teen pregnancy | Musings of the Monster Librarian

Book Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Berkley, 2025

ISBN-13: 978-0593548981

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

It’s 1970. Neva is 15, pregnant, and lost. Her father leaves her at the Wellwood Home in St. Augusta, Florida, a maternity facility for pregnant teens. Miss Wellwood, the proprietor, runs her home with strict rules and reprimands the girls about their loose morals and poor decisions. the adults in charge include Diane, a social worker who guides the girls through their time in the Home; Dr. Vincent, a cold elderly man with traditional views on women’s healthcare, who prescribes restrictions and other cures for the girls, with a focus on the babies; Nurse Kent, who minds the girls at night and when needed; Hagar, a Black woman who runs the kitchen; and Hagar’s sister Miriam, who instructs the girls on their domestic roles, such as proper cleaning of the Home.

The adults are not the focus of the story, of course. It is the girls, renamed by Miss Wellwood as flowers, as though she is tending a special garden. Neva is renamed Fern. Rose, a radical hippie who wants to keep her baby Blossom, is a force to be reckoned with in the Home. Always on strike, she fears nothing and no one… until she does. Holly has been through terrible trauma in her short life, at the hands of a powerful member of the community. She’s wild, refusing to allow people to get close to her, and remaining mute until she finds her voice. Zinnia is a musician who loves the father of her baby, swears they will marry upon her return home, and tries to ignore what she was put through at the hands of her mother when her parents found out she was pregnant. There are other girls, and as one leaves, she is replaced by another flower.

One hot summer day, the local library’s bookmobile arrives with librarian Miss Parcae at the wheel. She presents Fern with a book called How to Be a Groovy Witch, a powerful tome that opens a new world for Fern, Holly, Rose, and Zinnia. There is something special about this book, and it reveals more to them the deeper they go as they form their own small coven and cast their first spell. The unassuming librarian is more than she seems. As Fern and the girls become more involved with witchcraft and the librarian, they find their newfound power comes at a painful price.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is powerful. I read the ARC, hardcover, and audiobook versions. Author Grady Hendrix opens the ARC with a letter to the reader, while the published version includes a statement in the acknowledgments, where he provides a brief history of these homes, and shares the experiences of his own family members. There are visceral depictions of body horror in terms of giving birth, which I had a difficult time getting through. Medical horror, especially regarding women’s health and trauma, is difficult for me to read.

Hendrix’s ability to write about and from the perspective of girls and women is incredibly effective and well-executed. Readers who enjoy this book may also enjoy his other books, especially The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and We Sold Our Souls. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Book Review: Deep in Providence by Riss M. Neilson

Deep in Providence by Riss m. Neilson.

Henry Holt and Company Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250788528

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

Taking place in Providence, Rhode Island, Deep in Providence introduces Miliani, Natalie, and Inez, whose friend Jasmine was recently killed suddenly in a car accident, Miliani is determined to bring her back. Inez and Natalie are skittish about it, but it seems so important to Miliani they agree and swear a blood pact. The story is told from the alternating points of view of the three girls.

Miliani’s family is Filipino. She has witchcraft in her blood but did not learn how to use it before her grandfather died, and her mother has forbidden it, and visits to her “dangerous” aunt, Lindy. Despite this, Miliani visits Lindy, who says it may be possible to anchor Jasmine’s spirit to another person if Miliani and her friends will do enough spells to thin the boundaries between worlds. Knowing her friends would not consent to anchoring Jasmine to another person, when she tells them, she omits that from her explanation.

Natalie is a half-Black, half-white biracial girl with a younger brother, Devin and an emancipated older half-sister. Her mother is a heroin addict and disappears for long periods of time. Her sister contributes to the household financially and wants Natalie and Devin to stay with her. Natalie refuses, and does a locator spell to find her mother, who they discover fatally overdosing. The girls do a spell and reverse her mother’s coma, but Natalie can’t control her mother’s addiction long-term. Natalie also does a truth spell on her sister and learns that she is a stripper and that’s how she is able to make the money to help them.

Inez is a Dominican-American citizen whose father was deported. She plans to sponsor him once she turns 18, but she has unprotected sex with her boyfriend and becomes pregnant. She tells him, and finds he is selling drugs. She does a spell to stop her boyfriend, and he is arrested and jailed for armed robbery. Inez also casts a spell to cause a miscarriage that nearly kills her.

Although her friends are seeing spirits, Miliani’s mother has been casting spells of protection to keep spirits away, so Miliani doesn’t see the damage her plan is causing. The issue of consent hung over the book and I was relieved to see it resolved.

The book goes into some pretty dark places: drug addiction, abandonment, grief, miscarriage and abortion are never easy to read about. But the girls’ friendship as they navigate difficult situations and their grief over Jasmine is powerful, regardless of their magic.

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski