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The Garden
Across the desolate landscape of the American south in the year 1847, against the backdrop of the Mexican-American War, The Garden unfolds its sombre narrative. Here where the hearts of men are unyielding as the terrain, two restless souls embark upon a pilgrimage seeking desperately a home or flicker of hope.
Yet a darker shadow looms over their journey. They are pursued relentlessly by an enigmatic adversary and his acolytes, an alchemic and malevolent force consumed by a twisted vision of remaking the world, leaving behind only ashes and a trail drenched in the crimson echoes of his relentless ambitions. As they navigate this unforgiving landscape the world teeters on the precipice of a profound occult metamorphosis where the seeds of fascism may also be seen to take root beneath the banner of manifest destiny.
In the bleak and disquieting prose of their debut novel Aidan Scott weaves a haunting tale of survival, morality and the eerie birth of an unsettling future where the land itself will bear witness to the horrors of humanity’s inexorable pursuit of power and a destiny shrouded in enigma and dread.
Yet a darker shadow looms over their journey. They are pursued relentlessly by an enigmatic adversary and his acolytes, an alchemic and malevolent force consumed by a twisted vision of remaking the world, leaving behind only ashes and a trail drenched in the crimson echoes of his relentless ambitions. As they navigate this unforgiving landscape the world teeters on the precipice of a profound occult metamorphosis where the seeds of fascism may also be seen to take root beneath the banner of manifest destiny.
In the bleak and disquieting prose of their debut novel Aidan Scott weaves a haunting tale of survival, morality and the eerie birth of an unsettling future where the land itself will bear witness to the horrors of humanity’s inexorable pursuit of power and a destiny shrouded in enigma and dread.
400 pages, Paperback
Published March 4, 2024
2 people are currently reading
410 people want to read
About the author
Aidan Scott
2 books24 followersAidan Scott is a 26-year-old author from Canberra, Australia who lives with his cat. He writes historical fiction examining folklore, mythology, the occult, and dreams. He can be reached @_art.in.focus on Instagram. The Garden is his first novel. The Fisherman, is available to purchase now through Anxiety Press. He currently working on his third.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 8, 2024
It’s hard not to make comparisons to Cormac McCarthy, particularly ‘Blood Meridian’, when reading Aidan Scott’s debut novel ‘The Garden’. There are many similarities. The most obvious of course being the setting; but this alone would not be enough to echo McCarthy’s masterwork. It’s in his prose that we really feel Scott has looked to McCarthy, who himself owes much to Faulkner.
And I must say, some of the prose is absolutely stunning. This is a striking debut from Scott, and one that I hope draws the attention it deserves. As in Meridian, Scott takes time to beautifully depict the world around his characters, with his rolling Faulknerian prose. It is quite beautiful to read in places.
There is plenty of violence too, let that be said. But what sets Scott’s work apart, is that in ‘The Garden’ we have at least a sense of seeking redemption, whereas in ‘Blood Meridian’ there is none. Scott’s characters at least question the brutality of colonialism, fascism and slavery.
The time in which the book is set was awful, that’s unavoidable. Unapologetically racist, brutally violent and deeply misogynistic. So there is plenty to be triggered about. ‘The Garden’ does not shy away from these issues, it confronts them head on.
I did feel at times that certain passages perhaps could have been fleshed out, and personally would’ve welcomed a slightly longer book in order to give some scenes – particularly those with dialogue – and the book’s themes more time to breath. It’s not until the third section, ‘Tehom’, that I felt Scott’s prose really takes flight.
However overall this is an impressive debut from an incredibly promising writer.
And I must say, some of the prose is absolutely stunning. This is a striking debut from Scott, and one that I hope draws the attention it deserves. As in Meridian, Scott takes time to beautifully depict the world around his characters, with his rolling Faulknerian prose. It is quite beautiful to read in places.
There is plenty of violence too, let that be said. But what sets Scott’s work apart, is that in ‘The Garden’ we have at least a sense of seeking redemption, whereas in ‘Blood Meridian’ there is none. Scott’s characters at least question the brutality of colonialism, fascism and slavery.
The time in which the book is set was awful, that’s unavoidable. Unapologetically racist, brutally violent and deeply misogynistic. So there is plenty to be triggered about. ‘The Garden’ does not shy away from these issues, it confronts them head on.
