This is my second Grady Hendrix book and I think his books have the best titles. This one reminded me some of The Change mixed with The House of Eve, with witches, of course. I read this to try Jordy’s Bookclub. It’s the first selection of his club x Allstora.

Neva is 15 and pregnant in 1970. Her father takes her to a “home for unwed mothers.” Like the one in The House of Eve, this one treats the girls as servants, denies their rights to their babies and pregnancies and gives away their children. This book takes a Grady Hendrix turn with the arrival of a witchy librarian, who distributes books at the home. I like the way the blurb about the book says “there’s always a price to be paid… and it’s usually paid in blood.” 

Honestly, I liked this book better than the other I read, but this has super descriptive scenes (like the other) of medical situations and other violent moments, and it’s probably not my genre (horror). 

But I can appreciate how Hendrix was motivated to write this book after he learned couple of his relatives were sent to these homes for pregnant women. I thought his acknowledgments letter was compassionate and helpful. And the quotes about girls having babies at the beginning of the book was disheartening. Wow.

“We were unsocialized girls, fast girls, loose girls, emotionally immature girls, girls who grew up too fast. Rose wasn't even eighteen, Holly had just turned fourteen, I was fifteen. Whatever you wanted to call us, we were children.” (Beginning paragraph)

“The world shows us we are alone against its facts, naked before its history, powerless to stop its work-ings. This is correct. Stand against the world for even one moment and be crushed. Stand together with your coven and it is possible to resist. The bond between a witch and her coven is the greatest and most important power she has.” P67

“…the words of the book cut through the fog in her pregnant brain and something deep inside her body woke up.” P112

"Knowledge is a kind of power, and the knowledge you find in this book will help you find power inside yourself. Power is not a material possession that can be given. Power is the ability to act and that must always be taken, for no one will ever give that power to you.
Those who have power wish to keep it, and those who want power must learn to take it.'" P116

“They don't see these girls. I can't tell you how much they don't see these girls.” P403