The Garden of Bewitchment by Catherine Cavendish

The Garden of Bewitchment by Catherine Cavendish.
Published 20th February 2020 by Flame Tree Press.
Read February 2020.

February, 1893: Sisters Evelyn and Claire Wainwright decide to leave their Yorkshire town home and head for the peace and tranquility of a cottage on the moors. A move which they hope will inspire their writing, as it did for the Bronte family before them.

As the sisters are settling into their home, a strange game, called The Garden of Bewitchment, appears in Claire's bedroom. The toy garden looks enchanting and harmless enough, but its appearance heralds a series of strange and terrifying events for the sisters, somehow connected to Claire's obsession with the long-dead Branwell Bronte.

When their neighbour Matthew Dixon tells Evelyn of a similar game that he found as a child - one that brought about horrifying consequences, she begins to worry that their lives may be in danger. But can she trust a man that seems to have plenty of secrets of his own?

As events become increasingly bizarre and disturbing, the sisters start to fear for their own sanity. Evelyn cannot tell that is real and what is imagination, but they are in real danger and time is running out....

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Welcome to the Garden of Bewitchment, a game you really don't want to be caught dead playing - or perhaps a game you may be caught dead playing?

I found this book wonderfully nostalgic - almost harking back to a complex horror tale of old. It starts out like an old fashioned Victorian ghost story, with echoes of Susan Hill and Shirley Jackson, but it evolves into something quite different as the story unfolds and becomes much more akin to the chilling evil of one of Roald Dahl's Tale of the Unexpected yarns. 

I enjoyed the concept of a mysterious game that winds its insidious tendrils through the lives of the characters, much like the strange plants of the garden itself. There is such a deliciously dark intensity about this book, and just as Evelyn struggles to see what is real and what is not, it is difficult as a reader to tell how much of what happens is real too, as events take on a nightmarish quality that is quite unsettling.

It is very easy to get caught up in this story, and although I did guess one of the twists quite early on, I actually found this rather enjoyable as it was almost like being in on a secret that you know is going to blow the mind of Evelyn when she eventually learns the truth. But I had no idea where the story was finally going to take me - and be assured it goes to some very scary places.

If you like you horror well written, complex, satisfyingly nostalgic and darn right diabolical then The Garden of Bewitchment is definitely going to be for you. I might also add that fans of good old Jumanji will find this book a winner too.

 I was very impressed by this book and am looking forward to reading more of Catherine Cavendish's books - The Haunting of Henderson Close is now most definitely in my sights!

The Garden of Bewitchment is available to pre-order now from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Catherine Cavendish and Flame Tree Press for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

From the cover of the book:

Don't play the game.

In 1893, Evelyn and Claire leave their home in a Yorkshire town for life in a rural retreat on their beloved moors. But when a strange toy garden mysteriously appears, a chain of increasingly terrifying events is unleashed.

 Neighbour Matthew Dixon befriends Evelyn, but seems to have more than one secret to hide. 

Then the horror really begins. The Garden of Bewitchment is all too real and something is threatening the lives and sanity of the women.

 Evelyn no longer knows who - or what - to believe. And time is running out.

About the author:

Catherine Cavendish first started writing when someone thrust a pencil into her hand. Unfortunately as she could neither read nor write properly at the time, none of her stories actually made much sense.

However as she grew up, they gradually began to take form and, at the tender age of nine or ten, she sold her dolls’ house, and various other toys to buy her first typewriter – an Empire Smith Corona. She hasn’t stopped bashing away at the keys ever since, although her keyboard of choice now belongs to her laptop. 

The need to earn a living led to a varied career in sales, advertising and career guidance but Cat is now the full-time author of a number of supernatural, ghostly, haunted house and Gothic horror novels and novellas, including The Haunting of Henderson Close, the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy –Wrath of the Ancients, Waking the Ancients, Damned by the Ancients - The Devil’s Serenade, Dark Avenging Angel, The Pendle Curse, Saving Grace Devine and Linden Manor.

She lives north of Liverpool with her long-suffering husband and black cat.