I did feel at times that certain passages perhaps could have been fleshed out, and personally would’ve welcomed a slightly longer book in order to give some scenes – particularly those with dialogue – and the book’s themes more time to breath. It’s not until the third section, ‘Tehom’, that I felt Scott’s prose really takes flight.
However overall this is an impressive debut from an incredibly promising writer.
June 17, 2024
“What things we do, he whispered in shame, such shame, what things we men do. Across the great clutch of history there lay in every corner cinders of some chauvinist sacrament. All will be rent to ruin beneath our banners, he thought.”
.
“This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are - hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones”- Thomas Ligotti
.
The Garden is a debut novel by the twenty four year old Australian writer Aidan Scott, yet to be honest if you handed me this novel with no cover and told me it was Cormac McCarthy’s new posthumously published book, I wouldn’t blink twice, nor call you a liar. Obviously there are some differences but its clear to see that Scott did his research on the topic of the desolate American South in this mid 1800’s as his novel is set there upon the backdrop of the brutal Mexican-American war. He invokes the language of McCarthy partnered alongside the historical relevance of William T Vollmann , the combination is a bombshell of a book, one that you could hardly believe is written by a 24 year old, let alone his debut. It wasn’t all incredible in my eyes, but the things it lacked for me were more so the length of the novel, I felt another 150 pages could have fully fleshed out certain parts from the book that felt rushed along, although they were purposefully done to keep the plot and novel rolling, Scott seemed well aware of that aspect.
.
It’s no secret The Garden is a very closely knitted novel to Blood Meridian, with many aspects mirroring the two but in The Garden there is a semblance of remorsefulness, the characters aren’t complete killing machines destroying everything within their path as they’re told to do. The sheer violent morbid killing may even harbor more grotesque scenes then the aforementioned novel if I’m behind honest. Scott also has a woman named Beth as one of the main characters which felt so natural without a second guess, something McCarthy never truly seemed to be able to accomplish until his very last book Stella Maris. The morality that befalls our main character Jimmy as the novel unfolds is a touching heart rendering sight, his path is just as rich as the language in which Scott uses to describe the entire journey, a book that was perilous as well as resilient, just when I thought I was growing weary things switched on a dime, the last thirty pages were jaw droopingly gorgeous, the ending gutted me, you might not find a better contemporary English language release in 2024 then this one.
.
“The plain was dry and cold and covered in an icy sheet for there had been no sun in that place, no font of warmth, until one chimeric morning the sun first dawn above the distant hill and spanned the horizon line with its pallid and steaming glare illuminating the new cerulean firmament and below it the shades of the Earth came to life as if a brush were dragged over paper, a watercolor iconography captured across mossy stone”
.
Now I know this review has grown long but I wanted to address something extra after reading this novel and proclaiming it might be the best written English language contemporary novel of 2024. So my gripe is with the publishing industry, this novel is on the tiniest of presses, it has EIGHT people who have read it on Goodreads ( 5 of those my friends on here who keep spreading the word of this book thank god) however talking to Aidan Scott he did have some frustration that he couldn’t get this book on the shelves anywhere in the US and therefore we are resigned to have to use Amazon as the only means to get this book, so I guess I’m just wondering what is the publishing industry doing these days if novelist like this can sit in the shadows, a literal reincarnation of Cormac McCarthy, yet so many books are published each year to critical acclaim with so much hate coming from the masses of actual book readers ( look no further then this years Pulitzer Prize winner which The Garden puts to shame) so yes, I don’t know how the politics behind it all work, I just know as a lover of literature, its sad when you embark upon a writer so young, so talented, so promising as Scott and there are crickets from publishers, this book has been our for three months and probably has less then 100 readers worldwide, HOW! If you work in publishing, contact this man, his next book he is working on is a 9th Century Viking epic and if his research and authenticity is anything like this novel, you will have a sure fire Best Seller and award winner on your hands. Am I biased? Absolutely but I do think I know good literature and this is a fantastic writer just getting started, remember this book, remember the name Aidan Scott.
.
“This is the tragedy: Consciousness has forced us into the paradoxical position of striving to be unself-conscious of what we are - hunks of spoiling flesh on disintegrating bones”- Thomas Ligotti
.
