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Over the last decade, Grady Hendrix has made a name for himself in horror literature. His young adult (ish) hit, My Best Friend’s Exorcism rocked the horror book world, and since its release, his books have grown in both quality and maturity, often highlighting important social issues veiled with supernatural horror.
After the release of My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Hendrix penned Fangoria’s Satanic Panic film, co-wrote Mohawk with Ted Geoghegan, and won a Bram Stoker Award for his 2018 non-fiction book on ‘70s and ‘80s horror paperbacks, Paperbacks from Hell. Hendrix has also continued to write horror novels, including The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, How to Sell a Haunted House, and most recently, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.
*Trigger Warning: This review mentions graphic pregnancy themes. *
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls mainly follows the story of Neva, a 15-year-old pregnant teenage girl, who is sent to Wellwood House, a large boarding house for pregnant teens, that temporarily changes their names (she becomes Fern), makes sure they stay isolated and healthy until the babies are born and given away to adopting families, at the request of the teens’ parents.
Fern joins other teenagers there, and after making friends, learning the horrible pregnancy stories of her housemates, and being gifted How to be a Groovy Witch, a learn-it-all witchcraft book from the local library bookmobile, Fern believes using witchcraft could be the best path towards making the girls’ tormentors pay and a future that doesn’t involve oppression and abuse.
Related: Why You Should Be Reading Grady Hendrix if You Love Horror
As with most of Hendrix’s recent books, the writing in Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is extremely solid. It’s clear he’s moved into the prime of his career, and with each book, he dives a little more into trauma themes and does a fantastic job highlighting their importance.
Hendrix is no stranger to writing from the female point of view. In fact, he’s been praised for his ability to do a decent job at it, in comparison to other male authors in the writing industry. All the lead characters in his novels have been women. In How to Sell a Haunted House, the lead deals with familial (particularly sibling and parental) trauma. In The Finals Girls Support Group, the lead deals with PTSD.
Hendrix does well writing about themes that can be experienced by anyone, but the themes in Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, tackling teenage pregnancy in 1969, and the oppressive obstacles that women faced then (and still today), is so inherently female-focused, that it feels strange for a white, 50-year-old man to be writing from the point of view of pregnant teenage girls, including girls of color.
It’s not that he does a bad job tackling the subject matter. It’s important; it’s especially relevant to the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade and the outcome of the Presidential election, but it’s written by someone who can never truly understand or describe the feelings of those who have to go through it and grow through it.
It makes me wonder who the book is for, because as a man reading the story, the theming feels inaccurate and overstepping, and as a man thinking about it from a woman’s point of view, the story feels like another reminder of how terribly women are treated in this country, as if there aren’t enough reminders on a minute-by-minute basis.
Related: ‘How to Sell a Haunted House’ Book Review: A Grim and Ghostly Good Time
With that being said, the four main characters are well-developed, and probably the best part of the book. Each has their own heartbreaking story that keeps the reader intent and excited about finding out what will happen to them, especially once the witchcraft starts playing its part.
Unfortunately, the supernatural, witchy horror portion of the book takes a big backseat to its pregnancy horror and political themes, and when it jumps to the forefront, some of the story takes a dip in consistency and follow-up. Characters are massively affected by traumatic witchcraft, just to never mention it again in the book.
With that being said, the realistic, body and pregnancy horror parts of the book are absolutely brutal. In particular, there are a couple of lengthy home-birth segments that may be the most intense and scary parts of the story. Hendrix knows how to write horror brilliantly, even if I personally feel it was put in the wrong place.
I can’t fault Hendrix for writing this book. I wish it felt like a more coherent, supernatural horror story than a display of terrible ways that pregnant teenage girls were treated at the time. It’s clear he did his research and had a lot of sources and help with the themes. Again, I think they’re extremely important, but the book just didn’t hit with me. I put it somewhere in the middle of the pack of his novels.
I will always recommend readers pick up a book and make their own choices, and there have been plenty of those who enjoyed Witchcraft for Wayward Girls thoroughly (4.2 rating on Goodreads). Unfortunately, I just wasn’t blown away, and that’s ok, Grady Hendrix still has a pretty great batting average with me.
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix is now available at all major book retailers, and was released by Berkley.
Star Rating: 3.2/5
The post ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls’ Book Review: An Important Theme, But Far from Hendrix’s Best appeared first on HorrorGeekLife.
