Read an exclusive excerpt from Grady Hendrix's new horror novel
"Witches kicked my ass," Grady Hendrix admits about writing his latest novel, Witchcraft For Wayward Girls.
Image: Penguin Random House
Through books like The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires, and most recently How To Sell A Haunted House, Grady Hendrix has risen to become one of horror fiction’s brightest stars, adept at balancing humor and heart in his witty tales of terror.
Now, after tackling slashers, vampires, haunted houses, and more, Hendrix has turned his eye to witches for his latest book, Witchcraft For Wayward Girls. Set in Florida in the 1970s and inspired by tales from Hendrix’s own family, it’s the story of five pregnant teenagers, all sent to live in the same home for unwed mothers. Isolated, stuck, and struggling to control their own bodies, they find solace in the unexpected arrival of a book called How To Be A Groovy Witch, and in studying its pages, find a way to reclaim their own power.
Here’s what Hendrix told The A.V. Club about how his witches took shape for this book:
“Each one of my books is a star turn for a monster—vampires, haunted puppets, demons from hell, haunted Swedish furniture stores—and this is my witch book. And to be honest: Witches kicked my ass. Trying to figure them out made me blow my deadline because they come in so many conflicting flavors: are they old ladies who live in houses made of candy and eat children? Are they naked women dancing in the woods and worshipping the moon? Innocent women on the gallows in Salem? Crones riding broomsticks to a Black Mass? I finally realized that the witches you get reflect how you feel about women and power, and the current moment we’re in completely shaped my witches because, let’s be honest, we could use an army of witches flying to our rescue right now. However, maybe they’ll save us, or maybe they’re coming to take their revenge for all the ways we’ve persecuted them in the past? With witches, you never know.”
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls will be in bookstores everywhere on January 14, but you don’t have to wait that long for a taste of what’s coming. Check out an exclusive excerpt from the novel below, then head over to the publisher’s page to find out how you can pre-order.

Witchcraft For Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix (Penguin Random House)
The double front doors stood wide open behind a pair of closed screen doors. Behind the dirty mesh of the screens she saw a long, dark hall disappearing deep into the house. Her dad searched for a doorbell, then gave up and banged on the wooden frame. The sound got lost inside the enormous old house. He tried again.
“The butler got drafted,” a voice over their heads said.
They both looked up and saw a waterfall of hair so blond it was almost white hanging over the wrought-iron railing of a little Juliet balcony directly above them.