The Garden is a debut novel by the twenty four year old Australian writer Aidan Scott, yet to be honest if you handed me this novel with no cover and told me it was Cormac McCarthy’s new posthumously published book, I wouldn’t blink twice, nor call you a liar. Obviously there are some differences but its clear to see that Scott did his research on the topic of the desolate American South in this mid 1800’s as his novel is set there upon the backdrop of the brutal Mexican-American war. He invokes the language of McCarthy partnered alongside the historical relevance of William T Vollmann , the combination is a bombshell of a book, one that you could hardly believe is written by a 24 year old, let alone his debut. It wasn’t all incredible in my eyes, but the things it lacked for me were more so the length of the novel, I felt another 150 pages could have fully fleshed out certain parts from the book that felt rushed along, although they were purposefully done to keep the plot and novel rolling, Scott seemed well aware of that aspect.
.
It’s no secret The Garden is a very closely knitted novel to Blood Meridian, with many aspects mirroring the two but in The Garden there is a semblance of remorsefulness, the characters aren’t complete killing machines destroying everything within their path as they’re told to do. The sheer violent morbid killing may even harbor more grotesque scenes then the aforementioned novel if I’m behind honest. Scott also has a woman named Beth as one of the main characters which felt so natural without a second guess, something McCarthy never truly seemed to be able to accomplish until his very last book Stella Maris. The morality that befalls our main character Jimmy as the novel unfolds is a touching heart rendering sight, his path is just as rich as the language in which Scott uses to describe the entire journey, a book that was perilous as well as resilient, just when I thought I was growing weary things switched on a dime, the last thirty pages were jaw droopingly gorgeous, the ending gutted me, you might not find a better contemporary English language release in 2024 then this one.
.
“The plain was dry and cold and covered in an icy sheet for there had been no sun in that place, no font of warmth, until one chimeric morning the sun first dawn above the distant hill and spanned the horizon line with its pallid and steaming glare illuminating the new cerulean firmament and below it the shades of the Earth came to life as if a brush were dragged over paper, a watercolor iconography captured across mossy stone”
.
Now I know this review has grown long but I wanted to address something extra after reading this novel and proclaiming it might be the best written English language contemporary novel of 2024. So my gripe is with the publishing industry, this novel is on the tiniest of presses, it has EIGHT people who have read it on Goodreads ( 5 of those my friends on here who keep spreading the word of this book thank god) however talking to Aidan Scott he did have some frustration that he couldn’t get this book on the shelves anywhere in the US and therefore we are resigned to have to use Amazon as the only means to get this book, so I guess I’m just wondering what is the publishing industry doing these days if novelist like this can sit in the shadows, a literal reincarnation of Cormac McCarthy, yet so many books are published each year to critical acclaim with so much hate coming from the masses of actual book readers ( look no further then this years Pulitzer Prize winner which The Garden puts to shame) so yes, I don’t know how the politics behind it all work, I just know as a lover of literature, its sad when you embark upon a writer so young, so talented, so promising as Scott and there are crickets from publishers, this book has been our for three months and probably has less then 100 readers worldwide, HOW! If you work in publishing, contact this man, his next book he is working on is a 9th Century Viking epic and if his research and authenticity is anything like this novel, you will have a sure fire Best Seller and award winner on your hands. Am I biased? Absolutely but I do think I know good literature and this is a fantastic writer just getting started, remember this book, remember the name Aidan Scott.
May 3, 2024
Every once in a while you read a book that floors you. The writing, the characters, the language. One that makes you think of the other great writers of the world. Add The Garden and Aidan Scott to this list. I’m not familiar with the author and saw a recommendation from an IG buddy. Now I’m telling my GR friends, buy this book. One of the best things I’ve read this year. The late Cormac McCarthy would be proud.
July 27, 2025
I’m sorry, this is a debut novel?! Heavily influenced by Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner, The Garden is an adventure through the pre-civil war American southwest and the horror and atrocities that came from westward expansion and the Manifest Destiny. The characters have an extreme level of nuance, the story is complex and driven, and PROSE. There were so many hard-hitting sentences and paragraphs that blew me away. This felt like a magnum opus, not a debut. Most likely a top 10 for the year, maybe top 5? We will check back in come NYE.
September 10, 2024
“His fate lay in the confluence of things, between the cool wash of death and the raging ardour of a listless and legflung being, though he did not know it. He would only find it in the dark.”
