October 2025 Book Club Pick: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
A new month means it’s time for a new virtual book club pick!
In September, the Just Jen Things virtual book club read Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson. After reading (and loving) A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (5 stars) last year, I was looking forward to Jackson’s adult debut, hoping for a more mature-style thriller (don’t get me wrong, I loved Pip and her wittiness as a high school student, but I’m not super into the YA genre). For me, I was kind of disappointed that Jet’s character in Not Quite Dead Yet read really Pip-adjacent. In my opinion, Jet felt more like a high school student than Pip; I had a hard time reading the book and remembering she was 27, not 17. That being said, I found the book to be entertaining — as did the ladies in the book club chat — but there were a few big misses for me that, in the end, stopped me from rating this book any higher than the 3 stars I gave it. Overall, I enjoyed following Jet’s investigation and watching her piece together who might have caused her murder; however, I didn’t so much enjoy the Sophia subplot (and the lack of resolution Jackson gave us) and the overall final twist and ending — it felt a little unresolved.
Before we hop to October’s book of the month, here’s a recap of all the books we’ve book clubbed about in 2025 (so far):
January: Mrs. Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler
February: The Favorites by Layne Fargo
September: Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
And now for October!
The October 2025 Just Jen Things virtual book club pick is Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. Mostly known for writing books that fall in the horror genre, Hendrix is one of those authors who can take a creepy element and find ways to intertwine humor as well. That’s what I’ve loved about his writing in the two other books I’ve read by him — The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (4 stars) and How to Sell a Haunted House (3 stars). Choosing a spooky season book club pick isn’t for the faint of heart… there are so many good choices! Witchcraft for Wayward Girls feels like a good choice though. A little horror? Witchy vibes? Let’s see. I’m excited to jump in — I bought the physical book and the cover is just superb.
Here’s the synopsis from Goodreads:
There’s power in a book…
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home 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. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about 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.
In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).
If you’re interested in joining the October discussion, let me know! We’d love to have you!
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Enjoy!
JBW