A review by Jessica Lesinski
Set in the summer of 1970, a girl is sent away to a home for unwed mothers at age 15. There, powerless, alone and under the thumb of the patriarchy (what a drag!), she finds that power may not be as far from her grasp as she thought.
It’s so cliche to say, but this book had everything. Parts of it made me cry and get so angry that I had to take a break, parts were downright terrifying, and parts made me laugh out loud. Get you a book that does all three, I say!
I’ll be honest, though I tend to be skeptical of a book written about a female main character by a male author, I was already a fan of Grady Hendrix. I read The Final Girl Support Group a few years ago (not terribly long after joining my own support group, so that may have affected my point-of-view on the subject) and absolutely loved it. I was super psyched to be able to read this book the second I saw it. I’d say that it took a while to actually get going narrative-wise as there was no witchcraft until about a quarter of the way through the book, but once it got going it was a bit of a page turner. Also, my favorite character (Rose) leaves about halfway through, so that was a little disheartening.
If you’re looking for an accurate depiction of witchcraft, I would say to look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a cozy, non-triggering read, look elsewhere. It may just be my more liberal sensibilities, but I was surprised after reading this book that I didn’t see a trigger warning at the beginning. Maybe I missed it or maybe it was just not included because it was an advance copy, but the main plotline had a large component concerning the SA of a child, so it was very odd for me to not see a trigger warning at the beginning.
That being said, it was not triggering for me (though it may be for others) and I loved this book. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it was scary, funny and downright heartwarming at times and (mild spoiler alert!) had a happy-ish ending. All in all, I’d give it a 5/5 and I’d recommend it to horror fans and fans of feminist (or feminist adjacent?) literature.
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