A few books have been orbiting my relatively small bookstagram world recently. More often than not, if a book keeps appearing again and again, I tend to avoid it. Not always because I think a popular book is bad, but because I'm not fond of hype culture. This is probably the reason I've put off reading Ed Park's "Same Bed, Different Dreams" (although I do intend to get to this one hopefully sooner rather than later). When I began seeing posts about a next-generation Cormac McCarthy, a new Australian southern gothic writer, published by a tiny press, with comparisons to Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, my curiosity was piqued.
Here are my thoughts on Aidan Scott's "The Garden": No other book has managed to emulate a certain spirit that, I believe, McCarthy had channeled in his writing. What Scott does is nothing less than a kind of shading in of the obscure, archaic, and esoteric cosmology of the New World, traced by McCarthy in his books (especially his later Border works). One sees this in Scott's borrowed language—even neologisms such as "the world's Salliter and celestial fruits" within the first two pages—or the conjoining of words such as "deadlooking," "lightlimned," "sunmelted" (a device so ubiquitous that I chose these by quickly skimming the book), or the lack of quotation marks in dialogue. These devices prove effective in imitating the kind of bare crudity of language that McCarthy is known for.
And yet, where McCarthy leaves blanks of obscurity, Scott shades in. Scott has mastered the Shakespearean sheriff, his words both lofty as the celestial gardens of his malevolent Augur (a kind of archetype of McCarthy's "The Judge"), while being equally rooted in the dark wet mud of that very same garden, the Earth. There is that familiar bleakness, that Heraclitian, Nietzschean chaos; the world as a giant's blinking eye, bats hanging like idols from the ceiling of a ruined chapel, a "sulphurous earth...blacker than black," "the trees and the water like the judgement of God."
And yet Scott diverges at a single crossroad from McCarthy. He is not a copycat, a mimic, nor a very loquacious, loyal disciple. Perhaps this makes what Scott offers original and no longer strictly modelled from McCarthy. I, personally, celebrate this decision. What I mean is the decision to be explicit at times on topics McCarthy may have shied away from, perhaps because of his generation, his reclusiveness, his hermetic way. In all his life, McCarthy only wrote women into his final book in any meaningful way. He never wrote much about the slave plantations, nor wrote much that spoke against slavery for all his writing in the 19th century. He never wrote in a relatable, human way about the American Indigenous. To be fair, it is especially the white characters in McCarthy that are the colonizers, the gangs of scalping marauders, the hideous evil in the human heart. McCarthy never wrote prescriptive. I do not think his fiction was intended to read morally at all, but instead to detail violence and the horror of the sacred.
Scott, on the other hand, writes about human empathy. The Mennonite in his book differs a lot from the Mennonite in Blood Meridian, who speaks God's judgment on the violence of the forces surrounding The Kid. He is empathetic, critical-minded, warm-hearted. His character, Beth, is fierce but also gentle. Luam, a black slave, is an inventive whittler, intelligent and relatable. A Comanche is seen as a saviour. There is lucid humanity all over in a world, traversing thick forest paths, even where the language of religious obscurity demands bloodshed, where "flagbearers" light "fires that would turn the world to ash." Yes, “The Garden” is a debut. Yes, it is imperfect. Some sections lacked, others abounded. But, I raise my glass to a writer of the next generation. Aidan Scott, I commend you. We, the readers, demand more!
A few books have been orbiting my relatively small bookstagram world recently. More often than not, if a book keeps appearing again and again, I tend to avoid it. Not always because I think a popular book is bad, but because I'm not fond of hype culture. This is probably the reason I've put off reading Ed Park's "Same Bed, Different Dreams" (although I do intend to get to this one hopefully sooner rather than later). When I began seeing posts about a next-generation Cormac McCarthy, a new Australian southern gothic writer, published by a tiny press, with comparisons to Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor, my curiosity was piqued.
Here are my thoughts on Aidan Scott's "The Garden": No other book has managed to emulate a certain spirit that, I believe, McCarthy had channeled in his writing. What Scott does is nothing less than a kind of shading in of the obscure, archaic, and esoteric cosmology of the New World, traced by McCarthy in his books (especially his later Border works). One sees this in Scott's borrowed language—even neologisms such as "the world's Salliter and celestial fruits" within the first two pages—or the conjoining of words such as "deadlooking," "lightlimned," "sunmelted" (a device so ubiquitous that I chose these by quickly skimming the book), or the lack of quotation marks in dialogue. These devices prove effective in imitating the kind of bare crudity of language that McCarthy is known for.
