MARROW

A woman goes to extremes to gain access to her heart’s desires: community and control.

Oona believes she is cursed. And while to most people the idea of a curse may seem farfetched, for Oona, who was raised by a group of self-proclaimed witches, it’s a distinct possibility. She grew up on Marrow Island, off the coast of Maine, at the Bare Root Fertility Center, owned and operated by her mother, Ursula. This fertility center is staffed by midwives who call themselves witches, and who treat their clients—both those who are giving birth at the center, and those who are desperate to get pregnant—with a mixture of holistic and (supposedly) otherworldly medicines. Unfortunately, Ursula doesn’t believe that Oona has the gift of magic, and so Oona spent her childhood on the outskirts, desperate to find a way in, until eventually she was kicked out under mysterious circumstances. As an adult Oona realizes that her way back into the coven is the same as any other woman’s: She needs to be pregnant. But Oona is plagued by a series of miscarriages. She believes these miscarriages aren’t an accident of biology but instead are a curse by her late childhood friend, Daphne, who Oona thinks is punishing her for an attempted spell gone wrong. When Oona is once again pregnant, she successfully sneaks her way back into Bare Root under disguise, attempting to atone for her past and gain entry into her coveted coven. The first half of the novel is a frustrating combination of convoluted and slow. Once Oona begins to uncover some dark secrets at the fertility center, though, Shea finds her footing and the reader will mostly be hooked.

Female power mixes with the occult in this bumpy tale.