Thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Leaping Hare for the opportunity to review this eARC in exchange for a honest review.

This had to be read via the Netgalley app and it tends to be a downsized for illustrated books. Also the formatting was terrible and pages were upside down, I hope this is remedied prior to publication.

This is a beginner guide to herbalism but I expected more/difference information for something labeled “folklore magick”. What is provided is simple to understand and follow and the illustrations are beautiful as always.

This was a lovely book! I really enjo9yed the illustrations and the information throughout the book. The combination of folklore, magical, and medicinal information to each herb, flower, and tree was a delightful reference read.

This is a short but interesting insight into some of the unexpected properties that certain herbs and flowers have. I read it through the Netgalley app which isn't the best for such lovely illustrations so I think it would do better as a big hardback book that you could proper enjoy.

Honestly, I really enjoyed this book. I really loved the general instructions on how to make various things like salves and tinctures. This book has inspired me to add those to my practice. The folklore on each plant was really interesting and I’m excited to use this book to add more herbs and plants and natural elements to my practice. I definitely plan on buying a physical copy of this book to keep for reference. The book isn’t super in depth, but it is a nice overview of each plant and its uses. I also appreciated any disclaimers that the book had because it just made it seem really transparent and there for knowledge if that makes sense. My favorite section was definitely the baneful plants part even if that part is more for educational purposes than actual use. Overall, it was a nice guide and I would recommend it

Fundamentally, this is a reference or guide book for those who are interested in herbalism, as the primary function of the book is to teach the medicinal and magickal properties of a vast selection of herbs and flowers. In addition, the author gives snippets of history and folklore about each plant, which I absolutely adored!

For the avid folklore lover, this isn't the selection for you. For the beginner witch, this might be a good addition to your shelf if you're looking for an excellent resource on herbs and flowers.

Beyond the contents of the writing, I adored the included art, though I worry how it'll turn out in print as the quality seemed lackluster and as if the images were blown up and lack clarity.

As for the description of this book, I feel it lacks depth when explaining "what folklore is, and how it connects to the practice of witchcraft." I felt it was missing something deeper. A longer foreword about this would have been beneficial to the overall tone and depth of the book.

The formatting of the book made it hard to read at points. I’m hoping this is just a Netgalley issue and pages aren’t upside down when printed. It would’ve been probably easier to read on my kindle, but wasn’t an option.
With that said, I enjoyed the content of the book. I love all the herbal information. I have many books on how to use medicinal herbs, and I feel it has a lot of useful info. I liked how it described how to make tinctures and poultices, as not everyone knows all the uses of herbal medicine. The illustrations in the book were great as well, and the cover really drew me in. I will definitely get myself a copy once it comes out!

The Witch of the Forest's Guide to Folklore Magick by Lindsay Squire is such a good book. I rated it 5 stars because I couldn't stop reading it.

The formatting of this book is terrible. This was exported as two pages per sheet, which does allow you to see the beautiful artwork as it was intended to be viewed, but requires you to zoom in pretty heavily to be able to read. A low quality screen wouldn’t be able to make it out. And a significant number of pages were upside down. I sincerely hope this is corrected before publication.

Upon reading the description of the book, I was expecting more of a deep dive into folklore and history of folklore, but this is mostly a quick reference of various herbs and flowers. The descriptions and explanations that exist are extremely brief and read like a hasty student trying to make a deadline. While I’m aware this was written as a guide book, the tone of the description led me to believe this was a more thorough resource.

The artwork is absolutely beautiful, though.

Highly recommend for anyone who loves folklore, nature-based spirituality, or simply wants to infuse a little magick into their life. I loved all the info about every plant mentioned, as well as their folklore! 10/10 would recommend

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have read dozens of books on witchcraft and folklore, and I feel that this book has some particular qualities that make it stand out. One of the best aspects of this book are charts that go along with each plant discussed. If I had a hard copy of this book I would be tempted to cut it up and put the pages into my BoS. The medicinal and magickal properties discussed in the book are spot on and would be a wonderful introduction to incorporating herbs and plants into your Craft. In the actual folklore sections of each plant discussed, I feel that more information would be a welcome addition. This was a nice primer, but I expected the folklore part of the book on Folklore magick to be more robust. I also found it distracting that the author used Roman names for Greek gods and vice versa. Overall, it was a lovely book and I learned some new things about beloved herbs and plants. I would definitely recommend this book as an introduction to the Craft!

