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The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier: A… Not Particularly Scary Story?

Hey, all; it’s Alexa! Little disclaimer: I actually did like The Night Gardener. A lot. However, the tagline is “a scary story,” and I’m afraid that, to me, it was a lot more creepy than actually scary. Granted, I am on season 5 of Supernatural. So. That might have something to do with it.

the-night-gardener

Jacket Cover Description:

The Night Gardener follows two abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling English manor house. But the house and its inhabitants are not quite what they seem. Soon, the children are confronted by a mysterious spectre—and an ancient curse that threatens their very lives.

A mesmerizing read and a testament to the magical power of storytelling, The Night Gardener is a spine-chilling fable in the tradition of Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe.

Plot:

Like I said in the intro, I found this plot far more suspenseful than actually scary (although, according to Goodreads, some others found it pretty frightening. *shrugs* To each his own, I suppose); but it was creepy, mysterious, and it really grabbed my interest. I wanted to know who the “Night Man” was, how the tree worked, what exactly was wrong with the Windsors. To be honest, I didn’t get all my answers, but the intensity definitely kept me flipping pages as Kip and Molly sought to solve the secrets before they and the Windsors ended up another family buried forever under the roots of the Sourwoods.

Plot: 5 stars out of 5

Characters:

While I did enjoy the time I spent with these characters—truly, they’re fantastic: complex, amusing, most of them charming in their own ways, and the turn-arounds in the Windsors are absolutely amazing—to me, the intensity of the plot kind of overshadowed the characters sometimes. To be fair, I think that’s more of a personal-preference thing than an actual issue because I’m more of a character reader; but the plot definitely takes center stage in this novel. So, even though they are both great, it’s harder for me to pin down a lot of specifics to say about these characters because the plot is the most prevalent part of the story.

Characters: 4 stars out of 5.

Writing Style/Setting:

The writing in this book is awesome. It’s super creepy, and even though I wasn’t actually scared for most of it, I could understand and nearly feel the fear in the scenes when the characters were afraid. The wording and style are absolutely perfect for this tale, always portraying the setting in such a way that the eerie nature of the Sourwoods, the twisting gnarls in the ancient tree, the bottomless pits of the Night Man’s eyes were etched before me as I read.

Writing Style/Setting: 5 stars out of 5.

And so we come in at about 4 1/2 stars out of 5. Even though I didn’t find the scary story I was promised, The Night Gardener was still pretty neat: it’s mysterious, atmospheric, and, in my opinion, just a tad spooky. If you’d like to pick up a copy for yourself, you can get it on Amazon for $5.99

Question time! What’s been on your reading list lately? Are you a fan of the scary story genre or do you stay in the losing-sleep-because-you’re-staying-up-to-read-not-because-you’re-scared-out-of-your-wits zone? Can’t wait to hear from you, and I’ll see you in the comment section!

~ Love, Alexa <3

2 Comments


    1. // Reply

      Haha, yeah, it’s got the perfect creepy feel to it!

      Definitely was! And high fives on love for the charries. 🙂

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