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• From the cover Chapter 1
  
  She didn't think things could get any worse, then she saw the sign.
  
  Welcome to Florida, it read. The Sunshine State.
  
  She knew she shouldn't ask. She knew she stood in a puddle of gasoline and every word was a lit match falling from her lips. She knew her dad hated her. But that sign made her throat squeeze shut so tight she couldn't breathe, and her bloated stomach pressed on her lungs so hard she couldn't get enough air, and she'd suffocate if she didn't say something.
  
  "Dad," she said. "Why're we in Florida?"
  
  His hands tightened around the steering wheel until it creaked, but he kept his eyes on the road.
  
  "Huntsville's the opposite way," she said, trying to stay calm.
  
  They'd been driving for hours and in all that time he hadn't looked at her once. He'd shown up at Aunt Peggy's that morning so angry his hands shook as he snatched her clothes and stuffed them in her suitcase and slammed it shut. One of her bra straps stuck out the side, but she didn't think it was smart to say anything.
  
  It isn't too smart for a girl to be smart, her mom had always said.
  
  So she just made herself very, very small. For hours and hours she made herself so incredibly small. But they didn't know anyone in Florida. They didn't have any relatives in Florida. This was kidnapping unless he told her where they were going. He had to tell her where they were going. So she resorted to the one thing she knew could reach him.
  
  "I saw the trailer for that Planet of the Apes sequel," she said because he loved science fiction. "It's about nuclear war. I bet they got the rockets all wrong."
  
  "Goddammit, Neva!" he exploded. "Do you understand what you've done? You have ruined your mother's health, God knows what you've done to your brother and sister, and now you've ruined your aunt Peggy's good name. I don't even know who you are anymore. It'd have been better if you'd never been born!"
  
  "Where are you taking me?" she bawled, terrified.
  
  "I'm taking you wherever I want!" he bawled back.
  
  "What's happening, Dad?" she asked, and she couldn't help it, she was so scared. "Why are we in Florida?"
  
  He shifted from side to side in his seat, adjusted his hands on the wheel, then addressed the windshield like it really needed to understand this was for its own good.
  
  "We found a place for you to stay," he explained to the windshield. "With other girls in your condition. After you're better, I'll come get you and we can put all this behind us."
  
  The full horror of it hit her.
  
  "You're sending me to a Home?" she asked.
  
  Headlines from confession magazines streaked through her brain: Disgraced Debutante Left to Rot in House of Shame! Good Girls Say No-Bad Girls Go Here! They Gave Away Their Own Flesh and Blood! During rehearsals for Arsenic and Old Lace Margaret Roach had told them about the Homes. They were run by nuns who beat the girls, made them work in industrial laundries, and sold their babies, and Margaret Roach was a Catholic so she would know. The Homes were for poor girls, trashy girls, fast girls. They were for sluts.
  
  "Daddy, you can't do this," she begged, because he had to understand, he had to turn the car around, there had to be another way. "Please, please, please, take me home, or to Granny Craven's, or talk to Aunt Peggy again. I promise I'll stay in the bedroom and I won't make a sound and I'll vacuum and wash dishes and I'll do whatever she says, but you can't take me to a Home. They aren't for people like us. They're for Catholics!"
  
  He turned to face her, briefly, and in that moment she saw how much he hated her.
  
  "You've ruined...

ביקורות-

• 

  October 7, 2024
  Scares take a backseat to interpersonal drama in the fun latest from bestseller Hendrix (How to Sell a Haunted House). Neva is only 15 when she’s dropped off at the Home for Unwed Mothers to weather the final months of her pregnancy among strangers. In 1970, there’s nothing more shameful than being an unmarried, pregnant teenager, and the mistress and doctors of the home, who rename her Fern, treat her like trash. With only the tentative friendships of the other pregnant girls, Fern turns to a book from a traveling library for comfort: How to be a Groovy Witch. The book initially seems silly, but when Fern and her friends try a spell, the magic actually works, giving them a shred of power in their helpless situations. They initially dabble in only minor magic, like a spell to relieve their morning sickness—until one of their makeshift coven reveals the danger she and her unborn child are in. Now Fern must weigh protecting her friend with the dark price of witchcraft that might destroy her. The fantastical horror elements are uncharacteristically few and the pace occasionally drags, but Hendrix perfectly captures the girls’ youth and loss of innocence, as well as the power of their friendships. This is sure to be another hit for Hendrix. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, Jabberwocky Literary.

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