Marrow
A searing take on femininity and power, Marrow transports readers to a small island off the coast of Maine, where a coven has done the seemingly impossible.

The day Oona was kicked out of her mother's coven, she gave up on her dreams of harnessing the witchcraft that was her birthright. Years later, she's carved out an ordinary life with her husband, though she is filled with a longing she can barely name. If she could only become a mother, then-according to island lore-she will come into her magic.

But after years of being unable to carry a pregnancy to term, Oona begins to feel desperate. Without the money to seek medical treatment, she decides she must return to the rugged, windswept island where she was raised-and to her dark, enigmatic mother . . . a witch who gives childless women the chance to become mothers.

Oona returns under the cover of anonymity, hoping for an answer. But, despite a celebrity clientele and a long wait-list, there are dark forces at work on the island, and as her time there grows more harrowing, the truth threatens to come to light. How far will Oona go to access the power her mother commands?

Tender and intense, witchy and wise, and written in prose that glitters and seethes, Marrow is a gripping novel about the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, about what we must believe in order to imagine a future for ourselves, and what we must let go in order to fully live it.
1146661988
Marrow
A searing take on femininity and power, Marrow transports readers to a small island off the coast of Maine, where a coven has done the seemingly impossible.

The day Oona was kicked out of her mother's coven, she gave up on her dreams of harnessing the witchcraft that was her birthright. Years later, she's carved out an ordinary life with her husband, though she is filled with a longing she can barely name. If she could only become a mother, then-according to island lore-she will come into her magic.

But after years of being unable to carry a pregnancy to term, Oona begins to feel desperate. Without the money to seek medical treatment, she decides she must return to the rugged, windswept island where she was raised-and to her dark, enigmatic mother . . . a witch who gives childless women the chance to become mothers.

Oona returns under the cover of anonymity, hoping for an answer. But, despite a celebrity clientele and a long wait-list, there are dark forces at work on the island, and as her time there grows more harrowing, the truth threatens to come to light. How far will Oona go to access the power her mother commands?

Tender and intense, witchy and wise, and written in prose that glitters and seethes, Marrow is a gripping novel about the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, about what we must believe in order to imagine a future for ourselves, and what we must let go in order to fully live it.
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Marrow

Marrow

by Samantha Browning Shea

Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld

Unabridged — 9 hours, 27 minutes

Marrow

Marrow

by Samantha Browning Shea

Narrated by Saskia Maarleveld

Unabridged — 9 hours, 27 minutes

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Overview

A searing take on femininity and power, Marrow transports readers to a small island off the coast of Maine, where a coven has done the seemingly impossible.

The day Oona was kicked out of her mother's coven, she gave up on her dreams of harnessing the witchcraft that was her birthright. Years later, she's carved out an ordinary life with her husband, though she is filled with a longing she can barely name. If she could only become a mother, then-according to island lore-she will come into her magic.

But after years of being unable to carry a pregnancy to term, Oona begins to feel desperate. Without the money to seek medical treatment, she decides she must return to the rugged, windswept island where she was raised-and to her dark, enigmatic mother . . . a witch who gives childless women the chance to become mothers.

Oona returns under the cover of anonymity, hoping for an answer. But, despite a celebrity clientele and a long wait-list, there are dark forces at work on the island, and as her time there grows more harrowing, the truth threatens to come to light. How far will Oona go to access the power her mother commands?

Tender and intense, witchy and wise, and written in prose that glitters and seethes, Marrow is a gripping novel about the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, about what we must believe in order to imagine a future for ourselves, and what we must let go in order to fully live it.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Shea debuts with a spellbinding tale of magic and motherhood centered on 30-something hopeful mother Oona... it has plenty to say about what it means to be a mother and it delivers a shocking twist. This potent concoction gets the job done." —Publishers Weekly

"Marrow is a novel with its own weather, an entrancing and eerie tale of longing, regret, and secrets, with a revelation that continues to haunt me." —Megha Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning

"A probable future mingles with shadows of the past in this tour de force debut by Samantha Browning Shea. Marrow has it all: A breathtaking setting, family secrets, Earth magic, desire. Prepare to be spellbound." —Sarah Addison Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Other Birds

"This haunting novel swims in the deep, murky water of motherhood, friendship, circles of care and the shadows that hover beneath and between the most hopeful of projects. Life is never only a miracle—it is also heartbreak, despair and betrayal. Marrow is rich and complicated and very, very real." Ramona Ausubel, bestselling author of The Last Animal

"An absorbing, atmospheric, rich, feminist and witchy novel—what more could we ask for? I became completely entangled in the saltmarsh of the island of Marrow and all the secrets, fierce hope, and desperation that the island holds. Samantha Shea has created magic here." —Annie Hartnett, author of The Road to Tender Hearts

"Samantha Browning Shea has given us a dark and delicious tale of mystery and witchcraft. Suspenseful and emotionally charged, Marrow is woven through with guilt and secrets, herbs and incantations, and—most powerfully—all the magic of coming into one's own power.” —Clare Beams, author of The Garden

"Startling and propulsive, Marrow is a riptide. Samantha Browning Shea’s debut novel finely walks the line that great fiction can; I was transported to its weathered world and came away more attuned to my own. Inquisitive, profound, and feminist, MARROW is a fevered mystery, posing questions that will expand and linger with readers long after the story is over." —T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

Kirkus Reviews

2025-07-17
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.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940194750108
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication date: 09/09/2025
Edition description: Unabridged
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