Welcome to Litsy!

My April #Roll100 picks:

#24 Any stories or essays: Every Drop is a Man‘s Nightmare (also my #FictionalTraveler April #Island pick)

#36 Any Non-Fiction: Challenger (Also for April‘s #MonthlyNonFiction)

#16 Any Library Book: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

I‘m excited about all three of these!

When I was a horror-loving Heathers-and-The-Craft-fanatic of a teen I would have been OBSESSED with this book.

I liked the plot - pregnant teenagers at a home for unwed mothers try to reclaim their power through witchcraft - but it was a little too long and a little too slow.

4⭐️/5⭐️

For my Grady Hendrix fans: one of my favorite witchy podcasts did an interview with him! I haven‘t read any of his books yet but after this interview I definitely will. When he starts off his discussion of researching witchcraft with “it‘s complicated” you know he really did the work.

https://newworldwitchery.com/2025/03/14/episode-258-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls...

🥰💖🫣🤷🏻‍♀️💪🏻 #bnbookfest

Grady Hendrix is one of my favorite horror authors because he can use horror to dig into topics like this. Hendrix mixes magical realism, the occult, and the power of women to create an atmospheric and topical horror story. Hendrix does not hold back in his indictment of the patriarchy and the way society treats young women like the ones depicted in this novel. Women working together can accomplish anything.

Another great one! 🦋🔮

Another great book by this author, I was excited to read this one, and it has lived up to the hype 🙌

Read for reading challenges

4.25/5

I thought Hendrix did a great job with the characters and nailed the time, space and place. The book deals with all kinds of issues while keeping it fun with the witch story.

Absolutely loved this book. Not scary just very graphic and bloody in some parts.

For the rest of the review, visit my Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/LsilXdBdjno

Enjoy!

I loved this book. I think it's my favorite Grady Hendrix book.
So Fern is fifteen and pregnant and is sent to a home for wayward girls in Florida to have and give up her baby. There she meets Rose, Zinnia and Holly; together they start dabbling in witchcraft and then all hell breaks loose 🖤
#WickedWords #hospital @AsYouWish

Perfect (purrrrr-fect?! 😹) way to start an extra weekend day. This book is different than Hendrix‘s others (less creepy and gross, more character driven) but we‘re enjoying it!

I went through this fairly quickly given its near 500 pages. 4.5 stars. Hendrix does a phenomenal job of writing female characters. This book has the right amount of supernatural twist that you know about going in. If you‘ve read previous books of his, you should enjoy this one too! Maybe it could‘ve been shorter at points but overall a terrific read & wow what woman were put through because they were pregnant young. This book is an ode to them.

This was an excellent horrific read. Very different from Grady Hendrix‘s previous books-this is not as funny and far more harrowing. I would put it in a similar vein to The Reformatory by Tananarieve Due. Another book that tells a fictional take on real horrors in our not to distant past. 5⭐️
#doublespin pick done

I was not expecting such a well researched story from this book! I thoroughly enjoyed the world, characters, and plot.

Bonus NSFW picture book 💕

I was at Target getting winter storm provisions. 🤪

This was such a good audiobook! The narrator was amazing and really brought home the horror and the heart at the center of this story. This is more than just a story about young witches, it‘s a look at the terrible way society has treated young women, pregnancy out of wedlock, and motherhood in general throughout the years. The depictions of childbirth were raw and real and just so gross! It‘s amazing a man wrote this story! Loved it! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

In his latest, Hendrix travels back to 1970 to a place where pregnant teen girls are stashed to have their babies (and have them taken away) so their families can pretend it isn‘t happening. I loved this book. Some of the body horror had me cringing away from the page. And this book is so female in the best way that I kept forgetting it was written by a man (other male authors should take note).

It was a long day at work and the last thing I wanted was to cook dinner. Listening to the tagged book definitely helped get dinner on the table. Audio cooking for the win lol! 😂 🎧📚💕👩‍🍳

I read 8 books this month with the tagged book being my favorite from the lot. But overall, I really enjoyed every one of these. January was a super good reading month for me.

From NetGalley = 3
From my own shelf = 1
From library = 4

A personal goal for myself in 2025 was to read more medieval stories, particularly those from my own shelf, so since I didn‘t do that in January, I want to get going on that goal during February.

#January25

I just need to say that if you ever have the chance to see Grady Hendrix live, leap at the chance! He is extremely entertaining, funny, and smart. And during the signing, he took time to speak with everyone. His shows aren't readings; they are full presentations on the subject of whatever book he is there for. I was a fan before, but now I think I may worship him.

January wrap up. The tagged book was my favorite.

Yes, I just finished reading this book. It was definitely worth her weight. I‘m not only on the e-book, but I also own a physical copy. I originally thought that this book was going to be similar to all those witchcraft movies that I‘ve watched over the years. This story adds a new element to the genre. It‘s a 5 star read imo. Now I can say that I read five Grady Hendrix books in the last two years. #witchcraftforwaywardgirls #gradyhendrix

Visions ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Never Lie ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Blonde Dies First ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 😟

Clearly, this month's theme was (unintentionally) Supernatural 🖤

I was really excited to read this, but, like the reviews have indicated, not so much witchcraft vibes. I am putting this book aside for now as well. I am officially in a book slump after all my anticipated new year releases have been 3 stars at best and quite a few I can't get into. Sad.

