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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Grady Hendrix has been a surprising author for me. This is my second of his books and both times, I went in expecting something camp and lighthearted and both times I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the story. Many complain that this book is too slow, particularly at the beginning. On the contrary, I think he took the perfect amount of time setting up the true sense of helplessness and lack of autonomy our main characters experienced every day, perfectly setting up the atmosphere for everything that would follow. There are some truly disgusting bits of body horror of both the mystical and real kind. I love that the main character is not a neat perfectly brave heroine but instead a girl facing very real impossible choices with all the confusion, anguish, and flip-flopping of a 15 year old girl out of her depth. It's not a perfect book -- I wonder about the choice of writing the witches the way he did and this is two books in a row where a Black woman veers dangerously close to Magical Negro territory, but both times it is saved by the pragmatic actions of the characters who do not perform selflessness that defies belief. I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now because I think I understand what he's trying to do, but refinement is necessary. Anyway, I cried like a baby and really really liked this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
slow-paced
This one went off on weird tangents and not in a good way. Wasn’t sure what the point of all the witchcraft was, didn’t mesh well with the underlying plot.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Gosh this was good. Can't believe how well he writes female characters.
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Audio narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I went in expecting Grady Hendrix camp—and got something far more serious, visceral, and unnerving. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls hooked me early (even if the audiobook narrator took a little getting used to). This is horror with teeth.
Reading it during my Under Pressure season, I couldn’t miss the parallels to The Bell Jar or Book Club for Troublesome Women—teenage girls hemmed in by societal rules, their lives dictated to them before they even have a say. The vivid, often brutal depictions of spellwork and childbirth left me unsettled in exactly the way I think Hendrix intended.
Unexpectedly, my favorite character was Hagar, the gruff household cook whose arc was both surprising and deeply satisfying.
As for the audio—sometimes I appreciated the narrator’s full-throttle emotional range, especially in primal, charged moments. Other times, it felt like I was being forced to experience her version of the story. It’s a performance that won’t work for everyone.
This is my second Hendrix, and while I didn’t find the camp I anticipated, I didn’t miss it here. This one is for horror lovers who don’t mind things getting very, very uncomfortable. Not for the squeamish.