Melissa’s Review: The Shadow Garden by Allen Houston

The Shadow Garden (Nightfall Gardens: Book Two)
written by Allen Houston
published by Flycatcher Books, 2013

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book: This book is, without a doubt, the creepiest thing I’ve read in a long time. It’s like Houston somehow crawled inside everyone’s darkest nightmares and wrote them down. I liked the first installment in this series a bit more than this one . . . The Shadow Garden suffers from a lack of copy editing, and we all know how much that annoys me. Jonquil’s story doesn’t quite make sense as a flashback; it’s written like a diary, and people just don’t talk like that in real life. I keep trying to imagine what this series would look like as, say, a Tim Burton movie, but I think actually seeing the images Houston writes about would warrant a more mature rating than the YA he’s going for. I think the story would also read better if Lily were, say, 16 instead of 14 . . . I felt mildly uncomfortable when a member of the Shadow Guard asked her for a kiss.

This is still a good series, though, and I’m slated to start The Labyrinth, um, right now. *grin*

 

GOLDEN LINE

“The best part of being a child is the part that comes before you are aware that the world has teeth.”

 

Would I recommend it: Absolutely. This series is creepy and worth it.

 

About the book – from Goodreads: Precocious Lily Blackwood carries a responsibility far greater than other people. As the last female Blackwood, she must keep the evils in Pandora’s Box from destroying the world.

With the help of her younger brother Silas, the dusk riders and her best friend Cassandra, she must protect Nightfall Gardens and ensure that the fairy-tale monsters, old gods and deathly shades stay separated from humanity.

But now, the creatures bound to the Gardens are gaining strength and threatening to break loose. Bemisch, a malevolent witch, has escaped into the mist land to join forces with Eldritch, a powerful nature god. The mysterious Smiling Ladies hold the key to a dark secret from the Blackwood family’s past, and something once again roams the halls of the manor, trying to kill Lily.

Worse yet, her fourteenth birthday is approaching and with it a dangerous rite of passage. Lily must enter the Shadow Garden, home of all that is nightmarish, and come face to face with her most terrifying threat yet.