This is a book packed with information suitable for adults who are interested in the topic. Maybe it is outside of the realm of this book, but it might be more useful to include some instructions for preparing herbal lotions, etc for various ailments?

The cover drew me in and this is a great little piece for beginners. I love that it adds the folklore to each herb presented. The adding of the baneful herbs was a nice touch, as you don't see this being done often.

This is the third book of Lindsay Squire I've come across and as always, I'm marvelled at how she once again manages to blend theory/information with a big tinge of empowerment and self love. And once again, the illustrations are just adding onto that.

What a beautiful book! So very informative with wonderful illustrations throughout. I really enjoyed learning more about herbs and flowers and the way it was written was thoughtful. I would definitely recommend this book to those who are new to working with natural elements as well as those of us that sometimes need a top up. I learnt a lot.

The Witch of the Forest is a vibrant and evocatively illustrated tome providing some very basic and rudimentary teachings. I think it would be well suited to someone just entering a magical practice but a bit underwhelming to those who have been in the world for any real length of time.

All in all, I think this would make a great gift for someone just starting a magical journey.

My first impression of this book was its beautiful cover, which immediately drew me in along with its title. Even though I am not an active practitioner of witchcraft, I do like my simple home remedies and protection charms, such as putting a bay leaf under my pillow to protect me against nightmares.

This book is as the title says, a guide! A guide to the basic folklore of herbs, flowers, and trees. This book also includes a guide on baneful herbs, which is certainly unusual due to the danger of amateur hands handling them. The author gives the necessary warnings and disclaimers, so if anyone does get any ideas and gets hurt in the process, then it really is not her problem haha

It's simple and to the point, just like a guide should be. It's easy to find what you're looking for if you're not looking for a linear reading and want to learn about a specific plant. You'll find the correspondent element, zodiac sign, and medicinal properties in bullet points for each, too.

Something else you'll learn is how to use the natural ingredients in your Craft. From teas to poultices, it tells us how to prepare them, what herbs are best, the best ratios, and how to/how long to store them!

"I have always valued simplicity in my Craft, where I use what I have available to me both in nature and in places like my home and thrift stores where I can repurpose everyday items for magickal uses. This is essentially what folk magick is all about; it's not meant to be available only to those who can afford it, but is low cost, if not free, and accessible to everyone."

I really resonated with this quote. Media has made practising the Craft sound like the most complicated thing in the world, when, in reality, generations have been practising it without the aid of the internet or even books on it. As the author says, we only used to have word of mouth to learn and rely on, and I think we have taken that for granted. Simple is usually best, and this book comes to save the day in that aspect.

Beautifully illustrated and a good beginners guide to different plants and flowers, and what properties they hold.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this book.

This is a beginner book on herbalism and I wish it would have called itself that instead of "folklore magick."

The book is beautifully illustrated and laid out, but the ARC had issues with upside-down pages and problems with skipping pages that took me out of reading. However, those issues aren't reflected in the rating of the book.

Each entry has:
- the scientific name
- minimal folklore
- magical properties
- medicinal properties (big fan of how both types of properties were bullet pointed for easy use.
- correspondences: element, planet, zodiac signs
- folk names.

The reasons for the docking of my rating has to do with its focus on Western European (specifically Celtic) folklore and the book's use of "migraines" instead of migraine.

Although I’ve never attempted to actually practice, I’ve been fascinated by witchcraft for years and have read many books similar to this one, on many different topics.

I had a couple of small issues with the editing such as typos, upside down pages and missing pictures, but my main issue was that it was a slow start. I found the pages on the different plants a lot more informative and interesting than those on the different forms of medicine (teas, tinctures etc). I initially thought the description of the book had lied to me as there was little to no detail on the history of folk magic in those first pages.

In regard to the plant pages though, I found them very interesting with not only a folklore section, but also magical and medicinal properties along with all the other information provided for each. Some of the folklore and history was fascinating, and overall I found this information to be well researched and written.

Other aspects of the book I appreciated were the disclaimers throughout, along with the ‘further reading’ section in the back.

Overall, I found this book to be very interesting and informative, and assuming the smaller mistakes are fixed prior to publication, I will definitely be adding this to my wishlist and purchasing a physical copy after release.

This cover is so beautiful, but I love how informative this book is! It also has beautiful art throughout. If I saw this in a book store, I would want to buy 5 immediately, one for me, and one for all of my witchy friends.

Highly recommend this book!

I received an advanced review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you Net Galley!