The Night Gardener

A really gripping tale, for young and not so young adults, about a mysterious tree fused into an old country house. I liked that every character bore depth and we end up caring about each in their own way.

I adored this gothic victorian middle grade novel when I was 11 years old. I loved it so much that whenever I thought about it in the following years, it would bring a smile to my face. So I decided to re-read it for Halloween this year, and sadly I didn't love it as much as I did back then

What I liked:
- Exceptionally brave and smart physically disabled main character
- Great gothic atmosphere! The book felt cold, windy, and creepy
- Nicely handled themes of orphanhood, the Great Famine and the xenophobia Irish people faced in England, survivors guilt, the power of storytelling, stories vs. lies, wants vs. needs and the greed that comes with a granted wish
- The cover, illustrations, and black sprayed edges of the physical book are just beautifully designed

What disappointed/confused me:
(SPOILERS BELOW)
- The plot armour?? Kip fell off a cliff into a cold rushing river and he somehow came back to life because of the ~power of storytelling~
- How did Alistair retrieve Kip's body? I highly doubt this child found a route all the way down to the bottom of the cliff (in complete darkness mind you, as the gardener shrouded the full moon in fog), and then waded through the rapids, found Kip, and clambered his way through the woods back to the house with kip in arm, all while being previously “lost beyond all hope.” Unless it was a really small, few foot cliff and the “river rushing beneath” was really more of a serene stream, and he, with a stroke of luck, got possessed by an English cartographer with night vision (in which case it should've been clarified)
- How did Kip even manage to drag the Gardener off the cliff? He is a 10 year old sickly child with one good leg, but he somehow “charged for the edge of the cliff”?
- The Night Gardener stood right over the main characters on TWO separate occasions in the book while trying to hunt them down. I don't know if it was just really dark out or if that ghastly tree creature just needed some prescription glasses, but either way it was a bit unbelievable
- Molly ran back into the burning house, stayed there for quite a while, and was seemingly unscathed? You'd think she'd suffer burns or smoke inhalation injury
- Kip naming his crutch Courage was way too on the nose and obvious of a metaphor, and when he lost his crutch, the line “He closed his eyes, wishing desperately that he had something to hold. Wishing that he had Courage” actually made me roll my eyes
- Why was the family's night terror sweat coloured silver?? It kept being described as “silver liquid” and there's just no explanation?
- There's also no explanation as to who the Gardener was, or where the tree came from. It would've been fun to maybe find an old botany notebook from when he was still human to gain more insight on his backstory and the history of the tree (although from what I understand the creature is ancient so perhaps he didn't have access to paper... but was he even ever human? Again, some explanation is needed)

I feel bad for writing all of this, because in the author's notes Auxier says he spent 9 years working on this novel, but I had to get my feelings down anyways. Although I know a lot of my criticism is because I'm not the target audience for this book anymore, and I've become a more critical and logical person with age. I did love this book when I was the target age however, and I guess that's all that matters :)

Such a good, scary, creepy...yarn of a story. HIGHLY recommend, but for age 12+.

The Night Gardener felt like an extended Grimms story, and that's just about the highest compliment I could give a book like this. It has an excellent creepy atmosphere combined with quality writing and a decent amount of heart, all coming together to make a very enjoyable dark fable.

This is a great book for kids who love MURDER, which almost all kids do.

Also it's a great story about the power of stories and love and the dangers of GREED and EVIL TREES.

Also it's pretty scary eeekkk

Really, really good middle grade fiction. Dark and very scary! 4.5