Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

“We were girls. That's what they called us in their articles and their speeches and their files: bad girls, neurotic girls, needy girls, weyward girls, selfish girls, girls with Electra complexes, girls trying to fill a void, girls who needed attention, girls with pasts, girls from broken homes, girls who needed discipline, girls desperate to fit it, girls in trouble, girls who couldn't say no. But for girls like us, down at the Home, the devil turned out to be our only friend.”

Wow. Just wow.

Just with the real newspaper excerpts included in the beginning of the book, I knew the ride I was in for. It's raw, gruesome, and will make you angry by how unfairly and dishonestly these girls are treated.

The main character is Neva, who in the Home is not allowed to have her own name, background or hobbies, and simply becomes Fern - the fifteen-year-old girl who believed her boyfriend would stay with her forever, but who ended up all alone in an isolated home together with other anonymous girls like her.

Throughout her stay, Fern learns that the adults in this Home do not have their best interest in mind, and see them as nothing more than Jane Does that have to pop out a baby, surrender it, and go back to their regular life. But as she learns of a few girls who cannot go back to their old life, or do not want to give up their baby, Fern and her companions turn to magic to help them out. But is magic really all that great? Well, all actions have consequences...

This book reads like you're watching a slow-burn thriller film that builds up plenty of high stakes. The characters all have interesting motivations and I love that nothing about them is spelled out for you, but you can infer exactly what kind of person they are from their actions. Fern, also, isn't just a simple main character that always does the right thing. You can be frustrated with her, but at all times have empathy for her because of the things she had gone through.

This isn't a light read. It's evocative, honest, and well-researched. I can only recommend it.