by Camilla Bruce
SYNOPSIS
The dead won’t stay silent forever…
Clara Woods has a secret. At the bottom of the garden is a flowerbed, long overgrown, where her murdered husband rests in peace – or so she always thought. Then the girls arrived.
Lily and Violet, her adolescent nieces, are recently orphaned and in urgent need of care. Raising teenagers is certainly not what Clara had envisioned for herself, but they come with a hefty sum attached.
There is only one problem: both girls are untrained witches. Lily can literally see how people feel. And young Violet can see the dead man wandering at the bottom of the garden. In fact, she can see all the dead and call them back.
Soon, Clara finds herself surrounded by apparitions – and two girls who know far more about her dark past than they should. A war is waging in this house, and only one side can win…
REVIEW
When her half-brother dies, Clara is approached to take in her orphaned nieces - 14-year-old Lily and 9-year-old Violet. Clara had a strained relationship with her brother, feeling that her mother preferred her 'new' family and no longer wanted Clara or any reminders of her previous life or family. Out of spite, she agrees after finding out that there was a substantial amount of inheritance involved which could fund her dream of setting up a diamond jewellery range of her own - Clara Diamonds. What Clara wasn't expecting was that Lily and Violet would arrive with special gifts, gifts that allow them to see and interact with ghosts, see people's emotions as colours and even the power to heal. This causes significant problems for Clara, as she has secrets she would prefer to keep hidden, secrets that certain people are desperate for Lily and Violet to expose.
At The Bottom Of The Garden is a modern and more adult take on a classic gothic fairytale. You have a wicked aunt, gifted and unusual children, animal familiars, creepy woods and multiple instances of murder and revenge. This isn't full-blown horror that will keep you up all night after reading, it's more of a gothic exploration of death but it's also very funny in places - the comedy timing of some of Aunt Clara's comments was genius, and turned somebody who could have been a totally unlikeable character into a villain you could actually empathise with.
For me the atmosphere was the most successful element of this story. Literally everything from the characters, the house, the food, the flowers and even the instruments were all described in such a way that they almost had their own personalities - it made the story so immersive and this all added to the dark and overbearing feeling in Crescent Hill. An unsettling story which uses the multiple points of view of Clara, Lily and Violet to gradually build a complex and layered psychological horror story mixed with subverted fairytale tropes.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Camilla Bruce and Oneworld Publications @OneworldNews for the opportunity to read and review.
Publisher: Oneworld Publications Genre: Folk Horror / Adult Fairytale / Contemporary Horror
ISBN: 978-0861549924
Pages: 368pp
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