DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

The next deliciously dark and hilarious novel from the horror master

Grady Hendrix author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Pan Macmillan

Publishing:16th Jan '25

£22.00

This title is due to be published on 16th January, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls cover

A twisted Southern Gothic horror from Grady Hendrix, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.

‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’

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 to have their babies in secret, 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. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Every moment of their waking day 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.

*PRE-ORDER NOW*

Praise for Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

Twisted and smart’ – Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street and Nowhere Burning

Amazing’ – Stephen Graham Jones, New York Times bestselling author of I Was a Teenage Slasher

‘A morally complex and genuinely haunting and moving tale’ – Paul Tremblay, author of Horror Movie and The Cabin at the End of the World

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
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
A morally complex and genuinely haunting and moving tale. I couldn't put it down once I started -- Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of 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
This is Satan's School for Girls or The Initiation of Sarah . . . horror, social comment and wicked black humour -- Kim Newman, author of Anno Dracula
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 . . . Grady Hendrix is at the top of his game -- Simone St. James, New York Times bestselling author of Murder Road
Grady Hendrix does it again, only better . . . Enchanting and entertaining -- Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor
Full of hexes and heart, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is Hendrix's best novel yet! -- Ronald Malfi, bestselling author of Come with Me
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
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls asks how agency can be taken and what someone might do to keep it. Portentous and disquieting, it's a book that'll linger like a scar -- Cassandra Khaw, author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth and The Salt Grows Heavy
This book is going right on my ‘Favorites’ shelf. It’s been years since I’ve been so entranced by a novel. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is stunning, full of dread and heartache and unforgettable characters. It’s impossible to read this book and not be touched by it. What a triumph! -- Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author of The House of Last Resort and Road of Bones
As pacey as it is insightful, and an absolute page-turner into the bargain. I devoured it -- Alison Littlewood, author of The Hidden People
Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls is the most potent sort of magic – raw, fearless and powerful. I screamed, I sobbed, I devoured every word -- Lindy Ryan, author of Bless Your Heart and Cold Snap
Grady Hendrix’s horror novels are a gateway drug to the genre -- The New York Times
Grady Hendrix tap dances the line between horror and heart. It’s terrifying, darkly funny and empathetic with a left turn, a left hook when you’re least expecting it. I loved it -- Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls on How to Sell a Haunted House
Sizzles with action, originality and a gleaming concept sharp as a scalpel -- Charlaine Harris, author of the bestselling The Southern Vampire Mysteries on The Final Girl Support Group
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
A haunted, heartbreaking masterpiece, filled with magic and monsters - human and otherwise. Grady Hendrix has written an unmissable instant horror classic. -- Christina Henry, author of The House that Horror Built and Alice

ISBN: 9781035030873

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

496 pages