Title: At the Bottom of the Garden

Author: Camilla Bruce

Genre: Gothic Fiction/Fairy Tale

Publisher: Magpie

Publication Date: 30th January 2025

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

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:

I have always loved the darker side of fairytales and the varied and twisted interpretations of them, so I was very intrigued by the premise of At the Bottom of the Garden. Happily, I can confirm it definitely delivered on my expectations of a gothic and deviously dark ghost story/fairytale. The narrative is split between the deliciously villainous Aunt Clara and her nieces, Lily and Violet, whom she takes in after the tragic death of their parents.  The book has a kind of more adult A Series of Unfortunate Events vibe which I adored. It also has everything required for a menacing story involving an archetypal evil stepmother of sorts in Clara. I loved reading her devious perspective and purely selfish reasons for agreeing to take her nieces into her home. She is a fabulous antagonist, with more depth than a one-note villain but still remaining menacing and pretty irredeemable. I also enjoyed the perspectives of Lily and Violet, their sisterly bond is one of the strongest aspects of the book and holds everything together beautifully. The story veers into the supernatural with the girls’ gifts, which allows the ghosts of Aunt Clara’s past to become unavoidably apparent and the drama amplifies from there on, building to the emotional conclusion. Overall, At the Bottom of the Garden is an entertaining, sinister, elegantly written and darkly magical read that I would definitely recommend, especially to anyone who loves fairytales in any form. 

★★★★

Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

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