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 stranger . . . and by 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 chilling fable in the tradition of Washington Irving and Edgar Allen Poe.
Intrigued? Read On:
The Night Gardener is not my usual cup of tea. I saw the cover, read the summary, and slid it back onto the shelf. I don’t like thrillers. At all.
But eventually I picked it up again, not because I was intrigued, but because I loved other books by the same author–Sweep and Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes. And I will admit, while it certainly wasn’t the quaint fantasy I was hoping for, it was still a work of art. Albeit a creepy one.
What I Love:
Many of the characters are complex. You can never base your impression of them off their first appearance, or indeed, their second. They all have secrets they keep, lies they tell. Each character is bound to something, some reason to stay in that creepy mansion.
Speaking of characters, Jonathan Auxier has specifically limited his cast by shutting them away in a manor. The only characters who don’t live in the manor that are named and focused on are an old storyteller and a doctor. The necessaries. Nothing more.
The themes are continually present in every action the main character takes. Every lie or story told, every wish, every need. It all links back to the themes of storytelling and what you want versus what you truly need. The end is full of hope and the realization of these themes.
What I Don’t Love:
Some things don’t make sense, and sometimes I am unsure whether it’s supposed to be left as a mystery or not. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I will show you one example. (MILD SPOILER ALERT) A man has a debt to pay off. But the amount of money he’s given them by the time the story starts should already have paid his debt. How much money does he owe them that he can’t pay it off with literal bags of money? (MILD SPOILER ALERT OVER)
I also just don’t like the creepy vibes in general. No matter how beautiful this story was, I was also definitely not for me. The scenery was haunting and shiver-inducing. I can’t blame the characters living in the manor for succumbing to nightmares. If I were the main character and her brother, I would have turned the wagon around the moment I saw the mansion and run far, far away.
Content Warnings:
Death, violence, fire, scare factor.
Many people die. Some do so quite brutally, though it’s never described in gory detail, or much detail at all. There is a place where the ground is all just graves, and the characters realize they have been walking on them the whole time.
Two boys get into fist fights. There are a few other blows here and there, none described in detail.
The characters light multiple fires in an attempt to kill the villain.
And finally, I would not recommend reading this at night–speaking from experience–or reading it if you don’t like thrillers. I also would not recommend it for children who have frequent nightmares or are easily frightened.
Ratings:
Appropriate content: 3.8/5
Story construction: 3.5/5
Writing skill: 3.8/5
Ethics: 3.8/5
Other Information:
Christian: No
Point of view: Third person
Tense: Past tense
Romance: No
Series: No
Conclusion:
A haunting tale of family, storytelling, and teamwork, The Night Gardener strikes deep and true. The main character comes to terms with her parent’s death, even as her brother comes to terms with his disability. Two broken families, through all the mystery and strife, learn how to come together again. To become whole, despite everything they lost.
I recommend this story for kids between the ages of 9 and 13 who like thrillers and haunting stories that hide glimmers of beauty. To anyone else, I would not recommend it. Altogether, The Night Gardener deserves 3.8 out of 5 tomatoes.
Don’t forget to subscribe to receive access to a short story by yours truly, one a little less haunting than The Night Gardener!
Leave a Reply