The Garden by Nick Newman ⭐⭐⭐⭐

An emotional journey between sister's Lily and Evelyn. They don't leave the house (which they have lived in their whole life) or the garden and have no reason to. The garden supplies all their food. The garden which was left behind when their mother died.
They live their lives in isolation.
Would you be able to survive in isolation?

Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld Books for the advance e copy.

There are four main characters in this novel. Evelyn, the obedient and stoic daughter. Lily, the gadfly who dares question authority. The boy, beast of burden, who sets the story line in motion. Finally mother, who lies beneath the garden yet still has authority over the happenings.

The plot hints that at one time The Garden was probably a compound for a cult of environmentalists that fell apart as the climate changed for the worse. Most took off for parts unknown leaving only mother and the girls. The book of knowledge (their spurious bible) was an almanac written by the hand of mother and is the main source of information for Evelyn and Lily.

Day to day they tend the vegetable garden and bees – Evelyn aggressively while Lily is more passive and wants to practice her ballet. They are frightened and anxious of what and who lies beyond the garden wall. This regimented lifestyle is disrupted with the arrival of The Boy.

As the book progresses the reader, along with the girls, start to question what lays beyond. The story turns dark both inside and outside the garden as the layers of mothers warnings peel away.

This book held my interest. The characters were well formed and made real. The allegory of The Garden can be interpreted many ways when juxtaposed against today’s environmental and political climate.

3.75 stars

This review is based on an ARC of The Garden which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Penguin Group Putnam/G.P. Putnam's Sons).

The cover halted me, the synopsis piqued my interest, and the first few lines swept me away into a wondrous landscape of lush greenery and the low-thrumming drone of bees. Our main characters, stolid Evelyn and frisky Lily, make for an intriguing yin and yang duo. I really enjoyed the dynamics of the characters, their believability and development. And that's not to forget the titular Garden, as alive and real as Evelyn, the bees, and the Boy; nor Mama, deceased, but whose breath speaks in the breeze, whose heart flutters with the pages of the Almanac.

The Garden, perennial and unchanged for decades passed, sees an abrupt change with the crumbling of a wall and a mysterious intruder from beyond. As routine is broken and steadfast beliefs challenged, our characters--and, inevitably, the reader--begin to question the truth of Mama's Almanac, of the idyllic life of the Garden.

I found myself so involved in the story of The Garden! As mysteries unfolded and doubts began to brew, I grew ever more wary, indignant to believe in another way of life. Then, I found myself opening to curiosity, growing doubtful of Mama's truths, questioning all I had come to know.

The Garden plays with one's mind, emotions, loyalties. The Garden is at once whimsical, romantic, and eerie, packaged in butcher paper and twine, a delightful cottagecore gift.

3.5 stars rounded down.

This was... interesting. The book wasn't bad, it was beautifully told and really built slowly into this fascinating mixture between dystopian sci-fi, gothic horror, and something contemporary.

There was a LOT of eldest daughter syndrome in this, which I found very interesting to read about as well. Overall, it was just creepy enough and just mysterious enough to keep me interested while still somehow having this gothic/cozy vibe. very unique, though not entirely my vibe.

Well, that was an odd one. Rather readable, but you're not quite sure what genre you're in until you get towards the end. You're held in this weird little crux where you know something is off, but you're not sure if it is the sisters or the rest of the world.
I would absolutely love to see this house in person. To have lived in such an estate. And the gardens and the lake and the grotto, etc. Gorgeous descriptions.

Evelyn and Lilly are sisters who have lived their entire lives in the broken down family estate. The sisters have been raised in isolation and taught that The Garden is the source of their survival (plants, food, chickens, and beehives). The age of the sisters is never revealed nor is the reason for the isolation and alienation from society. Enter a boy who is found hiding in the house. The arrival of this third person changes the dynamic of the sisters relationship and brings with it distrust, questioned loyalty, and thoughts about the future.

This one began slow but picked up very fast. I could not put it down.

Thank you Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons for the eARC.

i have no idea how to describe this. tight, claustrophobic, and chronophobic work of intense fiction. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) for a copy of this ARC! It was an intriguing delight from start to finish!

What an unexpected treat this book was! I came across The Garden in NetGalley after having finished up my other ARC reviews. The premise (and gorgeous cover) pulled me in so I was delighted when the publisher approved my request!

This book follows two elderly sisters, in the aftermath of a nameless event that leaves them isolated at their family’s crumbling estate. Evelyn and Lily have spent their whole lives following their mother’s strict guidance to survive — meticulously maintaining the property’s orchards, bees and gardens to keep up their larders. They only have each other. But when a mysterious young visitor crashes their carefully maintained bubble, the sister’s relationship is put to the test.

This book was not on my radar at all until recently but I’m so pleased I stumbled upon it because it was right up my alley. This book was an unexpected and refreshing take on post-apocalyptic fiction. The atmosphere was fantastic, I really felt the isolation that the sisters grew up in. There’s a lot of mystery going in and I enjoyed the way their environment and situation is slowly revealed over the course of the novel. The pace was also great, this story had just the right amount of tension building to really keep me hooked from start to finish.

