Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Written by American author Grady Hendrix and set in the 1970s, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls (2025) blends horror and fantasy to tell the story of a group of girls sent to a home for unwed mothers. The novel is inspired by the experiences of one of Hendrix’s family members and explores the largely unknown history of maternity homes in the United States and Canada. (These institutions were built to house pregnant teenagers during an era that placed considerable social stigma on teen pregnancy and offered fewer resources to help young, unmarried mothers.) These homes gradually closed in the years following Roe v. Wade, as pregnant women gained more options, education, and support, along with greater societal acceptance. Although the novel has a fantastical, horror-tinged plot, it conducts a serious examination of The Social Stigma of Teenage Pregnancy, Solidarity Among Women, and Reclaiming Bodily Autonomy in Patriarchal Societies. 

Grady Hendrix is a popular author who is best known for novels such as 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 use of supernatural elements, horror tropes, and culturally relevant stories has garnered him a wide readership, and several of his novels have become bestsellers.

This guide refers to the 2025 hardcover edition by Berkeley.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of racism, gender discrimination, pregnancy loss, suicidal ideation, child sexual abuse, and rape.

Plot Summary

As the novel opens, 15-year-old Neva and her father are on their way to the Wellwood home for unwed mothers. It is 1970, and women who give birth outside of marriage—especially as teenagers—are shunned. Neva plans to carry her pregnancy to term at Wellwood and give birth in a nearby hospital, after which her baby will be adopted by a couple that the Wellwood staff selects through the home’s adoption program. Once she arrives, Neva is given the name of Fern. None of the girls at Wellwood use their real names, and they are encouraged to forget their experiences there after they give birth and return to their families.

Neva, now known as Fern, meets the Wellwood staff and its young residents. She instantly dislikes the brash Rose, who is fixated on issues of social justice, and she also finds many of the other girls intimidating and unapproachable. Fern also struggles with the schedule of chores that she is expected to perform, wilting under the isolation and the obvious scorn with which the home’s director and various staff members treat the girls. Fern ends up rooming with Rose, as well as Holly, a very young girl who does not speak. Gradually, Fern forms a bond with these two and gets to know the rest of the girls in the home. A new girl arrives and is renamed Zinnia. She is the home’s sole Black resident, and Rose vehemently objects when Miss Wellwood tries to house Zinnia in the home’s only attic bedroom, citing its heat and Miss Wellwood’s segregationist policies. Zinnia takes Rose’s place in Fern and Holly’s room, but Rose remains part of their social group.

The girls are subject to invasive physical examinations by the home’s doctor and are required to meet with a social worker whose young and hip approach is tarnished by her intense focus on convincing each girl to give up her child to a “deserving” family. The girls have no say in how they spend their days, no bodily autonomy, and no power to make their own decisions. 

It is against the backdrop of this difficulty that they first encounter the mobile librarian, Miss Parcae. In addition to recommending various fiction titles that the girls might enjoy, she gives Fern a copy of How to Be a Groovy Witch: a teen girl’s guide to witchcraft. The girls use the book to perform a spell that will make Dr. Vincent feel what they do, and the spell works; Dr. Vincent is overcome with a powerful, gut-wrenching nausea that causes him to miss days of work. They attempt to perform other spells, but they soon find the rest of the book incomprehensible. Zinnia decides that witchcraft is not for her. She is still Fern and Holly’s roommate, but there is a new tension in their relationship.

The girls get to know one another better and learn that Holly was targeted by a serial predator, her family’s pastor. He intends to adopt her baby, and she will be returned to her parents once she gives birth. Hoping to rescue her from his clutches, the girls seek out a spell in the book. They have little luck and decide to enlist the help of Miss Parcae when she returns to Wellwood with her bookmobile. Meanwhile, after a heated argument with the home’s staff, Rose goes into early labor. When she returns from the hospital, she tells Fern and the others that although she wanted to keep her daughter, the home’s medical staff and social worker manipulated her into giving up the baby. Determined to find a spell to help get Rose’s baby back, the girls go in search of Miss Parcae.

They find her in the woods with a group of what initially appears to be hippies. They soon learn that this group is Miss Parcae’s coven. They speak with these women about the history of witchcraft and learn more about the kind of bond that witches share. Miss Parcae wants Fern to pledge her allegiance to witchcraft and the coven, and Fern agrees. Zinnia, when she hears this, is not pleased. The girls perform another spell, one that will share Rose’s pain with the people who inflicted it upon her. After they are done, Miss Wellwood disappears from the home. Hagar, the home’s cook and long-time resident, goes in search of Miss Wellwood and discovers that Miss Wellwood is pregnant. Hagar, an experienced midwife, helps Miss Wellwood to give birth to what turns out to be a bucket of writhing, foul-smelling eels.

The girls attempt to perform another spell: a rain spell that Miss Parcae tells them will help her and her coven. If the girls successfully produce rain, Miss Parcae promises to take Holly with her, saving her from her family’s predatory pastor. However, as the girls are performing the spell, Hagar interrupts. She leads them back to the kitchen where Zinnia is waiting and asks them to explain what they have been up to. Zinnia insists that Miss Parcae is evil and that she wants something in return for the help she is providing. Hagar agrees and performs her own series of spells to banish Miss Parcae. When Miss Parcae returns, she is furious to realize that Fern is trying to get rid of her, but Hagar’s magic holds, and Miss Parcae cannot take Fern with her.

After Miss Parcae makes another attempt to gain access to Wellwood and Fern, the girls hope that she will leave them alone. However, Miss Parcae soon sends a storm of stones and rocks to Wellwood. Several of the girls need medical attention, and Fern grows increasingly anxious. Meanwhile, Hagar continues to use her magic to repel Miss Parcae, giving the girls small pouches that render them invisible to witches. Miss Parcae continues to attempt to bring Fern into her coven. She is dying, and she wants to pass her consciousness—and the consciousnesses of thousands of other witches in her “line”—on to Fern. Fern is terrified. After one particularly stressful day, Fern goes into labor.

Her birth is a long, painful experience, and the hospital staff treat her with extreme judgment and prejudice. She is allowed to see her baby and briefly contemplates keeping her, but the social worker manipulates Fern into giving her up. Fern returns to the home emotionally drained and grieving. Rose has returned to her family, but Zinnia has hatched a plan to save Holly from her pastor. The plan goes dreadfully awry, and Holly ends up giving birth at Hagar’s house before Miss Wellwood takes her back to the home. Knowing the fate that Holly will suffer if she returns home, Fern summons Miss Parcae, who in turn summons an ancient goddess. There is a large, dramatic storm. Miss Parcae tries one last time to abduct Fern, but Holly willingly takes her place. She and her child disappear into the woods with Miss Parcae and the rest of the coven. Fern’s father picks her up, and she returns to her family.

The novel ends years in the future. Rose has a healthy relationship with her daughter and lives in a planned community deep in the woods. Zinnia has married her boyfriend and lives a happy life. Fern reconnects with her daughter, who forgives her for giving her up. She tells Fern that she cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to be forcibly separated from her infant.