Book Review: A Witch's Guide to Wildcraft by JD Walker

  • Source: I received an advance copy of this book on NetGalley

  • My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (see my review on Goodreads)

This book was a nice introduction to herbs and plants from the perspective of someone well versed in gardening. The first half goes over a lot of the history, proper usage, and understanding of various plants/herbs (when to harvest, how to harvest, etc.). I appreciated that the author has such a lifetime's wealth of knowledge and experience in gardening, because it was evident in the depth each section went. The second half is basically a reference guide to what I imagine are some of the author's favorite plants. I like that it goes over a few correspondences, quick notes & warnings, an appearance description, history, uses, and a ritual or recipe for each plant. I would have loved it if the Uses section went deeper for each plant, since that is my main area of interest. I think it would be a lot more impactful had the advanced copy included the images as well, so I recommend getting the physical book if you want to use it as a reference guide (and I hope the images are in color and well detailed). I was hoping this would be a bit more of a guide to recognizing what plants are in the wilds around my home and community, but perhaps that was too much wishful thinking and I should get a local guidebook for that purpose. I do think this would still be handy to have on my witchy shelves, but I really wish the reference section was much more robust (that is, I wish it contained about 3x the amount of plants that it does).

book reviewKelleywitchcraft, herbalism, nonfiction