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liesvdm 's review for:
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
by Grady Hendrix
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
This is a tough one to rate.
It took me a long time to read - or rather, it took me several weeks to get to around 20% and then I read to about 33% in a few days, and the rest of the book I finished in one go.
Granted, I was super busy and overwhelmed with life in general in those weeks which gave me little to no time to read. But I've managed to read other books in pretty similar circumstances - where there's a will, there's a way and sleep is overrated right ;-) (actually it's really not, but you know)
I liked the start with Neva/Fern in the car with her father. That was really well done and you feel the fear, disbelief and sadness.
Then the scene is set at the Wellwood house and we meet a lot of secondary characters right from the start. Maybe a few too many, I couldn't keep them apart, though later in the book I did like that you get a sense of all those girls' personalities and all the different sad and unfair circumstances that brought them to the same place. I guess the author could have left a few out or referred to them more generally ("the other girls" or something) but OTOH having them all have names (albeit fake names) did give them some sort recognition/dignity. And how society really failed those girls - it made me angry for every single one of them.
I'm not sure the mix of themes - the tragic, sad and very real history of those homes for unwed mothers + witchcraft - worked for me. But I guess that's just the style of this book (and maybe just this author).
I loved the part wherethey first come into contact with witchcraft - the big black dog, the nightly escapes. I really got into the story then and was hoping it would take off in that direction.
But it didn't last and I kind of got a bit annoyed waiting for them to decide the next step and going back and forth about it. I mean I guess it's realistic in how teenage girls would behave, probably :-) but it got a bit repetitive.
As for the depiction of witchcraft, I don't really know enough about witchcraft to judge but I somehow didn't really love it.I'm not sure what exactly bothered me. I loved the book from the library changing and how the librarian turned out to be a witch. But having her then be so evil. I don't know.
I guess, in a book about how horribly unfairly girls were treated, I would have liked a more nuanced view on "witches" because historically they too were just women and girls who walked out of line according to patriarchal society. This is touched upon in the book too of course. And the fact that the rest of the coven stood up to Parcae in the end was cool. But then it just kind of leaves that there... I would have loved to find out more about that! Or maybe even about WHY Parcae was the way she was and so scared to lose the "line" and so fixated on Fern to continue it...
Aaanyway. I'll probably come back and edit/add more to this review. But for now, 3.75 stars :)
It took me a long time to read - or rather, it took me several weeks to get to around 20% and then I read to about 33% in a few days, and the rest of the book I finished in one go.
Granted, I was super busy and overwhelmed with life in general in those weeks which gave me little to no time to read. But I've managed to read other books in pretty similar circumstances - where there's a will, there's a way and sleep is overrated right ;-) (actually it's really not, but you know)
I liked the start with Neva/Fern in the car with her father. That was really well done and you feel the fear, disbelief and sadness.
Then the scene is set at the Wellwood house and we meet a lot of secondary characters right from the start. Maybe a few too many, I couldn't keep them apart, though later in the book I did like that you get a sense of all those girls' personalities and all the different sad and unfair circumstances that brought them to the same place. I guess the author could have left a few out or referred to them more generally ("the other girls" or something) but OTOH having them all have names (albeit fake names) did give them some sort recognition/dignity. And how society really failed those girls - it made me angry for every single one of them.
I'm not sure the mix of themes - the tragic, sad and very real history of those homes for unwed mothers + witchcraft - worked for me. But I guess that's just the style of this book (and maybe just this author).
I loved the part where
But it didn't last and I kind of got a bit annoyed waiting for them to decide the next step and going back and forth about it. I mean I guess it's realistic in how teenage girls would behave, probably :-) but it got a bit repetitive.
As for the depiction of witchcraft, I don't really know enough about witchcraft to judge but I somehow didn't really love it.
I guess, in a book about how horribly unfairly girls were treated, I would have liked a more nuanced view on "witches" because historically they too were just women and girls who walked out of line according to patriarchal society. This is touched upon in the book too of course. And the fact that the rest of the coven stood up to Parcae in the end was cool. But then it just kind of leaves that there... I would have loved to find out more about that! Or maybe even about WHY Parcae was the way she was and so scared to lose the "line" and so fixated on Fern to continue it...
Aaanyway. I'll probably come back and edit/add more to this review. But for now, 3.75 stars :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Pregnancy
Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault
Minor: Cancer, Medical content