# Witchcraft for Wayward Girls *By Grady Hendrix. Berkley, 2025.* > I did not read the novel. This note draws on the publisher's jacket copy and excerpt, Wikipedia, interview pages, the Goodreads Choice Awards page and the video notes. The plot summary is limited to the publisher's description and the opening of the story; I leave out the ending. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *Witchcraft for Wayward Girls* | | Author | Grady Hendrix | | Publisher | Berkley (Penguin Random House); UK edition from Tor, per Wikipedia | | Published | 14 January 2025 (US) | | ISBN | 9780593548981 (hardcover) | | Pages | 496 | | Genre | Horror; historical, folk-horror setting | | Setting | Wellwood House, a maternity home for unwed girls in St. Augustine, Florida, summer 1970 | | Award | 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards, Readers' Favorite Horror: winner (59,603 votes) | **Where it came up.** Both videos are by Alyssa Matesic. - [6 Publishing Trends That Are Changing Everything in 2026](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMzmaPplg3A&t=785s), 13:05: Hendrix's book is shown winning the Goodreads Choice Award for Readers' Favorite Horror, as an example of innovative, seductive premises in horror. [[Video Summaries/Alyssa Matesic/6 Publishing Trends That Are Changing Everything in 2026]] - [I'm an Editor. Here Are 7 Signs Your Book Will Flop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Y1hHVOi9I&t=202s), 3:22: she reads its jacket copy as a model of a clear genre promise. [[Video Summaries/Alyssa Matesic/I'm an Editor. Here Are 7 Signs Your Book Will Flop]] ## 2. Book resources - **Free copy:** none. In copyright; I do not link unofficial scans. - [Publisher page with excerpt (PRH Library Marketing)](https://penguinrandomhouselibrary.com/book/?isbn=9780593548981) - [Open Library record](https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9780593548981.json); [ISFDB listing](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3396082=); [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218248965) - [Wikipedia: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_for_Wayward_Girls) - The publisher page lists an audiobook clip; I did not check the narrator or length. - **Cover:** [Open Library](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780593548981-L.jpg) - Borrow from a library or buy. ## 3. Author biography Grady Hendrix is an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter, and a founder of the New York Asian Film Festival (Wikipedia). He was born in South Carolina, spent much of his youth in public libraries, and worked at the library of the American Society for Psychical Research before writing professionally. His novels include *Horrorstör* (2014), *My Best Friend's Exorcism* (2016), *The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires* (2020), *The Final Girl Support Group* (2021) and *How to Sell a Haunted House* (2023). His nonfiction includes *Paperbacks from Hell* (2017). Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grady_Hendrix); his site is [gradyhendrix.com](https://www.gradyhendrix.com/). ## 4. Author interviews and talks - [NPR, Ayesha Rascoe interviews Hendrix (12 Jan 2025)](https://www.npr.org/2025/01/12/nx-s1-5116574/grady-hendrix-on-her-horror-novel-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls). I read the page and the opening transcript. Wikipedia attributes to this interview his remarks on where the "real evil" lies; I did not confirm that in the transcript text I read. - [Paste magazine interview](https://www.pastemagazine.com/article/witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-interview-horror-fiction). The page returned 403 to me. Wikipedia and a search summary say he described two relatives sent to maternity homes as teenagers and reading Ann Fessler's *The Girls Who Went Away*. - [Variety feature on the family history behind the book](https://variety.com/2025/film/news/witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-grady-hendrix-family-1236273581/) (headline and teaser only read). - [Popverse interview](https://www.thepopverse.com/literary-grady-hendrix-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-my-best-friends-exorcism-amazon-prime-southern-book-clubs-guide-to-slaying-vampires-how-to-sell-a-haunted-house-nycc-2024) (found by search; not read). ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** A horror novel about girls with no power, locked in a home built to hide them, who find a book of spells. The publisher's copy frames it as a story where "power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives" but "there's always a price to be paid". **Premise (publisher copy).** Fern, fifteen, arrives at Wellwood House in summer 1970, pregnant and alone. Under the stern Miss Wellwood she meets Rose, who plans to keep her baby, Zinnia, a budding musician, and Holly, barely fourteen and mute. A librarian gives Fern an occult book about witchcraft. **Chapter outline.** I found no verified chapter list. **Key ideas.** - The real-world setting is the postwar "Baby Scoop Era" system of maternity homes (see Wikipedia's *See also* list and Fessler's book). - Hendrix says the horror comes as much from the adults who believe they are helping as from the witches (via Wikipedia's account of the NPR interview). - Critics split on the book. Hugh Ryan in *The New York Times Book Review* and others praised it; Horror Geek Life thought the supernatural strand was under-developed and questioned the male author's portrayal of the girls' experience (all via Wikipedia, not opened directly). - Matesic uses the jacket copy as a model of a clear genre promise (video, 3:22). ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **supported**. The book, its facts and the award check out; the video's bestseller claim is not confirmed. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Berkley published it on 14 Jan 2025, 496 pages | Supported | [PRH page](https://penguinrandomhouselibrary.com/book/?isbn=9780593548981), [ISFDB](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3396082=), [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9780593548981.json) | | Won Goodreads Choice Awards 2025, Readers' Favorite Horror | Supported | [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/readers-favorite-horror-books-2025) shows WINNER with 59,603 votes (as read today); [agent's announcement](https://awfulagent.com/witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-is-a-goodreads-choice-awards-winner/) | | Jacket copy as read in the video (Fern, Rose, Zinnia, Holly, Miss Wellwood, 1970) | Supported | PRH page text | | Shown as a NYT and USA Today bestseller (video) | Unverified | Seen on screen only; I did not open a bestseller list | | Hendrix drew on relatives sent to maternity homes | Supported, second-hand | Wikipedia and a search summary of Paste; the Paste page was blocked | | Name of the protagonist | Discrepancy | Publisher says Fern; Wikipedia's summary says she arrives as Neva and is renamed Fern, which fits the home's practice of renaming girls | ## 7. Citations and references - [PRH Library page](https://penguinrandomhouselibrary.com/book/?isbn=9780593548981); [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/isbn/9780593548981.json); [ISFDB](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?3396082=) - [Goodreads Choice Awards 2025, Horror](https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/readers-favorite-horror-books-2025); [JABberwocky announcement](https://awfulagent.com/witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-is-a-goodreads-choice-awards-winner/) - [NPR interview](https://www.npr.org/2025/01/12/nx-s1-5116574/grady-hendrix-on-her-horror-novel-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls); [Variety](https://variety.com/2025/film/news/witchcraft-for-wayward-girls-grady-hendrix-family-1236273581/) - [Wikipedia: the novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_for_Wayward_Girls); [Wikipedia: Grady Hendrix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grady_Hendrix); [Wikipedia: The Girls Who Went Away](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girls_Who_Went_Away)