In a word: delightful.

ISABELLA NAGG AND THE POT OF BASIL goes beyond the smile-inducing expectations of cozy fantasies (and, be assured, I read the entire thing with a huge grin on my face) and offers readers pure magic. The magic of equally hilarious and biting characters. The magic of a bizarre world made flesh through Darkshire's cheeky storytelling and clever asides that charm as much as they do inform. ISABELLA NAGG is a fantasy through and through -- but it's so much more than that.

Tucked within this fantasy romp is a pinch of science fiction and a dash of body horror, for spice. Pastoral sensibilities of the genre blend beautifully with meditations on capitalism, gender, and transformation that flash the cutting edge of the modern.

This will be a 2025 favorite and I cannot recommend it enough!

Oh to be a 40 year old wizard with my books and my weird cat thing (it’s hard to explain what he is, don’t worry though, he doesn’t bite) plus I get to cut the head off of not one but two men. The dream.

It’s funny I tried to pick this book up last month and I couldn’t get into it at all and then this time I picked it up and it just clicked for me. I believe books call to you at the time you need them most, almost like magic some might say. I really enjoyed the silly whimsical nature of this book, I loved the footnotes, and how everything tied together.

If I had to nit pick some things it would be these:

1. I’m not saying the Naggs didn’t both make me laugh but how did they come to be married? The book tried to explain it to be fair but it still didn’t make sense to me, personally. Also sometimes their behavior was giving boomer “I hate my spouse” humor. Like again, why are they married? Please explain it to me like I’m five, I am begging.

2. No spoilers but Isabella does something that subsequently affects her grimalkin and is like oh wow, my actions have consequences. And then does the same thing two more times. Why? Why have her realize the cost of her actions if she doesn’t care?

3. Last one is lighthearted but it would be fun if The Household Gramayre sections were actually annotated rather than told through footnotes. Guys, more books need to include annotations from other characters, idk what to tell you.

Super cozy, funny, and chock full of whimsy, I love a fantasy that doesn’t subscribe to any fantasy tropes. It makes the reading experience refreshing and original. Plus the fourth wall breaks? I love it. I LOVE IT.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oliver Darkshire definitely has a unique voice—there’s this dry, slightly macabre humor that I actually really enjoyed. The writing had a certain charm to it, and the weirdness of the whole thing gave it a kind of whimsical, gothic energy. If you’re into slightly offbeat, literary oddities, there’s something here for you.

That said, the plot felt a little thin in places. It kind of meandered, and while that can work when the tone is strong enough, there were a few moments where I was like, “Wait, where are we going with this?” I was entertained, but not fully hooked, if that makes sense.

Isabella as a character was fun—dry, sharp, and not overly sentimental—but I didn’t feel super connected to her journey. The Pot of Basil itself had potential for a wild, mythic sort of story, but it stayed more quirky than compelling.

This was not for me. I have a few quirks with books...no quotation marks and long rambling footnotes. This falls into the later camp. It is too distracting to get through.

Fascinating, fun, and a change of pace. I love an unusual/middle aged/grumpy protagonist, and Oliver provides us with that person in Isabella Nagg. The format for this ebook was really tricky to read so hopefully that gets fixed before they publish. Otherwise a fantastic read, highly recommend.

Such an incredibly fun book. Oliver Darkshire's writing style reminds me of a more upscale version of Douglas Adam's (which I absolutely adore) bringing in obscure humor, odd factoids yet otherwise very textbook (in all the right ways) style writing. I truly enjoyed his writing style and now cannot wait to get a hold of more books. Getting to the story I adored the multiple POV's lending to quite incredible character development even for the likes of a donkey. I loved that the main character was a women in her middle age, its such a wonderful deviation of the norm. I really enjoyed the minor plot twists, enough to make me go "dang!" without it deterring from the main story line.

To circle around, if you love stories with humor, theories on golbin lineage, talking animals (and plants), the undead and the unlikely becoming a wizard you need to pick up this book.