I really loved Evelyn and Lily as characters. They are both elderly, though uncertain of their exact ages. However, they also have a distinct childlike quality to them which, I think, does a fantastic job reflecting the environment they grew up in. I enjoyed their complex relationship and watching it get put under strain with the introduction of a new character. I particularly appreciated the way we are introduced to them as adults and over time slowly see more and more glimpses of their childhood which explained a lot of motivation and mannerisms in the two.

This story also has some wonderful shock moments that I feel like I should have seen coming but was not expecting at all! I think some readers might be dissatisfied with the ending but I thought it was rather fitting with the overall theme of the story. I wish there had been a little more detail, in the end, but that’s a minor complaint.

If you love character-focused, post-apocalyptic fiction I think you’ll really enjoy this unusual take. It’s not something I feel I’ve read before, which is really hard to say these days!

This book will be released February 18th, 2025

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Review will be published on my site on February 10th, 2024 at https://www.mishmashedmagic.com/bookblog/the-garden-by-nick-newman

I was graciously given an Advanced Reader copy of The Garden by Nick Newman from GP Putnam’s Sons and Netgalley.
Originally it was the cover that had me intrigued. Then I read the description and decided to pick it up.

This book is a unique mix of end of the world and this is how it has always been. Two elderly sisters have lived in a large house surrounded by a garden. They spend their days based on an almanac that their mother had written long before she passed. The almanac teaches them all they need to do to keep their garden producing enough food for them to live on. When suddenly a boy shows up in their garden the sisters start to remember things that they had either suppressed or had long since forgotten.

I got major We Have Always Lived in the Castle vibes from this book. Thinking back I would also categorize this in the same light as Rebecca, kind of like ‘gothic literature’. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely different from the books I normally read.

This was a slow burn dystopian novel about two elderly sisters maintaining their garden, after a climate change catastrophe of some sort. We don't learn the where or why of anything, the details are quite spare. We know just as much as the sisters know, which is little to nothing. A boy appears in their well-ordered, claustrophobic, secluded life, and everything changes. I really enjoyed this one. The sisters were strange and the boy was an enigma. The tension built slowly at first and then ramped right up at the end.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC copy to read and review.

The Garden is a haunting novel that brings us into a dystopian world that follows two elderly sisters, Evelyn and Lily. The two have spent their entire lives secluded within their family's walled garden and kitchen. Their late mother left them an almanac dictating their daily routines of taking care of the bee hives, planting crops etc...Evelyn follows this almanac to the letter, while Lily starts to question its validity, along with her mother's choices and rules.

After many years of isolation, Evelyn and Lily's life is disrupted by the appearance of a young boy hiding in their home, which forces them both to confront long-buried secrets, like where did their father really go, and is there really nothing else outside the walls of their garden?

Overall, I enjoyed this book and it's creepy, dread filled story. I do wish there was a clearer ending, but I've learned to decide on my own with books like this, what I think occurred.

too literary fiction for my liking
also with the times as they are, I'm not into dystopian fiction right now
would love the audio on a road trip
this was 100% a me thats the problem, not the book

I'm not sure where to start with this review. The premise grabbed me: 2 elderly sisters live in a walled garden (time and place unknown) and are secluded from the outside world. They spend their days planting crops, tending their beehives, and following instructions left by their mother.

One day, a boy (no name) shows up in their garden. Where did he come from? They thought there was no one and nothing on the outside of their garden.

I know that this book is in the dystopian genre. But it was a slog to finish it. There wasn't much action. The sisters acted like children, always bickering. The end leaves you hanging which I don't love. This one was just okay for me.

Thank you to Penguin/Putnam and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the ARC of The Garden in exchange for an honest review.

I must be honest in that I’m truly struggling with how to explain or dictate how I feel after reading The Garden. I think this is in part because my primary adjective would be ‘confusion.’ While for the most part I understand the occurrences that took place within The Garden, I’m really struggling to grasp the meaning of the work as a whole and decipher what occurred in the last few chapters of the book.

To be brief without giving anything away, The Garden is set in an almost post-apocalyptic dystopian setting where the reader is unsure of the actual timeframe in which this story has occurred or geographically where the story is set. In a slow build, you spend most of the book piecing together what has occurred in the lives of our two main characters, Evelyn and Lily, in their walled off fortress/camp known to them as The Garden. Everything the girls have been raised to know will be tested when their fortress is breached by a boy from the outside, where they have been lead to believe by their deceased mother, that life no longer exists. Relationships begin to crumble as their faith in each other is quickly tested. However, they are going to need to learn to trust each other if they want to survive.

