A compelling read. It starts with the gentle pace of two elderly sisters tending their garden and slowly gets darker and darker. It is beautifully written and the characters wonderfully observed in their interactions. It's moving, at times quite scary and deeply tragic. Highly recommended.

Up on Goodreads now, live on the blog on 20 January:

Let me start by saying: I have no clue whatsoever how to review this one and how to do it justice, my sincerest apologies for the mess this review will undoubtedly become!

I would describe The Garden as a drama veering into psychological horror, with a certain gothic undertone and a dystopian as well dark and eerie fairy-tale kind of vibe. It tells the story of two sisters and their somewhat dysfunctional relationship and how they’ve grown old together, cut off from the rest of the world.

We don’t know where or when they are, and we never fully discover what happened to the rest of the world. If you’re the sort of reader who wants full disclosure and clarity by the end of the story, you might have issues with The Garden, although I have to say, I’m usually that type of reader and here it didn’t bother me at all. For some reason, it works here, it adds to that almost dreamlike quality of the story.

The Garden is a slow-burner. Again, not something I always appreciate, but this is the kind of story that begs not to be rushed. The sisters’ tale is very compelling, I was drawn in from the very first chapter and I couldn’t stop reading. Little by little, (some of) the truth is revealed and I felt quite overwhelmed by a feeling of sadness for these sisters and what they’ve been through.

I started out giving The Garden four stars, but the more I think about it, the more I appreciate this haunting story and the feelings it left me with and I’ve rounded it up to five. I don’t think it will be for everyone but it most certainly was for me and I would happily recommend it to readers who enjoy dark stories that are a mix of genres and bring just that little bit more to the table.

The Garden is out in hardcover, digital formats and audio on 30 January.

Massive thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for the DRC. All opinions are my own.

I loved this to start with, it reminded me of the Secret Garden, so interesting that was the only book they had. But then it became darker, with the answers to the mysteries of the past chilling, especially the 'meat'. Then at the end, it became more of a horror/thriller. There were still unanswered questions at the end, but I enjoyed the subtlety and the slow build up of the horror.

This book is an unusual post-apocalyptic mystery set in a beautiful botanical environment. It covers themes of humanity, familial unravelling, childhood trauma, and how we deal with memories to survive.
It tells the story of two isolated sisters who live in the dilapidated stately home where they grew up. They only live in the kitchen, as the rest of the house is falling apart. They are scared of the house and what might be there. Their days revolve around tending to their large garden by religiously following the instructions their mother left them. They tend to the beehives, the chickens, the abundant fragrant flowerbeds, and they harvest apples, all in an unending list of tasks.

However, we quickly realise that things aren’t quite right. The sisters seem childish and immature, yet they are old and physically frail. They do not leave the house and garden under any circumstance, and they do not remember much of their past. The time setting is ambiguous. Past and present become blurred whilst seasons are unnaturally fast, and the heat is constantly extreme.

The atmosphere becomes increasingly tense as strange occurrences begin to happen. A strange figure is seen in the distance, making the sisters begin to question everything in their existence. Their relationship becomes strained as they confront their fears, memories, and their mother's teachings.
Ultimately, the story concludes with revelations about their past, leading to a bittersweet resolution.

I enjoyed how gradually and artfully the tension escalates. The narrative becomes increasingly oppressive and claustrophobic without ever entirely veering into horror or thriller as it goes from an idyllic, cosy atmosphere to being tense with a heavy sense of dread.
I enjoyed the sisters’ emotional journey as they navigate their lives in isolation whilst avoiding, yet being plagued by memories of their past and coming to terms with their humanity.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dystopias or gothic fiction and is looking for something different and fresh.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A slow, uneasy tale of two elderly sisters who live confined within a garden and one room of their house and spend their days tending bees, planting crops and following the almanac their mother left behind. We follow their daily life as they appear to be the only two people left in the world…until a young boy turns up and upends everything they know.

I was so excited to read a dystopian book following two elderly sisters at the end of the world as books in this genre typically follow male characters and it was so interesting reading about their sibling dynamic and slowly being let in to their pasts. Although the plots and genres are very different, I couldn’t help being reminded of Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller in that sense.

Although the characters were well fleshed out and interesting to read about, I did find myself being left a little underwhelmed by the end and hoping for more.

If you’re looking for a book with minimal plot and fleshed out characters that blends cottagecore with the dystopian/apocalyptic then this is definitely the book for you!

📚 ARC Review - The Garden | Nick Newman | 30th January 2025

A hauntingly beautiful tale of two aging sisters who have spent a lifetime maintaining their very own sanctuary in the middle of an apocalypse.