Magic causes a lot more problems than it fixes in Oliver Darkshire’s delightful fantasy novel, Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil. When a forgetful wizard retires, Isabella Nagg—a humble but resentful farmwife—steps into the role. Unfortunately, she has no idea what she’s doing. All Isabella has is a fascinating collection of books called Household Gramayre and a grimalkin, the former wizard’s familiar, for a tutor. Just learning how to do magic would be enough for anyone but Isabella also has to contend with goblins, passive aggression, a talking donkey, an ultra-capitalist/con-woman, and a husband she feels duty-bound to rescue even if she’d be better off without him.

Isabella Nagg’s husband, Henric, is the hapless catalyst for Isabella’s transformation into a wizard. The only thing that grows on the Nagg farm is mandrakes. The local wizard is the only person who purchases these but, when Henric arrives at the wizard’s cottage with the latest harvest, he is nowhere to be found. Henric snatches a volume of Household Gramayre by way of payment. This, of course, is a very stupid thing to do—especially since the wizard has a reputation for turning people who annoy him into weevils. Henric wanders off to accidentally cause more mayhem, leaving Isabella to figure out what to do.

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is the kind of book that sprouts plots and subplots like an unruly houseplant. Readers need to pay attention to every detail because everything will be relevant by the end of the book, even the excerpts from Household Gramayre about goblin ball and crossroad hounds. I assure you, however, that as silly as this book sounds (and it is silly in places), Darkshire pulls all of this off with surprising emotional depth. Isabella and Henric have incredible backstories. Above all, the way that Isabella grows as a person is absolutely stunning.

Darkshire has a comically erudite way of writing that reminded me strongly of Terry Pratchett. Darkshire even peppers his tale with footnotes and excerpts from the Gramayre to build up the lore of his off-kilter world and make us laugh. Readers who miss Pratchett’s Discworld will find a lot to love in Isabella Nagg. I certainly did. This book was a balm for my bookish soul.

"In a tiny farm on the edge of the miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her tiny, miserable existence. Dividing her time between tolerating her feckless husband, caring for the farm's strange animals, cooking up "scrunge," and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella can't help but think that there might be something more to life. When Mr. Nagg returns home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she thinks: what harm could a little magic do?

This debut novel by beloved rare bookseller and memoirist Oliver Darkshire reimagines a heroine of Boccaccio's Decameron in a delightfully deranged world of talking plants, walking corpses, sentient animals, and shape-shifting sorcerers. As Isabella and her grouchy, cat-like companion set off to save the village from an entrepreneurial villain running a goblin-fruit Ponzi scheme, Darkshire's tale revels in the ancient books and arcane folklore of a new and original kind of enchantment.

A delightful and entertaining story of self-discovery - as well as fungus, capitalism, and sorcery - Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a story for those who can't help but find magic even in the oddest and most baffling circumstances."

I mean, I was already sold on the book because, come on, that cover, but then there's a goblin-fruit Ponzie scheme!?! Doubly sold!

A fantastic romp through late 13th century England as a wife ends up nicking a local unhinged wizard's Grammarye, and is dealing with, among other things, an encroaching Goblin Market run by a girlboss, a plotting pot of basil, her ain't shit husband, and all the wild ongoings of discovering magic for yourself. Darkshire's humor is impeccable (but if you've played any of his one sheet RPGs during the pandemic you'd know that already), and the excerpts from the Grammarye are particularly wonderful. (I will note that the ARC rough on formatting in some places, but the version we received had notes directly to the printers that struck me as charming, so I'm fine with it.) Comes out this May, and highly recommended when it does.

In the best way, this is a 'for the vibe' book. The writing to me was inconsistent (as was the story at times); however, the premise of a witch with her companion pot of basil on a mandrake farm featuring a cat trying to protect a town from the goblins? What a vibe! I think the author might need to do some more edits and reviews of some of the sentences structures before publishing. I also dislike the footnotes, but that might just be personal preference. They tend to take me out of the story. Otherwise, this seems like a book that I would suggest people try at least before saying yay or nay.

