Empowerment and Trauma in Horror: A Review of Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Information:

• Goodreads: 4.18 out of 7,071 Ratings
• Genre: Horror
• Age Category: Adult
• Series: None

Summary:

Young girls getting pregnant is often viewed as the worst thing a girl could do. It reminds people that girls are people, too. Of course the boys who got them pregnant don’t suffer the consequences – it’s all the girls’ faults. They’re too loose. Too fast. Too grown for how young they are. It’s all their fault. So, they’re shipped off to St. Augustine, Florida, in a house specifically for unwed mothers – the worst thing a girl could ever be. We follow Fern as she gets to this house and meets other girls such as Rose, Zinnia, and Holly. Throughout the story, Fern and the other girls become desperate to gain any kind of power they can over their situations and their own bodies. And the to power may just be witchcraft – but power comes with a price.

Review:

I was nervous reading about girls seeking bodily autonomy when it’s written by a man, but Grady did a great job. His writing feels genuine and empathetic and comes across as angry about the situation as a lot of women are. This story feels heavy and made my chest feel tight at times. But, that’s a part of the story. These young girls, who’ve gotten pregnant and are suffering the consequences for no other reason than being an unwed mother and the fathers aren’t suffering any of the consequences, have their bodily autonomy stripped away from them. They aren’t even able to keep their babies. They have the illusion of the adoption process being their choice, but the people in authority quickly use any and every excuse to prevent them from keeping their babies. They’re treated as if they’re dirty criminals instead of young girls who made a mistake. Throughout the story, Hendrix focuses on the rage, trauma, injustice, and hopelessness of each character’s situation wonderfully. There are girls who willingly slept with their boyfriends, who had the promise of marriage, and girls who are too young and had no will power in it. You see as these girls band together to try and protect one another as best they can.

Honestly, you can see a lot of the themes of this story in our history books and in our present day time. Women still suffer the consequences to unwanted or unplanned pregnancies as if it doesn’t take two people to create a baby. You watch as these young girls are forced to make choices they’re too young to make alone. Yet, that’s exactly what they are – alone. There’s a labor scene in this book that felt visceral and I, quite honestly, forgot for a second that a privileged white man wrote that scene.

There isn’t enough witchcraft in this book for it to be in the title, but the story isn’t about witchcraft anyway. The real horror isn’t in the body horror the girls do to themselves or others, it’s about what these girls are forced to go through because of their choices – due to lack of education – all on their own. The body horror they inflict on themselves is nothing compared to the body horror they experience from birthing their children. They’re told over and over again that it’s painless and they’ll be perfectly fine and able to move on immediately after as if it never happened. But of course they can’t do that. Childbirth isn’t pristine and easy; it’s complicated and messy, and painful. Fern’s experience with childbirth is traumatic and she endures it just like everything else – alone. Holly’s childbirth experience is arguably more gruesome – but she has women around her, helping her through it. It’s interesting to see the difference between the two and how each experience impacted each girl.

I don’t think it necessarily does a great job at fully fleshing out each character or being a character driven story. You do get to see how different girls are impacted by these situations, but it doesn’t seek to fully explore them. This book seems more interested in what it’s trying to say rather than the people it’s exploring. It worked for me, but I could see some not really enjoying that aspect.

This book is a reminder that girls have always been oppressed and yet they have still always been powerful. This book shows what it looks and feels like to be ignored and dismissed. It’s gory and gruesome. It’s not super spooky supernatural wise, but definitely spooky in the real-life horror aspect. And I loved almost every single minute of it. I can see a lot of people not enjoying this book – particularly people who dislike stories about pregnancy or are currently pregnant. But, as a teen mom myself, this book made me feel seen during that point of my life. If you’ve read it, I would like to know what you thought about the book.