While there is no denying that The Garden is beautifully written and emotionally gripping, I spent most of my time reading in a suspended state of bewilderment. To be fair, I am not necessarily a reader that can just suspend all beliefs and go with the flow. I prefer a well laid out storyline that I can follow and justify in my mind. It either makes sense or it doesn’t. I like my ending to be concise and I don’t like to have to ask myself “WTF did I just read here?” If you are anything like me, you are going to STRUGGLE with this one. That being said, I’m well aware that this is a personal problem and there are likely many people not like me who are unbothered by the unravellings of this book. If you have read this book already, I’d be horribly curious to know how someone else interpreted the last few chapters and what they took from this read, because I’m not sure I could entirely explain that myself.

Understanding that this genre of book is not my normal cup of tea, I can appreciate the writing for what it is. The descriptions are beautiful and the complexity of the relationship between the sisters and that of their deceased mother is rather compelling. Also, completely unrelated to the storyline, the cover art for this book is absolutely beautiful and I have to admit, it’s initially what sucked me in. (Hats off to you for knocking that one out of the park). Being that this read was a bit outside of my grasp, I’m inclined to rate it as a 3.5/5, but rounding up to a 4 thanks to the interesting character dynamics and compelling visual descriptions throughout.

Now that I’ve got my thoughts out there, I’m eager to dive into the reviews of others to get their take on The Garden.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this advance copy of "The Garden."

I'm not really sure how I feel about this dystopian story about 2 sisters who have lived alone for decades in the kitchen of a large house on a great deal of property. They never venture into other parts of the house out of fear. Also, they have been keeping the expansive garden going on their own for nearly their entire lives. They are each other's only company.... until they discover a boy has entered their garden. That is when relationships change.

I gave this book a rating of 4, not because I liked it, but because it gripped me. I really wanted to give it a 3.5, but rounding down didn't seem right, especially for a book that kept me coming back. I had no idea how it was going to play out, so I kept reading. But I did not like it. It's disturbing throughout. So should you read it? That's up to you to decide.

Evelyn and Lily are sisters. Now elderly, they still live in their family home. They are as different as day and night. Each shaped by their mother.
Where is this house? No clue. Where is this garden? Again, no clue
What are the storms? No clue. Is this fantasy? No clue
All in all there were so many unanswered questions that it was a chore to get through.


NetGalley/ Penguin Group/ Putnam February 18, 2025

Dystopian fiction isn't hard to find. But I thought the execution of this book was outstanding. I was hooked on the story from the beginning. It had such a weird, evocative vibe from the beginning, so that you know there's something gone very wrong in the world of the two elderly sisters, Lily and Evelyn. Their enclosed Garden (and their kitchen) is their entire world, and they spend their days tending to the garden, to the bees, their chickens, their vegetables. And they *never* consider what is outside their garden, and refuse even to look over the walls. They also live entirely within their kitchen, despite the fact it's pretty clear they live in a large manor house. But the house is forbidden to them. This has been their lives for so long, they barely remember their privileged youth living in the house, with the parties their family hosts, and their friends. As far as they know, they are the entirety of the world.

Then one day, the unthinkable happens. A boy (we never do learn his name) shows up in their garden. And it throws their entire world into chaos. His existence forces them to reckon with the possibility that their Garden may not be all there is in this world. And as they get to know the boy better, memories come back to them.

I don't want to say much more because spoilers. But I will say there were moments in this book I honestly didn't expect or see coming, and that's such a rare occurrence for me! The writing is so effortlessly descriptive, I felt the fear and claustrophobia the sisters were feeling. I won't lie, I also spent a good chunk of the book really not liking either sister. I tried to step back and place myself in their shoes, and that was a hard thing for me to do, which I actually appreciated.

Overall, what a great book. It's not common these days for me to just sit down and read a book straight through, staying up late to see what happens. And I did with this book.

4.5/5 ⭐️
Even though I knew from the story’s description that this was a dystopian, I loved how you forget it is. It is such an intimate story kept to one place and to three people. Well sort of four. I loved how the story revealed itself. Steadily it revealed more of our setting. Steadily we got breadcrumbs revealing it is a dystopian. Or I suppose utopia. Steadily, everything became revealed. And in all honesty, I think the closest comparison I have for this book is We Have Always Lived In A Castle by Shirley Jackson.
While there is a small collection of characters, the two sisters are the main focus. Over the course of the story we get to witness their dynamic. Their love. Their secrets. Their grudges. And everything is cracked open with a mysterious newcomer.
This story was hauntingly beautiful. So much, I was tearing up at the end. I think what I loved most was the sisters dynamic and how intimate of a dystopian this was. Usually dystopians are grander and interacting with a full society. This series in so close on one tiny corner of the world. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

This was an interesting read, one I'm still digesting hours after having finished it. I didn't have any knowledge of the story going in, and it took some time to figure out the dystopian/sci-fi/fantasy angles to the tale. Slow-moving yet eloquent, this is not an action-packed adventure; rather, an introspective look at a different world through the "innocent" eyes of older sisters.

I liked this, and I'll probably like it better tomorrow after having slept on it. Will I read more from the author? Yes.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

I was given an advance reader copy of this title by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This was a very creative well executed premise. Very talented writer who successfully created suspense and surprise.