And yet, where McCarthy leaves blanks of obscurity, Scott shades in. Scott has mastered the Shakespearean sheriff, his words both lofty as the celestial gardens of his malevolent Augur (a kind of archetype of McCarthy's "The Judge"), while being equally rooted in the dark wet mud of that very same garden, the Earth. There is that familiar bleakness, that Heraclitian, Nietzschean chaos; the world as a giant's blinking eye, bats hanging like idols from the ceiling of a ruined chapel, a "sulphurous earth...blacker than black," "the trees and the water like the judgement of God."
And yet Scott diverges at a single crossroad from McCarthy. He is not a copycat, a mimic, nor a very loquacious, loyal disciple. Perhaps this makes what Scott offers original and no longer strictly modelled from McCarthy. I, personally, celebrate this decision. What I mean is the decision to be explicit at times on topics McCarthy may have shied away from, perhaps because of his generation, his reclusiveness, his hermetic way. In all his life, McCarthy only wrote women into his final book in any meaningful way. He never wrote much about the slave plantations, nor wrote much that spoke against slavery for all his writing in the 19th century. He never wrote in a relatable, human way about the American Indigenous. To be fair, it is especially the white characters in McCarthy that are the colonizers, the gangs of scalping marauders, the hideous evil in the human heart. McCarthy never wrote prescriptive. I do not think his fiction was intended to read morally at all, but instead to detail violence and the horror of the sacred.
Scott, on the other hand, writes about human empathy. The Mennonite in his book differs a lot from the Mennonite in Blood Meridian, who speaks God's judgment on the violence of the forces surrounding The Kid. He is empathetic, critical-minded, warm-hearted. His character, Beth, is fierce but also gentle. Luam, a black slave, is an inventive whittler, intelligent and relatable. A Comanche is seen as a saviour. There is lucid humanity all over in a world, traversing thick forest paths, even where the language of religious obscurity demands bloodshed, where "flagbearers" light "fires that would turn the world to ash." Yes, “The Garden” is a debut. Yes, it is imperfect. Some sections lacked, others abounded. But, I raise my glass to a writer of the next generation. Aidan Scott, I commend you. We, the readers, demand more!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2025
"i will never be free, not truly. should the shackles which bind me break i shall be tormented by the knowing that once i did endure such as have i endured and that many of my brothers and sisters yet endure it still. jimmy looked down at his hands pale and calloused and distained and he wondered by what right a man could enslave another man. he had never thought of it before. he plucked at the notion like lifting a thread from a loomshaft, unaware of the immensity of his questionings and for a moment, in utter silence, he sought the answer and yet could find none save that all men were lunatics whose base nature was cruelty." (pp. 92-93)
"he could not speak so he wondered at the windings of everything. at the distempered forge abated only by a strafing of shameless sorrows. would there be no restfulness for him until he found himself beyond the slaughterfields and the searching eyes of a black and watching sun? his face lay at the confluence of these things, between the cool wash of death and the raging ardour of a listless and legflung being, though he did not know it. he would only find it in the dark. a wind of invisible voices." (pp. 204-205)
facilmente o meu livro favorito do ano (desculpem hurricane season e close to the knives, é merecido). comparações com o cormac mccarthy (sobretudo com o blood meridian, ao ponto de na minha opinião ser um sucessor espiritual) e com o faulkner são inteiramente merecidas. contudo, entre a neblina de desolação que permeia esta obra há sempre uma faísca de bondade a iluminar o caminho das duas personagens principais. irei mais longe e talvez afirmar que este livro seria o resultado hipotético de um blood meridian escrito pelo mccarthy que escreveu o stella maris.
o pior? para além de ser um romance de estreia, foi escrito por um puto mais novo que eu. não sei o que estou a fazer com a minha vida. o segundo livro dele sai no final deste mês. pelo menos vou esperar para o comprar, ao menos isso.
não é todos os dias que encontro uma gema escondida e nada escrito sobre o livro salvo uma entrevista com o autor e uma dúzia de críticas a cantar louvores. vale todos os elogios e mais. comprem este livro. de nada.