Evelyn and Lily have only each other in this dystopian world, and following them through their daily lives is truly captivating as the mystery surrounding The Garden and the encompassing apocalypse is woven as the novel develops. Upon the discovery of an unknown boy within their sanctuary whose existence seems almost impossible, secrets are brought to light and true darkness begins creeping through the cracks. The sisters are fully reliant on the teachings of their mother, though with their growing uncertainties they both seem to find themselves questioning what they believe as their circumstances continue to drift further away from anything they’ve known before. As the story progresses and more details are unravelled, you are led on a journey that slowly turns from cautiously curious to ominously thrilling. Though this was quite slowly paced, this matched the tonality of the story beautifully and I literally could not put it down until I had devoured every last word. This allowed the author to truly dive into the depths of the two sisters, allowing us to explore their complex inner workings and dysfunctional relationships as a result of an entire lifetime driven by true isolation and fear.

The novel takes place on a very small scale, and though we do learn the basic gist of how this dystopian life came about I would’ve liked to see more on that and I feel there is a lot of room for expansion within this world in the future should the opportunity arise. This is my first experience of Nick Newman’s work and I am in awe at how well the writing style lends to the storytelling and manages to captivate you as a reader. Newman manages to capture such complex emotional portrayals on the page, giving deeper meanings to the characters’ surface actions and allowing you to unmask the conflicting and confusing feelings brought on by such prolonged isolation. Thrillingly tragic, at its core this is a tale of love and survival in a dark and devouring world.

Thank you to Nick Newman and NetGalley for the opportunity to give an advance review on this book. If you’re a fan of slow thrillers and gut-wrenching dystopian horrors then grab some tissues and settle in to this darkly emotional rollercoaster of a book, as I give this a 4/5 star rating.

I have a soft spot for dystopian slow-build thrillers and the blurb for The Garden really hit the mark for me – I was excited to request to read it!

Evelyn and Lily live in a small part of their crumbling mansion, with access to their beautiful walled garden. They live off the land and have each other, and as far as they are aware, they are completely alone in the world. However, when a young boy is found hiding in their sanctuary, a lot of questions are about to be asked which may change the world as they know it forever…

I absolutely adored this book; it slowly creeps in and grips you from the inside out. The story is told through present day narration from Evelyn and interspersed with memories from her childhood, when an event occurred which brought about the end of their family’s interaction with the wider world. As a reader we are desperate to know what has happened and why the sisters are living as they are, and this information is drip-fed to us slowly in a brilliantly paced way which kept me gripped.

It really is one of those books I don’t want to give too much away whilst writing my review and just urge you to read it and see what I mean. Evelyn and Lily are such complex and different characters who each have their views and wants in the world, but also a desperate dependency on each other which is a joy to read. The ending is truly moving and it’s a book that you think about long after you turn the final page.

Overall, The Garden is a gripping and brilliantly paced read which I thoroughly enjoyed – my first Kindig Gem for 2025. Thank you to NetGalley & Random House UK & Transworld Publishers – Doubleday for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This book was an excellent addition to climate and dystopian horror fiction. It’s smart, it understands exactly what it’s trying to do and it unveils at just the right pace.

We meet two aging sisters in the garden they tend. Their lives are dedicated to work and fulfilling the rules laid out for them my their mother in an almanac. One sister is far more dedicated than the other and we experience their tension as one seeks to maintain their lives, and the other wants something more. Their garden is surrounded by a wasteland we don’t fully understand and we get gradual hints to the horrors outside through mentions of extreme weather as long as flashbacks to their past lives and what happened to bring them to this situation dotted throughout the book.

This is very small in scale with the story focused on one home and two sisters. However it works perfectly for a vehicle for exploring the situation and the pressure the living environment is putting on these characters.

For atmosphere, characters, intrigue and world building this book was excellent. The only reason it wasn’t a five star read for me was the ending felt a bit confusing. But the first 85% of the book was fantastic.

This was not at all what I expected in a good way. It gave me some "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" vibes not because the stories are similar, but because "The Garden" has the same kind of eerie strangeness where you don't know exactly what, but you know there's something off with the characters and how they live.

This is post-apocalyptic, creepy, and mysterious, and the horror elements are subtle but very effective. In the end, I didn't get all the answers I wanted and I don't think I was given enough information to speculate effectively, but it was immersive. It's the kind of book that will have you thinking about the answers you didn't get for a good while.

