The Garden

by Clare Beams
The Garden cover
Good Books rating 3.94
Literary Fiction
Technical:
  • ID: 474
  • Added: 2025-09-12
  • Updated: 2025-09-18
  • ISBN: 9780593466544
  • Publisher: Random House
  • Published: 2025-04-08
  • Formats: 10
  • Reviews: 4
Buy online
Waterstones
Paperback • £9.99 Hardback • £16.99

Set in 1948, The Garden follows Irene Willard, who, after multiple miscarriages, seeks a cure at an isolated house-hospital in the Berkshires run by pioneering doctors. As she submits to their attempts to 'rectify the maternal environment,' she discovers a mysterious walled garden on the grounds that holds strange powers and allure. Blending gothic atmosphere with deep themes of motherhood and bodily autonomy, the novel probes the ways female bodies have been policed and manipulated. With echoes of Shirley Jackson and Rosemary's Baby, it confronts the risks and rewards of harnessing the garden's power, making it a masterful meditation on childbirth, control, and the female experience.

Reviews
Lib Girl Books · 2024-09-26
haunting 3.75

The book’s ethereal prose and supernatural elements create a creeping psychological horror, with a symbolic garden that reflects the protagonist’s fraught emotional state and the haunting atmosphere of the hospital.

The reviewer found the protagonist initially frustrating but ultimately layered, revealing deeper discomfort with her life and situation. The narrative’s slow, dreamlike style and the unsettling setting build a strong sense of dread, with the garden symbolizing both life and death. The supernatural hints contribute to a psychological spiral that blurs reality and perception, making the novel a haunting exploration of motherhood and loss that may not appeal to all readers but rewards those who appreciate mood-driven storytelling.

Quick quotes

    Beams did a great job of making the house and garden a living, breathing character complete with a cancerous history that haunts the halls.

    The symbolism of the unkempt garden as giver-of-life or bringer-of-death was certainly not lost on me.

    The build-up of the creep factor had promise, with the setting helping usher this along.

The Guardian · 2024-08-04
poignant 4.00

The novel skillfully conveys the protagonist's intense fears and longing related to motherhood, childbirth, and the dread of miscarriage, capturing the complexity of these experiences.

This review emphasizes the emotional depth and psychological realism of the novel, particularly through the character of Irene, whose fears and desires around motherhood are vividly portrayed. The reviewer appreciates how the book explores the mystical and sometimes terrifying aspects of pregnancy and the female experience, making the story resonate on both a personal and symbolic level.

Quick quotes

    Beams skilfully conveys the intensity of Irene's fear and longing.

    Her dread of childbirth and miscarriage, motherhood and being childless.

    The complexity of these experiences is captured with emotional depth.

Bookshelf Fantasies · 2024-04-07
thrilling 4.00

The novel is a psychologically thrilling and page-turning exploration of women desperate to become mothers, highlighting the policing and manipulation of the female body with gothic and horror undertones.

This review emphasizes the novel’s intense psychological depth and gothic atmosphere, drawing parallels to works by Shirley Jackson and Rosemary’s Baby. The story’s setting in 1948 and the mysterious garden add layers of eerie suspense, while the plight of the women undergoing experimental treatments underscores themes of control and desperation surrounding motherhood. The reviewer appreciates how the novel vividly portrays the complex emotions tied to childbirth and the female body’s historical regulation, making it a compelling thriller that resonates on multiple levels.

Quick quotes

    The discovery of a secret garden with unknown powers fuels this page-turning and psychologically thrilling tale of women desperate to become mothers.

    The Garden delves into the territory of motherhood, childbirth, the mysteries of the female body, and the ways it has always been controlled and corralled.

    With shades of Shirley Jackson and Rosemary’s Baby, The Garden explores the complexity of women’s inner lives.

Publishers Weekly · 2024-01-16
atmospheric 4.00

The review praises the atmospheric and unsettling depiction of a 1940s obstetrical clinic and the heightened tension among women desperate to carry pregnancies to term, highlighting the novel’s gothic influences and psychological depth.

This review emphasizes the novel’s strong atmospheric qualities, comparing the clinic’s setting to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House in its mammoth and patient presence. It highlights the protagonist’s precarious situation and her uneasy alliances with other patients, underlining the tension and desperation that permeate the story as the women subject themselves to experimental treatments in hopes of successful pregnancies. The supernatural elements tied to the walled garden add an unsettling layer to the narrative, which is described as inspired and unsettling, promising fans of the author a compelling and intense experience. The review commends the author’s skill in conjuring a psychologically taut and gothic tale that explores the emotional and physical stakes of motherhood.

Quick quotes

    The clinic is housed in an ancestral estate whose depiction... owes much to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.

    Beams adeptly conjures the clinic’s heightened atmosphere, populated as it is by desperate pregnant women willing to subject themselves to just about anything.

    The author’s fans will delight in this inspired and unsettling work.

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