"he could not speak so he wondered at the windings of everything. at the distempered forge abated only by a strafing of shameless sorrows. would there be no restfulness for him until he found himself beyond the slaughterfields and the searching eyes of a black and watching sun? his face lay at the confluence of these things, between the cool wash of death and the raging ardour of a listless and legflung being, though he did not know it. he would only find it in the dark. a wind of invisible voices." (pp. 204-205)
facilmente o meu livro favorito do ano (desculpem hurricane season e close to the knives, é merecido). comparações com o cormac mccarthy (sobretudo com o blood meridian, ao ponto de na minha opinião ser um sucessor espiritual) e com o faulkner são inteiramente merecidas. contudo, entre a neblina de desolação que permeia esta obra há sempre uma faísca de bondade a iluminar o caminho das duas personagens principais. irei mais longe e talvez afirmar que este livro seria o resultado hipotético de um blood meridian escrito pelo mccarthy que escreveu o stella maris.
o pior? para além de ser um romance de estreia, foi escrito por um puto mais novo que eu. não sei o que estou a fazer com a minha vida. o segundo livro dele sai no final deste mês. pelo menos vou esperar para o comprar, ao menos isso.
não é todos os dias que encontro uma gema escondida e nada escrito sobre o livro salvo uma entrevista com o autor e uma dúzia de críticas a cantar louvores. vale todos os elogios e mais. comprem este livro. de nada.
April 21, 2024
Reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and James Carlos Blake’s In The Rogue Blood; a vivid and brutal rendering of another time you’ll be glad to not have been born in. Savour the prose. A marvellous debut by Aidan Scott.
July 5, 2024
“There’s nothing evil about honest tears , Jimmy” p 319
This brilliant debut from Australian writer Aidan Scott is set in the south of the United States during the Mexican - American war during the middle of the 1800s.
Set in one of the most brutal times of the country’s history, Scott has painted an absolute beautiful picture of the landscape and interwoven memorable characters that connected with the reader as soon as introduced.
You can definitely feel the author’s influence from past pens in his incredible prose and masterclass storytelling.
If this is an indication of what is to come from the 24 year old Scott, the future is scorching.
This brilliant debut from Australian writer Aidan Scott is set in the south of the United States during the Mexican - American war during the middle of the 1800s.
Set in one of the most brutal times of the country’s history, Scott has painted an absolute beautiful picture of the landscape and interwoven memorable characters that connected with the reader as soon as introduced.
You can definitely feel the author’s influence from past pens in his incredible prose and masterclass storytelling.
If this is an indication of what is to come from the 24 year old Scott, the future is scorching.
August 19, 2024
A tremendous feat in 21st century literature!
June 16, 2024
Goddamn.
June 2, 2024
A beautifully told story with great characters and engaging plot. This is probably my own fault, but a lot of the words were not very common and I had to look some of them up. Some times the similes took the reader out of the book they were that descriptive and long.
August 25, 2024
To the best of my recollection at this moment I have not written a review or even a note on any star rating I have given - until now.
If you have managed to navigate your way to this page, I urge you to read this wild, brutal and compassionate tale.
If you have managed to navigate your way to this page, I urge you to read this wild, brutal and compassionate tale.
August 10, 2025
There is no beauty in Aidan Scott’s Garden, neither figuratively nor literally, instead it is a tapestry of undergrowth and decaying wildflowers.
Desolate and bleak, set in 1850’s Texas and new Mexico, among Comanche raids, settlers, slave plantations, scalp hunters and general degeneracy, the setting and atmosphere is closely emulated of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. And Aidan is the first to tell you about the inspiration he drew from Cormac, and just about everyone else, when we weaved together this story
We follow Jimmy, A young man fallen on hard times and a thief, with his older mentor William. We don’t know much about Jimmy and William except they are prone to violence and theft, but otherwise seem like good guys.
We follow Beth, twice widowed, of her own making, lost and looking to get back to Pottershead to see her mom cause she wants to know why she was abandoned. That’s kindda cute. Amid their separate, and eventually joined, adventures we have an ominous presence of evilness in the character of Augur, but we never really find out what it was all about. Something about a black sun and banners of death.
