ARC review; thanks to NetGalley, Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, and Doubleday for the access to this ebook. Pub date: Jan 30, 2025. 

This was not at all what I expected in a good way. It gave me some "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" vibes not because the stories are similar, but because "The Garden" has the same kind of eerie strangeness where you don't know exactly what, but you know there's something off with the characters and how they live. 

This is post-apocalyptic, creepy, and mysterious, and the horror elements are subtle but very effective. In the end, I didn't get all the answers I wanted and I don't think I was given enough information to speculate effectively, but it was immersive. It's the kind of book that will have you thinking about the answers you didn't get for a good while. 

Overall, this is quite a unique story and while it feels slow, you can't stop reading because you just want to know more and understand not only the characters better, but also what happened beyond the walls of their land. Even though I don't think the payoff of all the buildup was as effective as I had hoped, I enjoyed the strange journey.