Book Review: The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

By Sangu Mandanna | Narrated by Samara MacLaren

An orphaned witch. A love story. Britain.

You can see why I was drawn to this one.

Here’s the thing I should say first: when I listen to book, I’m looking for something different than when I read the words. I usually listen while I’m washing dishes, vacuuming, weeding, or sewing, so it needs to be a relatively simple book so I can drop it and pick it back up a few hundred times. If it’s overly complicated, I’ll miss details and get frustrated.

This book is an easy, gentle listen. And has lovely characters.

But, I really wanted it to dig hard into magical realism, or just magic in general. And it didn’t.

READ IT IF: You want a cozy, yet weirdly complicated, love story with a moderate dash of witchery.

STEER CLEAR IF: You have something else you would rather read. And, just a heads up, it has an amazing amount of F bombs—even I was getting uncomfortable—and it didn’t feel important to the characters or the plot.