Overall, this is quite a unique story and while it feels slow, you can't stop reading because you just want to know more and understand not only the characters better, but also what happened beyond the walls of their land. Even though I don't think the payoff of all the buildup was as effective as I had hoped, I enjoyed the strange journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for an early copy of The Garden by Nick Newman.

The Garden is a dystopian tale set somewhere in the future. The author alludes to climate change but does not discuss it in detail.

Evelyn and Lily are two elderly sisters taking care of the garden of their family's manor house and living in just the kitchen as the rest of the house was closed off by their Mother before she died. They are self-sufficient and have closed themselves off from the outside, strictly following their Mother's instructions written in a handmade almanac.

The sisters have opposing personalities with Evelyn, the elder sister, taking on the Mother's role, and Lily the role of the unruly younger sibling. This is for an undetermined number of years before a boy shows up in the garden, quietly challenging the sisters' relationship and their understanding of the outside world. What was their Mother trying to protect them from?

I enjoyed this and it was a different slant on most other dystopian novels I have read, and it was interesting to have the viewpoint of older characters in that situation.

Highly recommended!

4-4.5 stars
With thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the arc.
I enjoyed this book immensely and actually ended up reading it in one sitting. Who would have thought a story about two elderly sisters tending a garden in an overheated and dust-storm prone dystopian world could be so gripping?
The writing is excellent - the world of the sisters is expertly depicted as both boringly mundane and eerily gothic at the same time. Some reviewers have commented on the lack of action in the first 70% of the book, but I felt that this gave the author the chance to really show the development of the relationship dynamics between the sisters and, ultimately, the boy who intrudes into their isolating existence. This is one of those books that stays with you long after the story has ended.
Highly recommended.

This is a really interesting read, the concept is that two sisters are living alone in a world that has been destroyed. There are dust storms, the threat of the unknown and they are getting older. They are struggling because they are completely self-sufficient with what they grow in the garden that their mother started.

The sisters have been living in the kitchen of an old, rather large house. They do have some memories of their childhood when things were "normal". They have a journal that their mother painstakingly compiled with when to plant, sow, harvest and care for the plants they would need in the garden. Over the years though, this journal has become out of date, things are changing.

This is a story of the two women, how they see themselves and how they see the world beyond the garden walls. While it does sound like a wonderful life, living in a kitchen and having the bounty of a garden just outside the door, it is not quite right. Their mother was a big influence in their lives when she was alive, but she did have an opinion that skewed the way the sisters think.

They have never gone beyond the garden walls, never ventured into the house. It is not until a young boy is discovered in the garden that they get to hear anything of what has happened outside. His arrival, while good for the sisters, also sees an unbalancing as such. An odd number, but also someone who has not had the same upbringing as themselves and this leads them to ask questions of what they have been told.

I do like the set of this story and the way the author has kept it enclosed, while there is information about the sisters, the garden and then the boy, there is not much else to know about before. This is not an issue for me as the story is focused on the women and their lives so it does work well. This makes the story more character-led and it is a slower pace which suits the age of the women as well. I think the author has got the balance right for this book, it is a quieter dystopian book that focuses on their solitude, attitudes and opinions as they go around with their everyday tasks.

I really enjoyed this one, it was an interesting concept and it made a nice change not to have battles, but that being said though, there are some darker moments. Ideal for fans who like dystopian and character-led novels and one I would be happy to recommend.

The Garden is a dystopian, ‘end of the world’ novel about the relationship between two sisters, Evelyn and Lilly. They live in a kitchen, boarded off from the rest of their house and spend their days tending their garden. It’s the only life they really know. Despite their age they’re both rather childlike, naive and have little experience or knowledge of the world they live in, that is until they stumble upon the boy.

The book is slow paced but suits the story perfectly. It’s thought provoking, leaving you with more questions than answers, it reminds me of ‘I Who Have Never Known Men’. It’s filled with melancholy, wonder and fear of the ‘unknown’ but it’s also beautiful, at times serene and creepy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Transworld Publishers, Random House UK for this wonderful ARC.

4/5

The Garden is a dystopian post -apocalyptic story set in a time that feels historical and futuristic at the same time. Two elderly sisters, Lily and Evie, live an isolated life in an isolated location, keeping themselves safe in the grounds of their family home, behind a wall. They only live in the kitchen, barricading the rest of the house off for safety.

The sisters are busy every day, living their lives according to an almanac that their mother wrote, giving advice about when to plant, about gathering crops, keeping the bees and chickens well nourished, and so much more. Its clear that the seasonal structure that their mother wrote about is a thing of the past, plants are growing and sprouting at unexpected times and the sisters aren't sure whether to believe what they see happening around them, or to follow the rules given. Their mother is deified by the pair of them, they often talk about her in awe-struck voices or use her as a way of settling disagreements between them.