Initially, I planned to save this book for an Oct ‘25 read before reminding myself a similar ‘24 plan created a TBR of well over 60 books that I still haven‘t completed. I‘m glad I read this sooner because the horrors in the 1970 setting of this story have little to do with witchcraft. And how is Grady Hendrix not a female author!

I‘m up to page 209 out of 395. I‘ll be finished this week. #Witchcraftforwaywardgirls

Book 5📚 4⭐️

I very much enjoyed this book! Howeverrrrr…. I feel like it was missing the signature Hendrix weirdness? It had a bit of it with the “eels”. But I kept thinking there was going to be more and there wasn‘t.

Now don‘t let that turn you off! Cause it does a great job in jts own, very real, way!🤰🏼

Grady Hendrix is my can‘t miss horror writer for a reason and this book didn‘t disappoint. How he tackled topics like homes for pregnant girls, misogyny, women‘s power was impeccably done. I just love his writing and will continue to be a faithful fan.

Grady Hendrix just never fails to deliver. Here, in a home for pregnant teens in 1970, some of the girls discover witchcraft. Honestly though, the real horror of the story is how the girls were treated. This is a few years before Roe v. Wade so there were very few choices.

Cannot wait to see his show on the 29th!

I loved this group of spunky teens fighting the patriarchy and learning how the world works. These wayward girls were shunned and thrown away until there was no evidence of their pregnancy, and they only had each other to lean on. Grady Hendrix is masterful.

I literally jumped up and down like a child when this book arrived. I preordered back in June, and it was released last Tuesday, but several mishaps caused it to be delayed. It is finally mine, and it is absolutely gorgeous in person. I started reading late last night but had to force myself to put it down so I could get some sleep. Can‘t wait to get into it! ❤️❤️

Started this one this morning! I‘ve seen great reviews!

Reading in honor of Sharon @sharread 🕯️ ❤️

#Sharreadathon

CJ Leeds went on The Books in the Freezer podcast and said that most of women‘s horror is basically reducing the woman to just being a vessel for childbirth. And there was a neon sign of her statement in here. But Grady Hendrix does such a great job of humanizing these young girls who are basically shunned and dropped off at a home for pregnant girls in the late 1960s. It‘s very readable, it‘s light on the witchcraft for me but I didn‘t care.👇🏼

I love this author‘s unique blend of horror and social commentary. Given the current political climate this book felt even scarier to me. I spent a significant amount of the book all hopped up on blind rage at how the girls were treated. I wasn‘t nuts about the depiction of the witches - that felt as it played into the stereotypes that got women burned to me. But once again, as is so often the case in his books, the humans are the problem.

My local indie bookshop with the first of (hopefully many) genre events! Just got my ticket! In the past I‘ve only been to comic artist/writers events so this will be a 2025 first for me!

Power and control. These elements are explored in multiple ways from various angles in Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. Teen pregnancy, 1970s lingo, witches and zealots. Forces pressuring until-pop!-love and loss and anger and independence create, within our heroines, a powerful control: the knowledge that they are in control. Hendrix hits it out of the park again!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book was billed as horror, and there were very graphic birthing scenes, but really, I thought it was also quite a touching tribute to women and motherhood. I was surprised it was written by a man. It seems like he did his homework. I thought it was beautiful.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-folklore-podcast/id1135039882?i=100068... One of my favourite podcasts speaking to the man of the moment. Enjoy.

Bubble tea and Grady Hendrix! 📖💕🧋

Oh yeah! Hendrix delivers way more than a horror novel with this one. It‘s an indictment of the treatment of pregnant teens prior to the 1990s couched in a horror framework. He empathetically tells the story women forced to relinquish their children. When four of these teens meet a witch at the bookmobile, they get more than they bargain for while enacting revenge on the owners, doctors, and staff at this home for weyward girls. Flew through this!

I am such a fan of Grady Hendrix's books, they're always so unique and thought out. You just never know quite what to expect. This was no exception. It was a dark and twisty, suspense filled ride. Its a little slow to get going as the scene is being set but the drama soon ramps up and I was gripped. The plot was clever, creepy and heartbreaking at times. I really liked Rose but had a true soft spot for Holly and all she went through. #Netgalley 4*

Another one of my preorders came in! Im really excited for this one!

5⭐️ It‘s hard to formulate words for this one in a small space. The horror elements are less about the witchcraft and more about the horrors these “wayward girls” had to endure. They had no bodily autonomy nor free will in decision-making. Hendrix did such good work here with generational and religious traumas. He also paid great care to the labor, delivery, and postpartum process (L&D nurse here). My thoughts are LARGE, it‘s so astoundingly good.

“There‘s power in a book” is a great way to describe this spoke, highly uncomfortable story about young girls reclaiming their power in a society intent on silencing them. I loved it enough that I wanted b by to read it slower to stay in that story longer. s, they burned women.” - witch hunts were never about witches, but about silencing women.

OMG IT‘S HERE!!!!!!‘ Alas, I will have to start you tomorrow BUT you‘re here and that‘s all that matters. 🖤🖤🖤

It‘s arrived!!!!!!!!!!! 🤩🥳🤩🥳🤩🥳

YASSSSSSS! Happy Pub Day to these two! They just arrived in the mail and I couldn't be more excited! The Grady Hendrix is one of my most anticipated reads of 2025! 💕📚

Excited!

@Blueberry