If the story sounds thin, it is because it is. The plot is underdeveloped, thinly veiled in a cloudy atmosphere of mysticism stylized to emulate a mixture of the biblical allusions in Outer Dark and the wider Boehmian and gnostic influences in CM’s oevre. Aidan tries so hard to write like Cormac McCarthy that it to me comes across as fan fiction. But adding all the right ingredients, doesn’t make a Michelin starred meal. He completely misses the beauty of the prose, the syntax and the flow and instead we get a lot of archaic words put in all the wrong places in sentences. There is no evocative feel to the landscape descriptions or lyrical composition to the language. Its harder than you think to pull off McCarthy or Melville.
The dialogues are probably the worst part. Juvenile, simple and out of context with the general feel and atmosphere of the story. We have violence and vulgarity, without the delicacy of the prose to offset the impact. I don’t think I ever read a story where more people got “their manhood cut off and stuffed down their troat” than this one
The plot progression lacks tension and climax, and we don’t ever really care about Jimmy or even Beth as characters. The more the find out about Jimmy the more pathetic and farcical he becomes.
While Aidan Emulates Cormac, the failure in execution means in the end it sounds more like grimdark Joe Abercrombie, in his early days.
There are some decent elements to the story and Aidan can write, but I think he got bogged down by all his desires to write a masterpiece as a debut novel that the horse never really left the staples so to speak. Considering all the praise I have heard, I was terribly disappointed cause I had high expectations. If you come into it looking for a grimdarky genre fiction story you might be more amicable to it.
Desolate and bleak, set in 1850’s Texas and new Mexico, among Comanche raids, settlers, slave plantations, scalp hunters and general degeneracy, the setting and atmosphere is closely emulated of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. And Aidan is the first to tell you about the inspiration he drew from Cormac, and just about everyone else, when we weaved together this story
We follow Jimmy, A young man fallen on hard times and a thief, with his older mentor William. We don’t know much about Jimmy and William except they are prone to violence and theft, but otherwise seem like good guys.
We follow Beth, twice widowed, of her own making, lost and looking to get back to Pottershead to see her mom cause she wants to know why she was abandoned. That’s kindda cute. Amid their separate, and eventually joined, adventures we have an ominous presence of evilness in the character of Augur, but we never really find out what it was all about. Something about a black sun and banners of death.
If the story sounds thin, it is because it is. The plot is underdeveloped, thinly veiled in a cloudy atmosphere of mysticism stylized to emulate a mixture of the biblical allusions in Outer Dark and the wider Boehmian and gnostic influences in CM’s oevre. Aidan tries so hard to write like Cormac McCarthy that it to me comes across as fan fiction. But adding all the right ingredients, doesn’t make a Michelin starred meal. He completely misses the beauty of the prose, the syntax and the flow and instead we get a lot of archaic words put in all the wrong places in sentences. There is no evocative feel to the landscape descriptions or lyrical composition to the language. Its harder than you think to pull off McCarthy or Melville.
The dialogues are probably the worst part. Juvenile, simple and out of context with the general feel and atmosphere of the story. We have violence and vulgarity, without the delicacy of the prose to offset the impact. I don’t think I ever read a story where more people got “their manhood cut off and stuffed down their troat” than this one
The plot progression lacks tension and climax, and we don’t ever really care about Jimmy or even Beth as characters. The more the find out about Jimmy the more pathetic and farcical he becomes.
While Aidan Emulates Cormac, the failure in execution means in the end it sounds more like grimdark Joe Abercrombie, in his early days.
There are some decent elements to the story and Aidan can write, but I think he got bogged down by all his desires to write a masterpiece as a debut novel that the horse never really left the staples so to speak. Considering all the praise I have heard, I was terribly disappointed cause I had high expectations. If you come into it looking for a grimdarky genre fiction story you might be more amicable to it.
September 18, 2025
I’ve been going through a collection of short stories George R.R. Martin wrote early in his career. His Ice and Fire books are among my favorites, so it’s interesting to see the works from his youth. Some of it is rough around the edges. Often, you can tell he's bitter about a lost love, as many of his early works revolve around a character living alone, pining after an ex who has since moved on. You see the seeds of ideas that he’ll eventually develop and perfect in his later novels. The point I’m making is that GRRM didn’t arrive on the scene fully formed. He grew into the master author.
