Join a book club that is reading Witchcraft for Wayward Girls!

Reading Mermaids

Reading Mermaids is a welcoming and inclusive monthly book club for women in Hampton Roads.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

"Superb ... a perfect horror for our imperfect age.” – The New York Times

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER

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, 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).

BUY THE BOOK

Published Jan 14, 2025

Average rating: 7.45

400 RATINGS

|

Community Reviews

kylie_fitz
Jul 14, 2025
2/10 stars
I think I’m just not a Grady Hendricks girl
LitERaryLady
Jul 23, 2025
5/10 stars
Started well, engaging backstory. But a disproportionate amount of the story are in depth descriptions (and sound effects, if you’re listening to the audiobook) of women giving birth (whether to human babies or otherwise).
ValkyrieValerie
Jun 17, 2025
2/10 stars
Medically inaccurate and you also consulted a nurse on this book? I'm sorry but you could have cut out blood pressure numbers and the entire scene of Fern getting cut. That is not even the correct procedure??
Yuck. What a let down of a book.
ChicaReadsAllBooks
Mar 27, 2025
7/10 stars
Painful look at the history of "wayward girls" in America... a close examination of the systems and the history of suppression and repression that has kept women down for centuries. BUT, it also has some really beautiful moments of trimumph. Ultimately, I really enjoyed.
VLlo
Mar 25, 2025
9/10 stars
Extremely different to horrors I’ve read before, a captivating story, really enjoyed this read.

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.