Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Brokenhearted: An Enchanting Start That Loses Its Way

Read time: 5 minutes

🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Phyllida Nash ⏱ Duration: 4 hours
Genre: Magical Realism Read as a part of Mystery Date with Whitby Library
🏷️ Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing and Other Press

Book Blurb:

On the twentieth anniversary of the day her first husband walked out, Viv decides to throw a party unlike any other: a masquerade for people burned by love, held in a sacred wood in the south of France. Her reluctant second husband Alan goes along with it, as do their friends Beatrice and Stephen, and the whole thing gets a headline act when Viv meets the famed clairvoyant Madame Sosostris, last seen in T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and rumored to have advised five prime ministers. As the partygoers disguise themselves and wait for her to arrive, the night takes a turn that forces all four of them to confront their relationships, their pasts, and who they really are underneath the masks. A modern fable from the Booker Prize winning author, with all the impish magic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Let’s talk about the book:

I got this book in a mystery date with the clues given as magical realism, masked ball, and enchanted forest. That created an image which would be a mix of Sangu Mandanna and Rhys Bowen, and I was instantly “enchanted.”

The first few chapters of the book created a wonderful vibe. Narration by Phyllida Nash was so beautifully eloquent, with her posh accent and brilliant vocabulary (which is Ben Okri’s writing, of course). The premise in the first few chapters was brilliant. Viv wanting to host a ball for the brokenhearted to help them get over their pain, and Alan, her husband, although not entirely agreeing to it, still goes ahead with the idea. A mysterious soothsayer and clairvoyant. A masked ball.

But that is where the fascination ended for me. The ball itself, set in an enchanted forest, didn’t make much sense to me. What was the point of the whole book from there? The magic of the forest is supposed to bring the reality of the person to the forefront, for both the person themselves and those around to witness, but why go through the whole ordeal? The ending would have happened regardless of the enchanted forest. It felt very confusing to me.

I usually enjoy magical realism and fantasy books, but this one just wasn’t very clear on the intention of the story. Not saying Ben Okri’s books aren’t good, having experience with only one, but I might not be revisiting the author, unfortunately.

Would I recommend it?

Honestly, it’s a mixed bag. The opening had everything going for it: a gorgeous narrator, an intriguing premise, and a soothsayer plucked straight out of The Waste Land. But once the masked ball actually got underway in that enchanted forest, the whole thing lost me. The forest’s “magic” is meant to strip away everyone’s masks and force some hard truths out into the open, except the story would have landed at the same place without any of it. If you’re new to Ben Okri, this might not be the best entry point, though the writing itself is undeniably lovely to listen to.

⭐⭐⭐

If you liked this, try these next

• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna — If the “enchanted” feeling you were chasing going into Madame Sosostris is what you actually want, this is where to find it. Warm, whimsical, and about a woman rebuilding herself around a found family of witches.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern — For the masked ball and enchanted setting done in a way that actually justifies itself. Two magicians, a competition neither of them fully understands, and a circus that only opens at night.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman — Another look at love, heartbreak, and the messiness of family through a magical realism lens, but with a lot more heart tying the magic to the plot than Madame Sosostris managed.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling — A lighter, funnier take on old flames, magic, and consequences you didn’t see coming. Good if you wanted the “festival for the brokenhearted” premise with more payoff and fewer question marks.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst — Cozy magical realism about starting over, for anyone who wanted Madame Sosostris’s gentler, slower magic without the confusion at the end.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

Curious what didn’t quite land for you? Share below

I keep coming back to that enchanted forest and wondering what it was actually for. If the “magic” was just going to force everyone toward the truth anyway, what did the sacred wood and the masks and Madame Sosostris herself really add? Maybe I missed something. Maybe you caught a layer I didn’t. Either way, I want to know: if you’ve read this one, did the ending feel earned to you, or did it feel like the forest was window dressing on a story that would have gotten there on its own? And if you haven’t read it yet, does a masked ball hosted for the brokenhearted sound like your kind of chaos, or a hard pass? Tell me below, I’m genuinely curious whether I’m the outlier here.

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