The girls can’t leave the Home, it’s every day looking like the last, pasts are not shared and the few things allowed are smoking (!) and watching tv. This all helps build up the atmosphere and demonstrates how little agency the girls we meet have. Three key characters join Fern. There is 17 year old Rose the rebel carrying the attitudes of the 60s still to protest against power, Zinnia a well educated black teenager suddenly plunged into less enlightened Florida and the underestimated Holly just turned 13 and refusing to talk. Slowly these girls become a unit and break the rules against sharing how they got here. Hendrix very much makes us see them as people again. We see they have lives, ambitions and have been poorly treated by men and then families ashamed to help. There is also Frank discussion of sexual abuse. This is an unfair world and no one is on their side. Hendrix makes us more than ready to see what a bit of magic can do to even the odds.

Initially the storm then just has some pretty lightening strikes. A librarian is clearly a force for good and the Groovy Witch Handbook seems more mischievous - there is IMMENSE satisfaction watching a doctor with no bedside manner get taken down many pegs. But when you’re treated with incredible unkindness then the temptation to do more rises. The next trick while gives the girls and the reader immense satisfaction when we then have to see the consequences makes us sit down and say that may have gone too far. But the girls now need even more. Our kindly librarian Mrs Parcae has some ideas to help.

In the words of the Eurythmics some of them want to use you and some of them want to abuse you. The middle act introduce covens, ancient lines of witches and also we see the Home and the system it is part of also spring into action. The guilt trips, the medicine and emotional blackmail thrown at Fern and others is again horrific and it’s even more disturbing when we see the girls try to report abuse and no one even cares. Only the girls are to blame for their situation - just do what you’re told. If we can’t show empathy and kindness is it any wonder people the decide to strike back even with something that may have its own consequences for themselves? The supernatural scenes following onare delightfully powerful and thrilling. After the blandness of the home being in nature, filled with energy and the sense they have power it’s intoxicating so no wonder our mini coven get swept away but only when the price is finally explained do we realise yet again Fern is still being told what to do and not expected to have . The question is does she perhaps want to pay it?

After all this build up the final acts are fast paced and let rip. The pacing deliberately lets loose and picks up steam. A full on monsoon of set pieces come together. Again Hedrick mixes human horror with the supernatural. Fern’s birth and the aftermath is largely payed straight and the use of clinical terms and the complete absence of warmth and kindness she is shown make this a cold distant process not a moment where she can take any joy. Another birth is shown more naturally but equally shows the danger of the of process for a teenager. These are just teenagers and no one seems to have their backs for very long. It builds and builds until an epic confrontation between Parcae, Fern and the Home’s staff arises and the emotional punches continue all the way. It makes us quite unsure what Fern eventually does. Her answer makes sense but I really liked how Hendrix makes us see the bittersweet consequences down the years after.

There are a few things I thought could have been stronger. A key character names Hagar is the Home’s Black cook with her own hidden knowledge of magic. While I really enjoyed her scenes she felt a little more plot convenient than a full character in her own right and perhaps an earlier glimpse of her life and her own agency in how she sees the Hone than just suddenly helping the girls would have been useful to move her away from magical support character. Perhaps a little more exploration of Parcae and her coven too was needed as the glimpses is this ancient witch line are really interesting and I’d like to have known what they did next too.

Once I started reading this quickly consumed me as I needed to see what balked to Fern and her friends. Always a good sign of a great story. I come away from Witchcraft for Wayward Children feeling I’ve been in that Home and have a much better understanding of the time this happened. It chimes with tales you hear in the U.K. but Hendrix makes it really come alive in all its horrific unkindness. The supernatural elements are both frightening and enticing. You may feel it’s also the less evil…ish. It also reminds us as we enter 2025 that storms can rise again and gives us a warning what that can lead to perhaps we need to batten down the hatches and be ready. A thoughtful and extremely entertaining story that I can highly recommend!