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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Author Grady Hendrix On Tour
Large Print (Large Print - Tradepaper)
$32.00 US
| $42.00 CAN
Diversified | Random House Large Print
On sale Jan 14, 2025 | 624 Pages | 9780593947029
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There’s power in a book…
 
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to 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, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
 
Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by 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 for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy 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.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).
"There's spells, there's witches, and then there's the magic Grady Hendrix conjures up in this amazing novel." – Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of I Was a Teenage Slasher

"Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is terrifying, darkly funny, moving, immersive, and deeply relevant—a page-turner that will keep you up until one in the morning. I devoured every page of it. Grady Hendrix is at the top of his game." - Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author of Murder Road

“Another stellar novel from Hendrix, a perfectly constructed story that has a strong emotional core, compelling plot, unforgettable characters, and 360 degrees of terror.” – Booklist (starred review)

“This book is so twisted and smart, it could hide behind a spiral staircase. It's got such a warm beating heart, and it broke mine several times. As soon as I finished I wanted to start all over again.” – Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street and Nowhere Burning

"Grady Hendrix again brings to life a fully realized ensemble of characters who you'll cry with and root for while deftly molding the historical novel, the supernatural, and gritty, all-too real life horrors into a morally complex and genuinely haunting and moving tale. I couldn't put it down once I started." – Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World

"Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls will delight fans new and old with his convincing rendering of characters juggling pregnancy and magic, childhood and adulthood, helplessness and power – and of course good and evil. Another nail-biter not to be missed!" – Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory

"Grady Hendrix does it again, only better: A magical look into the lives of teenage girls, of making the jump from powerlessness to power, of facing your fears and finding your coven. Enchanting and entertaining, but ultimately the novel's greatest strength is its fearless truth-telling. Press this book into the hands of the young women you know." – Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor

"Captivating from the start, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls takes readers on an incredible journey exploring female victimization and empowerment...that may or may not entail tapping into the dark magic within. A phenomenal read for witches everywhere!" – Carissa Orlando, author of The September House
© Photo by Albert Mitchell
Grady Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of How to Sell a Haunted House, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, We Sold Our Souls, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Horrorstör. His books have sold over two million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He also writes nonfiction and his history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, Paperbacks from Hell, received the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction. View titles by Grady Hendrix

About

There’s power in a book…
 
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to 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, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
 
Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by 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 for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy 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.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).

Reviews

"There's spells, there's witches, and then there's the magic Grady Hendrix conjures up in this amazing novel." – Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of I Was a Teenage Slasher

"Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is terrifying, darkly funny, moving, immersive, and deeply relevant—a page-turner that will keep you up until one in the morning. I devoured every page of it. Grady Hendrix is at the top of his game." - Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author of Murder Road

“Another stellar novel from Hendrix, a perfectly constructed story that has a strong emotional core, compelling plot, unforgettable characters, and 360 degrees of terror.” – Booklist (starred review)

“This book is so twisted and smart, it could hide behind a spiral staircase. It's got such a warm beating heart, and it broke mine several times. As soon as I finished I wanted to start all over again.” – Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street and Nowhere Burning

"Grady Hendrix again brings to life a fully realized ensemble of characters who you'll cry with and root for while deftly molding the historical novel, the supernatural, and gritty, all-too real life horrors into a morally complex and genuinely haunting and moving tale. I couldn't put it down once I started." – Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World

"Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls will delight fans new and old with his convincing rendering of characters juggling pregnancy and magic, childhood and adulthood, helplessness and power – and of course good and evil. Another nail-biter not to be missed!" – Tananarive Due, author of The Reformatory

"Grady Hendrix does it again, only better: A magical look into the lives of teenage girls, of making the jump from powerlessness to power, of facing your fears and finding your coven. Enchanting and entertaining, but ultimately the novel's greatest strength is its fearless truth-telling. Press this book into the hands of the young women you know." – Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor

"Captivating from the start, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls takes readers on an incredible journey exploring female victimization and empowerment...that may or may not entail tapping into the dark magic within. A phenomenal read for witches everywhere!" – Carissa Orlando, author of The September House

Author

© Photo by Albert Mitchell
Grady Hendrix is a New York Times bestselling novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of How to Sell a Haunted House, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, We Sold Our Souls, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Horrorstör. His books have sold over two million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages. He also writes nonfiction and his history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, Paperbacks from Hell, received the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction. View titles by Grady Hendrix

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