Today’s review is about ISABELLA NAGG AND THE POT OF BASIL by Oliver Darkshire. It’s a quirky reimagining of one of the characters from the Decameron. Replete with a talking cat-like creature and goblins, Isabella finds herself on an unexpected adventure.
Author: Oliver Darkshire
Series: None
Age Category: Adult
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date: May 13, 2025
Print Length: 256
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Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil Synopsis
Synopsis
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.
Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil Review
I received a free, digital, advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My review is my own and reflects my honest opinion about this book.
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.
Rating: 3
Content warnings: death, gore
Reading format: Kindle e-book
If you liked this book, you may also enjoy HOW TO BECOME THE DARK LORD AND DIE TRYING by Django Wexler.
I have yet to read a story where the footnotes actually felt necessary, so I feel you in that respect. This sounds good on the surface, but sorry it didn’t quite work.
I haven’t read many fiction books with footnotes, but in both cases I wasn’t a huge fan of them.
This has such an interesting premise, it’s too bad that it didn’t mesh well together. The repetitiveness sounds like it would probably irk me too!
It is too bad…the different elements really intrigued me, but I guess the execution of them together just didn’t work so well for me.