Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

The twisted, unforgettable horror novel from Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.

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.

Review

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 . . . A phenomenal read for witches everywhere! -- Carissa Orlando, author of The September House

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

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

Raw, fearless and powerful. I screamed, I sobbed, I devoured every word -- Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your Heart and Cold Snap

A haunted, heartbreaking masterpiece, filled with magic and monsters - human and otherwise. Hendrix has written an unmissable instant horror classic -- Christina Henry, author of The House that Horror Built and Alice

A powerful novel filled with rich, complex characters, echoing with dread and hope, and driven by righteous rage. At times I found myself shaking with fury, at other times . . . yes, Grady made me cry again. Beautiful and brilliant -- Tim Lebbon, author of Among the Living

About the Author

Grady Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling novelist and screenwriter who owns too many paperbacks and not enough shelves. He's the author of How to Sell a Haunted House, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and many more, including Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties that won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction. (All the paperbacks are for "research" and he needs them.) His books have sold over two million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in New York City and will die there, too, probably crushed to death beneath piles of those paperbacks.