Published By: Doubleday
Pages: 288
Released On: 30/01/2025
In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. For as long as they can remember, Evelyn and Lily have only had each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know.
Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother. So, when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the centre of this new Eden, the reality of their existence is irrevocably shattered. Who is he? And where did he come from?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
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, but 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.
Books By Your Bedside 