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire is a quirky and charming fantasy filled with adventure and wit. The story follows Isabella Nagg as she embarks on an unusual journey involving magic, intrigue, and a mysterious pot of basil. Darkshire’s writing is light-hearted and humorous, with a whimsical tone that makes the book enjoyable for readers of all ages. It’s an engaging and delightful read for fans of magical realism and fantasy with a touch of fun and unpredictability.

Isabella has a rather hard life on a farm that only seems to be able to grow mandrake roots near a cursed stone. There's this spell book with confusing footnotes and annotations that confuse her, but comes with a cat-like thing that might actually like her. Gradually Isabella grows (while causing magical havoc along the way). Funny, smart, Isabella's story is a delight.

Why can't I live on a cursed mandrake farm and study my magical books together with my eldritch cat and my talking plant? Is that truly too much to ask for? But maybe I should be careful with what I wish for, because Mrs. Isabella Nagg has all of the above, but she also has to keep up with a whole lot of annoying stuff. First of all, there is her useless husband who literally can't do anything by himself, and her donkey just keeps wandering off, and at this time of year the goblins crawl out of their holes and try to sell their tempting but lethal goblin fruit to everyone, you know how it is. And then her husband decides to steal the magic book of the town wizard, and of course that's Isabella's problem now too. But well, she might as well try a spell or two, and the wizard is nowhere to be found anyway, so why not take his entire book collection and the not-cat companion that comes along with it? Her first spell results in a sentient donkey and a talking pot of basil, but she has always liked the basil more than her husband, so it surely will be fine. The story unfolds from there, but it's hardly a straightforward plotline. Isabella might be the main character (and she is great), but there are also many other POV characters, and the story is overall more about the vibes than the plot. I personally loved reading about the odd little town of East Grasby where the sun is controlled by a beetle, and where the dead sometimes rise from their graves, and where a woman really does the most to turn the annual goblin market into a profitable business even though it will doom all the villagers. You might have picked up on it from my review, but everything here is a little silly. The narrator is witty and I smiled a lot throughout the book, but that doesn't mean that only light topics are mentioned here. I wouldn't call it exactly cozy, because there is death and the story literally starts out with a beheaded body, but it's also not high stakes and mostly unserious. I actually think that this book kinda nails the tone of these somewhat weird medieval tales, like they are collected in the "Decameron". I know some stories, but I haven't read it in its entirety (it's 100 tales total) and I never heard about the whole pot of basil situation. The reveal related to that was a surprise for me, but I guess it will not be if you already know the original story or the Keats poem. I know that this will not be everyone's cup of tea (or pot of basil, if you will), but I have nothing negative to say about this book. It also comes with some illustrations, footnotes and abstracts from the magic books, and that made for and unique and enjoyable reading experience. I will definitely pick up a physical copy upon release and I will highly anticipate future works by Oliver Darkshire.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

ISABELLA NAGG AND THE POT OF BASIL is a short novel about the titular character's foray into wizardry. She has an essentially helpless husband who only knows how to harvest mandrake leaves. Even then he's a miserable sod at it. One day he brings home the local wizard's "borrowed" spell book as payment for delivery of the mandrake leaves. Isabella tries to return it. However, she instead ends up learning how to perform spells with the help of a cat-like companion. Meanwhile, the goblins come to town to try to sell their famous fruit to the villagers as part of a rather nefarious scheme.

The official synopsis boasts plenty of alluring and quirky elements to draw in readers looking for something a little different. It's easy to feel sympathy for Isabella, whose only comfort is a pot of basil, despite her own grouchiness. The talking cat is blunt and matter-of-fact, which I found oddly endearing. One of the Nagg's animals becomes sentient, which broaches the question of how it might feel should it suddenly understand more than where its next meal comes from. What I found most interesting was the goblin's Ponzi scheme and what they actually are.

