Witchcraft for Wayward Girls: The next deliciously dark and hilarious novel from the horror master

The Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, is a secretive home for unwed mothers, where Fern, a 15-year-old pregnant girl, meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. The adults who control their waking day claim to know what is best for them, but power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it is always paid in blood.

Format: Hardback
Length: 496 pages
Publication date: 16 January 2025
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

The next twisted unforgettable horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.

‘A chillingly addictive Southern Gothic tale’
COSMOPOLITAN

‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House 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. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Every moment of their waking day 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.

‘So twisted and smart’
CATRIONA WARD
‘At turns frightening, anxiety-producing, infuriating, beautiful and sad’
NEW YORK TIMES

Weight: 730g
Dimension: 241 x 165 x 45 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781035030873