Nick Newman

This is an eerily creepy dystopian story of two elderly sisters who live alone in their families crumbling mansion somewhere in England after the world as they knew it has ended. We don't know exactly what happened but it was clearly catastrophic for the the planet. They spend their days taking care of their huge garden following the directives of the almanac their mother created before she died. They have not seen another human being in years and fear anything outside of the garden wall. show more They believe what their mother told them, there is nothing but monsters beyond the wall. But their sisterly dynamics suddenly change when they discover a young boy has breached the wall and entered their isolated world. The sisters begin to question their mothers strict rules because if one boy can find them could there not be others? I really enjoyed this novel. It's got the right mix of horror, humor and surprise twists that I found absolutely intriguing. For fans of something a little bit different this book is for you. Highly recommended. 5 stars.
Many thanks to Net Galley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam | G.P. Putnam's Sons for a chance to read an ARC version of this book. show less

I received an ARC of Newman's The Garden for free.
Things rotting beneath the surface. An allegory for the garden and the fall? The end of the world and the beginning of a new one, over and over again in a never ending cycle.
Two sisters, their traumatic and mysterious past, a stranger comes to town and changes everything. Even though things have changed more over the years than they would like to admit. A tight story, told in limited spaces and with limited characters, exploring our show more relationships with each other, the world, and mental illness. show less

The Garden - N.Newman
Audio performance by Nicolette McKenzie
4 stars

The book begins with the interior thoughts of an elderly woman, Evelyn, tending her bees. Someone or something has disturbed one of the hives. So very odd. The only other person who could have done such a thing is her sister, Lily. Lily is afraid of bees.

But, Lily is the only other person. The only other person anywhere. No one else comes to the garden. There’s no one and nothing beyond it. As far as Evelyn believes. As show more far as Evelyn knows.

There’s a very gothic atmosphere to this post apocalyptic book. (Not a nuclear disaster apocalypse, this is a climate change disaster novel. The garden setting is a perfect showcase for climate change consequences.) The aging sisters have a strange childlike relationship. Their past is revealed as the unreliable memories of two very unreliable narrators. As their eerie, decades-long seclusion is disturbed by the arrival of a starving young boy, the plot slips from the strange and eccentric to outright horror.

I don’t usually care for spooky stories, but this one grabbed me. show less

A Piranesi and Shirley Jackson combo is accurate as far as the type of book this is, but The Garden lacks the soul or originality of those writers. Unlike their books, The Garden has a strong feeling of unrelenting dread the whole way through, and the effect of that was unpleasant for me. While Jackson and Susannah Clarke also use dread in their writing, they interrupt it at times with something else. Jackson uses dark humor, Clarke uses beauty. Theirs are stronger books as a result.

The show more quality of the writing itself is solid overall, and I noticed that Nick Newman’s writing shines anytime he is describing nature.

I really didn’t enjoy the last third of the book. It felt like it was meant to be building to something meaningful, but then ultimately it didn’t. That brought it down from a 3 star read to a 2.5 for me.

Readers who don’t need everything to be answered by the end of the book and who are fine with slower paced books will be more likely to enjoy this.

I also have a strong hunch that this might be a hit with I Who Have Never Known Men fans (a book I found too unrelentingly bleak and ended up DNFing). show less