Review by mxmarymoon - Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

mxmarymoon 's review for:

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Astonishingly convincing feminine voices from a male author. I spent most of the book forgetting that was the case. I was so absolutely immersed in the world and the story, it was incredible. Almost every single adult in this book failed these girls and their journeys were so fucking heartbreaking. Even the ending felt bittersweet. Knowing how heavily this leaned on actual history and knowing this was horribly close to reality for a lot of girls hurts my heart. The horror wasn't the witchcraft like I thought it would be, the horror was what was done to these girls and their babies. And I think that makes it even worse.

I admittedly did not check for trigger warnings ahead of time, so I was incredibly unprepared for what happened to one of the girls, but I think if I'd known, I may have skipped this and missed out on a great read. So, peep the warnings and keep in mind that it's a rather main plot point with frequent reference in the back half of the book. I was able to push through it and I'm glad I did, but definitely don't recommend that for everyone.

I think I deserve a reward for making it through the last quarter of the book without just straight up sobbing, tbh. And the delivery scene in the hospital with Fern. This was my first read from Grady Hendrix and wow, what an intro.

Content Warnings