Review by rainbowbean - The Garden

rainbowbean 's review for:

The Garden by Clare Beams

3.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Solid 3 ⭐’s. Cover Art 5/5: I love the flowers and shape. It's simple but impactful and it's pretty. Also love the feminist vibes of the book. The content of this book, outside of the “magic” aspect and the fictional story, is thought provoking. The story well captures pregnancy and loss.

So…I hated Irene - the MC. Usually I love a character with a touch of snark but this one was just so bitterly angry, and if it hadn't been driven home that she was like this her whole life I would have given it a bit of a pass considering what she was going through, but no, she's just an unlikeable bitch. I spent the entire book hoping she had her baby and also terrified for the child having her for a mother. In every interaction she had I wondered why she was such a raging bitch for no reason.

The other characters were fine I guess but they weren't developed much.

The magic of the garden and a few other things in the story left me confused at times but the story was compelling enough it didn't detract for me throughout. I was however left unsatisfied with the answers at the end, not in a way that ruined the book for me, I was just disappointed. While I love magical aspects I think the characters could have been more developed and it didn't even need the magical (or whatever) storyline.

This book reminded me how lucky we are to have access to information via the internet and required sex education in schools because this takes place when my Grandma was having kids and these women had so little knowledge about their bodies. It's both heartbreaking for them, but also it's surprising because it wasn't that long ago. I liked the information in the acknowledgments about the inspiration for this story.

Overall this was a good book that I would recommend reading.

Content Warnings