Night Garden

by Lisa Van Allen

[Leah]

As soon as I saw The Night Garden up for request on Netgalley, I wanted to read it. I really, really love Sarah Addison Allen’s novels and the cover and synopsis reminded me so much of one of Sarah’s novels. So I requested it (of course) and I was so chuffed to be accepted to read the novel. I don’t know what has changed in my reading habits recently, but magic in novels for me is just the best thing ever, and despite not being a gardener (AT ALL) I also like to read about plants, for some reason. So The Night Garden just ticked all of the right boxes for me – and I knew I couldn’t go far wrong reading this novel.

The Night Garden is one of the most sublime novels I have ever read. Lisa Van Allen doesn’t half paint a picture with her words, and I very rarely see that or notice that when reading books (I’m simplistic at heart, wordy novels go right over my head usually). The Night Garden is probably one of the most well written novels I have ever read, and yet I never felt stupid whilst reading, which sometimes occurs when I read books that flow like poetry. The setting of the book is perfect – and somewhat surprising! Usually novels like this are set in the South (which I adore, I have a strange affinity with the South, it’s very quaint if you’ll excuse me calling it quaint) and instead The Night Garden is set in upstate New York! But, really, it could have been set anywhere, or an entirely different planet and I wouldn’t have realised.

The Pennywort farm sounds like the most amazing place on Earth. Just super. I would love to visit, and walk around the maze and ponder life’s questions and wait for the answers. I’d love to smell all the flowers, and visit all the different maze rooms. I’d even love to see Olivia’s secret garden, despite what it holds. I rather admired the fact that Olivia had spent her life at Pennywort, never venturing far away (or at all in later years). It sounds like heaven so why would you leave? Of course there is actually a very good reason why she doesn’t leave, and it made me kind of sad. I liked that the arrival again of Sam Van Winkle let the two reconnect, it was quite something to see the two spark off each other, and to see Olivia opening up more and more, having been quite reserved for the earlier parts of the novel.

Probably my only issue with the novel was the super quick ending. I sort of felt as if I was left hanging, with a lot of what-ifs, and speculation. I like my endings in a neat bow, and this wasn’t that. After so much build up and so much tension and anticipation, I wanted a more concrete ending. The novel deserved that, if I’m being honest. It just felt a bit deflating. Apart from that, this was the most wonderfully charming novel. I was completely taken in. The writing was so good that I had to keep putting the book down to absorb what I read and it took me 5 days to finish it! 5 days, because I was in that strange state where I desperately wanted to read more and desperately wanted to savour it. I was impressed with this novel, and I will definitely be checking out Lisa’s other novels, and if you love Sarah Addison Allen, or Suzanne Palmieri, and novels about magical things and gardens, this is the book for you!