With their first child on the way, Sally and Gordon are looking for their forever home, and they think they’ve found it in 44 North Drive. It needs some work, sure. Walls are crumbling, carpets are rotten, and the plumbing is leaky. But it’s the large overgrown garden that excites them most. Though there is that weird sign on the gate: ‘Beware of the garden’.
When Gordon decides to start work out there, he takes his first step from patio to lawn…and everything changes. He discovers that their garden is much bigger than it seems. There are things out there in the undergrowth. And as the boom of distant footsteps approach, he starts to fear he’ll never make it back home.
There’s an eternal conflict being fought…and to decide what part he plays, he has to venture into the wild green yonder.
Dark bleatings, my wild tribe! I’m really excited to talk about this book a little more today – I’ve already made a video reviewing it but, you know me, I like to put my thoughts about books in writing, always! (If you’d like to watch the video, you can see it HERE.)
Let me get through the “technical” aspects first because I’m going to get too excited to remember anything else once I get into the meat of the story itself. Firstly, co-written books are a gamble, in my opinion. There are a few different ways to go about such a task, but the obvious risk is always that readers will be able to tell. No one wants to read something disjointed and stylistically incohesive (unless, I suppose, that’s the point – but I’ve yet to come across something like that). Fear not, because the writing of this story is so smooth. I’m less familiar with Peter’s writing than Tim’s, and Tim Lebbon is one of those authors whose work I’d like to think I know well. I’d go as far as to wager that if I had three books before me with no indication of the author, I’d be able to tell if one of them was written by Tim. I have to say, I really couldn’t see the seams between the authors in this novella. It flows, the pacing never feels off, and narratively, it feels like one voice.
The writing is also very evocative and serves the story well – the authors did such a great job of conveying the scenery (not only the garden but the house too, for the little that we get to see it). It’s such a beautifully painted picture of what quickly becomes an absolute horror show…
So, yay, onto the story itself! We begin with a couple who are house-hunting, in preparation for the arrival of their first child. They take a look around what has to be one of the grossest houses I’ve ever read, and the wife in particular writes it off very quickly. However, in the next chapter, they’re moving in. The heebie jeebies this house and the woman selling it gave me, I tell ya. One minute, it seemed like there was no way a sane couple would take such a property (and they do seem completely sane!), and the next, it was like the house had somehow manipulated them into it without them noticing. A lot of work needs to be done so, because it’s as good a place as any, the husband decides to start in the garden. It’s from there that the nightmare begins because he can’t leave. The garden, he quickly learns, is inescapable.
I simply refuse to risk spoilers but needless to say, this premise was so stress-inducing I couldn’t put the book down because I had to know how things were going to end for this dude. The garden – an outwardly beautiful place – is a terrible prison that bends time and distance, and is clearly somewhat sentient, and it was terrifying. In terms of what type of horror this is, you won’t find big monsters or toothy fiends (well, actually….there are some really weird…never mind, you’ll find out for yourself when you read it…). This isn’t a ‘monster lurking under the bed’ type of story.
What is it, then? Anxiety fodder, I’d say. The kind that makes you feel like a villain’s theme is playing on a loop but you don’t know where the prick is, so you can’t ever completely face the danger. It’s the kind of story that filled me with despair and had me trying to problem-solve my way out of the plot. Very unique, very interesting, and very ‘this is why I don’t want a garden’.
An absolute must-read for people who are looking for something completely different. It’s weird and horribly wonderful, and one of my favourite reads of 2024.
If you’d like to check out the book or the authors, I’ve popped some links below for you.
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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