Witchcraft for Wayward Girls

How to Be a Groovy Witch is the book that Miss Parcae gives to Fern, and throughout the novel, it functions as a symbol of the power that women can harness when they work together, thereby blending with the novel’s broader examination of Solidarity Among Women. Some of the book’s spells are immediately useful, while others prove trickier to parse. As the girls soon learn, witchcraft itself becomes alternately helpful and harmful, and its power dramatically shapes the girls’ futures, although not in the way that they had originally hoped. One of the book’s lessons—which Miss Parcae also echoes—is the idea that the true power of witches comes from the fellowship that they form together. Witches, the book notes, are never alone. 

Thus, because the girls are isolated at Wellwood, the solidarity that they develop while attempting to perform spells together has a profoundly positive impact on their well-being, binding them together for a common purpose. Because witchcraft becomes both a positive and negative force in their lives, their use of witchcraft turns into a test that forces them to confront difficult situations and develop their own ethical code. Hendrix therefore creates the sense that for the girls at Wellwood, witchcraft becomes a stand-in for the more ordinary challenges of adolescence.