Lynda's Reviews > The Garden

I’m not really sure how I would classify this. It a rather disturbing adult fairytale, a bit gothic, a bit horror and very dark. It’s a relatively short book which tells the story of sisters Evelyn and Lily who live alone in the family home, in the kitchen, with the rest of the house closed up and a walled garden keeping everyone out - or maybe them in! Told throughout in Evelyn’s POV this is a slow paced but completely compelling book about relationships and the complex human psyche.

Briefly, the sisters have no contact with the outside world. They grow their own fruit and vegetables, keep bees and chickens and spend their days tending these and their garden as their mother taught them to do. They are both elderly and both very different in personality, Evelyn is the serious one whereas Lily is more flighty and prone to breaking the rules imposed on them by their mother. But their lives are changed when an unnamed boy comes into their lives.

I can’t even begin to imagine how the terrible isolation must have affected the two women, they are now elderly so it must be around 60 years where they have had no conversation or interaction outside their own little world. Although it seemed like a bit of a cozy tale at first there was always a hint of menace in the background. Two amazing characters but whilst Evelyn was a martyr to her, or rather her mother’s, beliefs Lily’s free spirit railed against their lives once her curiosity was allowed free rein. A haunting piece of literary fiction, that won’t be for everyone, but which left me with a feeling of immense sadness for the sisters.

4.5⭐️