Witchcraft for Wayward Girls: Review
- According To Tita
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
By Grady Hendrix
3.5 stars
Publisher's synopsis:
They were never girls, they were witches . . . .
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they're sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families ot 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, frightened, and alone, Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood , she meets a dozen other girls in the same oredicament.
Everything the girls eat, every moment of the waking day, and everything they're allowed to tralk about is strictly controlled by the 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 fo rthe first time in their lives. But power can destory 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.
"Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" is about a young teen in 1970s florida who is sent to a home for unwed mothers to hide her away until she can give birth and give her child up for adoption. Its an interesting read to consider given the time period in a pre-Roe world (Roe passed in 1973) where women, much less girls, had any choice in their bodily decisions.
The book offers a critique on bodily autonomy set in the backdrop of teens discovering witchcraft that eventually goes awry. It examines power structures among women and girls and the power that is kept from young women and often hoarded by others in positions where they can judge others.
It's interesting to examine the idea of the United States where women had no abortion access, which was very much the United States pre-Roe, against our world today. Roe was passed in 1973 giving women broad access to abortions and choice. However, since Roe was overturned in 2022, many states have placed abortion bans or restrictive laws against abortion. Some states prohibit abortions past week 6 or 8 of pregnancy, when most women don't find out they are pregnant until after week 8.
As of January 2025, and laws often change quickly, 13 states have full abortion bans. In 7 states, abortion is heavily restricted. Another 10 states have various levels of restrictions, making it more difficult for women to seek abortions.
It's interesting, and eerie, to see our country today as almost similar to how the country was in 1970 and how that hurt women's health and happiness. Lack of access to contraceptives and abortion is a major driving factor to poverty in the U.S.
Everything I'm reading lately seems to relate back to the worsening state of facism in the U.S. since Trump was elected (see my post about The Witches of El Paso and the discussion on immigration policies).
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was thought provoking and a necessary discussion considering what is going in the U.S. today. I felt that the story was lacking a bit. It focused on the the mental state of a pregnant teen girl during a time when women had no options. But there were moments that felt as if that was done too superficially. I think it lacked a bit of nuance and still presented the idea of these pregnant teen girls as if they had done something wrong. Perhaps, it's because it was written by a man. Could a woman have tackled the subject matter better, maybe.
Hendrex even said that "a childless, middle -aged man is probably the last person who should be writinga book in which every character is pregnant." He mentions consulting OBs, nurses, lawyers, mothers. But I think he should have consulted some pregnant teenagers.
I also think the way the witchcraft was portrayed, as if it is inherently evil, and how the ending was resolved didn’t quite work. It definitley helped highlight the paradoxes that surround the issue of witchcraft and bodily autonomy.
In any case, it's a good read. I enjoyed it. The story was interesting and it had ties to current events in our country. It really got me thinking about bodily autonomy, abortion rights, a woman's choice, and how women are losing their rights to abortion and choice in this country today.
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