The sisters don't directly reference the environmental disaster that has clearly happened but they talk about storms lasting months, of heat rising across the world, water being rationed and tragedy everywhere. They never meet any other humans; they have vague memories of some other people in their past, but it is just the two of them in this suffocating and unchanging life. One day, a young man breaches the wall and enters the garden. They are terrified and bemused by him, what is he, where does he come from, and what does he represent? His arrival shakes up the household and changes both sisters' outlooks on life.

The story is deeply written and even though its relatively short, it is intense and can't be rushed. It sets many questions for the reader as the story develops, and doesn't offer easy answers.

First, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Transworld Publishers for allowing me to read this book as an ARC. I did enjoy this book and would love to rate it higher, but I feel like I was left with more questions than answers. This was a unique story about two elderly sisters living in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic world, which was refreshing. The setting and the story were great and really made it easy to follow. The story started slow and didn’t really pick up until 70%ish of the way through, which made it feel like it was dragging. Once it started picking up I had a hard time putting it down! Personally, I wish there was more action throughout the book to help it move along. I loved the writing and the plot, just personally cannot give it more than 3 stars for those reasons.

We don’t know where the garden is. We don’t know why the people live in the kitchen and not in the house. We don’t know why they never leave. In flashbacks, we learn about Evelyn and Lily’s childhood. We know the events must be a long time ago because they are old women now. We don’t understand their fear when they realise someone else is in the garden. Little by little, their lives open up to us and we can piece together what has happened. I was impatient to know the answers.

This is an original story that leads us along a very bizarre path of events and suppositions. I found it compelling, moving and intriguing. The realisation of what has happened to these two women isn’t a huge shock in the end and it doesn’t answer all of our questions, the answers to some of which we’re left to surmise ourselves. I’ll be thinking about some of them for a while yet.

I’m not quite sure what this was exactly. Nothing happened plot wise, but also everything happened. Lily and Evelyn have spent their entire lives in their kitchen and garden, with only memories of the rest of the house. They do the same tasks everyday, sleep in the same clothes and eat the same food. Everything is perfectly ordinary. Except for the fact that they don’t know what lies beyond the walls of their garden, nor do they remember the last time they saw or spoke to anyone else apart from each other. Until a boy appears.

I enjoyed the slow, rhythmic pacing of this book. Told through two timelines, secrets were slowly revealed and the sisters have to question everything they thought they knew. The ending was a tad confusing but overall I enjoyed the eerie atmosphere and unknown fears. I also really enjoyed how different the sisters were, I found myself sympathetic and annoyed with them both at different times. An original and entertaining read.

Part Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, part Lord of the Flies, part Shirley Jackson : all itself

Nick Newman’s distinctly creepy, quirky, mountingly tense post apocalyptic Gothic Garden of Eden novel is definitely weird, and remarkably wonderful.

There is a LOT of resonating to other books, other authors, going on here, but none of it feels like a contrived conceit, and the various layers – I can include Margaret Atwood and even ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’. Edward Albee’s play, turned into a movie, and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden in with the layering detailed above into this. Probably there are hints and resonances I’ve missed as well.

Briefly, set in a couple of time-lines which seamlessly twine with each other, we meet the two central characters, Evelyn and Lily as quite ancient sisters, living in what is some kind of isolated, decaying mansion. There are no other humans, nor any companion animals, other than some seemingly also elderly hens and a cockerel, who give the sisters eggs, and some beehives yielding honey. Most of the mansion is out of bounds, with locked and boarded up barriers preventing entry. The sisters live in the huge kitchen. And the mansion itself is surrounded by a huge and crumbling wall. Some other kind of ‘magical’ barrier has been made and maintained, by burying various objects on the garden side of the wall. There seems to be some kind of double purpose to these barriers, both to keep whatever danger is outside the wall from getting in, but also to deter the sisters from leaving.

Some major event happened in the past, which seems linked to climate change, some history of utterly violent storms

The second timeline is that of the sisters’ childhood. At that time, they lived with their parents. At one time, there were guests who visited. The relationship between the parents was clearly fraught. We really only get the flickering memories which, particularly, Evelyn has, of ‘before’ rather than a linear description of events, so we have here the wonderful unreliable narrator. At some point, various cataclysmic events happen. Nothing is definitely stated, but at some point the siege mentality within the house began, put into place by ‘Mama’. Who of course must have died long ago now, as the sisters are themselves old and becoming frail.