However, all these elements together didn't quite work together as well as I hoped. Isabella's constant rumination over her husband's uselessness became repetitive. And even though the story is about 250 pages, it felt longer than that. ISABELLA NAGG AND THE POT OF BASIL is supposed to be about self discovery and finding out what else life has to offer. And that happens in a roundabout way, but it felt rather anticlimactic and a little monotonous. There's also the fact this is a reimagining of her heroine in the Decameron, which I haven't read. So perhaps there are elements that I missed that otherwise would have added to my enjoyment.

There are also a lot of footnotes in this story. I found they added little to the plot and overall took me out of the story. They seem meant to add more whimsy to the story, but instead I grew rather impatient with them.

There are likely readers who can better connect with the overall grumpy yet minutely hopeful tone of the story. It didn't quite work for me. But check it out if you like somewhat nonsensical magical elements, folklore-ish magic, and talking cats.

This is a tale of dreary whimsicality. All the characters are deeply unpleasant and miserable, both to the reader and to each other. There are so many footnotes and tangents that I found it hard to follow the actual story. About halfway through, I began skipping all footnotes and that helped.

Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting through this book. I can objectively appreciate it, and I have no doubt some will love it! It’s simply not my cup of tea, which is okay. I found the story drawn out, and I wasn’t invested in any of the characters to care about what happened next, so I found myself dragging through this book. The writing is good and I can see the sense of humor, I just have a different sense of humor so it wasn’t all that funny to me either.

Isabella and Mr. Nagg (her husband) live quite a droll life and have the kind of marriage everybody fears (no love to the point they are basically enemies who have to live together). I liked Isabella well enough, but wasn’t invested enough to care, and no plot points were really all that interesting either. I straight up disliked Mr. Nagg because he is just an awful person, which is clearly intentional and meant to be funny, but I found that I just hated reading his chapters.

Overall, I can see why others would like this, but I do not have the right sense of humor to enjoy this one.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All thoughts are my own!

Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil was a quirky and cozy fantasy. It had magic, wizards, talking animals and plants, goblins, and a handful of beheadings; all of which, when combined made for a funny story. This was a fun, easy to read book that had me laughing out loud a number of times.

I'm giving it three stars because though it was enjoyable, I didn't find myself able to connect with the main character and was left with many questions at the end. There were a ton of footnotes throughout the book, which were all hysterical but broke up the reading in a way that was sometimes distracting.

Overall, though not my favorite cozy fantasy ever, I enjoyed this and would recommend it to others!

Is there such thing as *too* whimsical? Once upon a time I might have said no, but this story has led me to reconsider. Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil is a work of pure invention, almost an adult answer to Dr. Seuss. The world and the characters are endlessly quirky, but for me this charm slowly began to grow stale. I enjoyed the story most when it leaned into the more serious elements, some of which occasionally bordered on horror. However, the light=hearted tone of the prose was so at odds with these events, the attempts at levity sucking the gravity out of what could have been meaningful moments. However, many bonus points for including footnotes! I think all fiction can benefit from the inclusion of footnotes.

This cozy fantasy had me laughing out loud in places and thoroughly enjoying my time spent with Isabella. Anyone looking for a cozy wizard story will love this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! I really do not like leaving negative reviews. This book was not for me unfortunately. I did not finish it. The ebook formatting makes it extremely confusing to read. There were a ton of formatting issues. The footnotes were also very confusing. I have read books with footnotes before and I liked them, I think it doesn’t work in an ebook format unfortunately. By the time I got to the footnotes I had already forgotten what they were referring to specifically. It also just felt like it was interrupting the flow of the story when that context could have just been added narratively? I was also just confused by the writing style. It did not jive with me, but other people seemed to have really enjoyed it. This seems like it’s targeted for a specific audience and I, unfortunately, was not the right person to review this.