So brilliantly atmospheric, with satisfying detail of the practicalities of living in this curious, isolated Garden-of-Eden but also ‘Secret Garden’ as the sisters have the well thumbed book, clearly from their childhood, and read the crumbling pages to each other. There is also a curious hand written almanac of how to care for the house and garden and maintain the inner and outer wall. Mama’s instruction book.

The sisters have clearly lived this way for decades, and have a complex relationship with each other, both secretive, protective, and with flashes of rivalry and resentment. There is love, and also spite and irritability.

Into this, there comes a mysterious invader, a young boy aged somewhere between 12-14. Dirty, undernourished, terrified but also some kind of survivor from some other place. He brings both a terror and a warning about whatever ‘outside’ might be, both threatening the sisters’ established secure insecurities, but also, possibly offering both help to their elderly frailty, and the possibility of him being both exploited, and exploiter.

There is a kind of Shirley Jacksonish dark humour here, as well as her mounting Gothic horror.

Brilliant, spooky, disturbing. Also – strong kudos to the cover designer, for such a beautiful. alluring cover which is both magical and unsettling

-Rating & Tropes-
5*/5
-Cottagecore
-Unique Story
-Apocalyptic

-Quick description-
The Garden is set in a time and place that we don’t know of, what we do know is that there has been some sort of world devastating event, that they seem to have been shielded from.

The two sisters spend most of their days tending the garden and cooking we get flashbacks to their past we see them as children living in their house with their parents having company over, but then it stops and it seems to just be the four of them and they not longer go to school or have people over to help with the garden.

When “the boy” turns up seemingly out of no where the story thickens and we get a chance to see how the rest of the world has been for the many long years the two sisters have been tucked away in their garden sanctuary.


-Characters-

-Evelyn-
The older of the siblings, she’s one to follow her mother’s rules and she has almost took on the role of mum to her younger sister Lily.

-Lily-
The younger of the two she is almost still child like in wanting to play dress up and hide and seek despite the fact that they are both old now.

-Thoughts-
The Garden is about sibling bonds and a child like innocence that the sisters have never lost. It’s full of humour and sadness. It had me thinking about the sisters long after I put the book down, it was reminiscent to a dark fairytale almost in the fact that I was always on edge about what could potentially happen. Highly enjoyable book and something completely new to me that I would recommend. It’s a short easy read and you’re guaranteed to fall in love with the characters.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC and a huge thank you to Nick Newman.
Also reviewed on Goodreads, StoryGraph,Fable and Instagram (post coming soon) @read.with.rue

I have seen some other reviews that say this is like The Secret Garden but for adults, and I kinda get it. Not that Secret Garden can't be read by adults, of course, btu this seems more focussed to that audience.

It doesn't specifically say how old the sisters are, but in my head they were both quite elderly, and I think you get a different idea of the book depending on how you age them which makes it interesting. It was also interesting to see two women, two older women, carrying a story instead of being the spare parts.

The two sisters are well written, and worked against each other very well. I much preferred Evelyn to Lily. Lily felt naïve, immature, stuck in her ways, rude, and just a bit unpleasant. She felt very childlike but not in an innocent cute way. Evelyn was almost the mother figure, trying to do her work and look after Lily and then this boy who appears. My heart was more in her corner.

On various websites I've seen it described as a sci-fi book, fantasy, and/or horror. But I didn't get any of that. It felt more like a general literary fiction rather than anything scary. It has a good story, narrative, and characters, but no real darkness about it - which I'm glad about because I'm a wuss. Having said that, there are some hints of darkness towards the end, but nothing overly so, and in my opinion, they didn't really fit in to what had been a non-scary book.

It is mostly set in the (unknown) present time, but every so often there's a chapter set during the women's childhood, which gives us some idea as to why they are how they are now.

It was a weird book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's well written, original and yet familiar, interesting, engaging, with great characters. And yet, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. And there's a certain amount of letting the reader try to figure out what's going on and to fill the blanks themselves, which I was on the fence about.

One criticism I suppose is I wanted more to happen. What is there is well written and enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but I wanted more. There's a lot of day-to-day narrative, nothing of real substance. So I'd have liked it to be a bit deeper, just to expand on what he's created, which is good.

Overall I would say I enjoyed it a lot. Nick is a very good storyteller, with great characters, a powerful setting and atmosphere, and interesting world building. I think for me, to get it up to a full five stars, it just needed to be more sure of itself, of what it was, because I still can't really explain what it was.