It’s rare to find a book from a new talent that arrives on the scene fully formed. That’s not to say Scott has nowhere left to go, but this book feels like it was written by a seasoned author.
Scott presents the world of the frontier as a bleak and unforgiving place, a place where everyone is out for themselves and a potential adversary. Food is scarce to the point that the description of eating greasy fox meat almost makes our mouths water because we feel the plight of our characters.
The world painted in this book is vivid and well researched. Scott presents an exhaustive list of sources used in preparation for this novel and I don’t doubt he read every single one of them.
My favorite aspect of the book was when it leaned into its weirdness. There’s an enigmatic character named Augur who's got what can only be described as black magic abilities, and because the rest of the novel is so grounded in reality, it makes the rare uses of “the supernatural” so much more impactful and frightening. In continuing with the GRRM references he’s a bit like (book) Euron Greyjoy. I would have enjoyed more of him and his acolytes in the novel. If I have any complaint, it’s about not having too much of a good thing.
You can tell Scott is an animal lover. The reverence characters show for horses and dogs throughout the book is a nice addition. The dog in the book is a very good boy.
This is a very good book, and I look forward to what Scott puts out in the future. In his author bio, it shows he was only 24 years old when this book was released. What an arrogant prick.
It’s rare to find a book from a new talent that arrives on the scene fully formed. That’s not to say Scott has nowhere left to go, but this book feels like it was written by a seasoned author.
Scott presents the world of the frontier as a bleak and unforgiving place, a place where everyone is out for themselves and a potential adversary. Food is scarce to the point that the description of eating greasy fox meat almost makes our mouths water because we feel the plight of our characters.
The world painted in this book is vivid and well researched. Scott presents an exhaustive list of sources used in preparation for this novel and I don’t doubt he read every single one of them.
My favorite aspect of the book was when it leaned into its weirdness. There’s an enigmatic character named Augur who's got what can only be described as black magic abilities, and because the rest of the novel is so grounded in reality, it makes the rare uses of “the supernatural” so much more impactful and frightening. In continuing with the GRRM references he’s a bit like (book) Euron Greyjoy. I would have enjoyed more of him and his acolytes in the novel. If I have any complaint, it’s about not having too much of a good thing.
You can tell Scott is an animal lover. The reverence characters show for horses and dogs throughout the book is a nice addition. The dog in the book is a very good boy.
This is a very good book, and I look forward to what Scott puts out in the future. In his author bio, it shows he was only 24 years old when this book was released. What an arrogant prick.
October 18, 2024
This was a really fantastic book. The writing is beautifully descriptive and lush despite the harsh, bleak setting, and the story was compelling from start to end. This has gotten a lot of comparisons to Cormac McCarthy and Blood Meridian, specifically, and while it’s a fair comparison, as the first novel from a young author, it’s incredibly impressive.
Set mostly in the American Southwest in 1847 during the Mexican-American War, it’s a brutal story of trying to find your place in- and make sense of- a world seemingly gone mad. A search for peace that everything around seeks to disrupt.
There were a few things with the writing and the story that didn’t work for me. At times, especially in the first 1/3 of the book, it’s pretty heavy on the five- and ten- dollar words. I think the goal was to make it feel akin to the writing of that time, but some of the words are so obscure and archaic that it takes you out of the story just long enough. Fortunately, the back half of the book, they were used much more sparsely, and the writing really rolled along smoothly.
Another thing I could have done without was all the compound words the author created (or again may be outdated usage) that didn’t really benefit the story, in my opinion, and a few times did it a disservice as you had to stop to sort out what was being said.
Also, there are no quotation marks used for dialog, dashes were generally used to distinguish it. However, he wouldn’t always start a new line when moving from dialog back to narration, and so you’d have to stop and re-read to see where the dialog ended.
There were also a few story beats near the end that didn’t feel narratively earned, to me, and felt a little heavy handed as the author making a statement about the current day. I could have lived without the coda as well.
But these are minor critiques. It was still an incredible book, especially from a young Australian author, published by an independent publisher in Chicago. This should be getting a lot more attention, and I hope more and more people continue to discover this gem.
Set mostly in the American Southwest in 1847 during the Mexican-American War, it’s a brutal story of trying to find your place in- and make sense of- a world seemingly gone mad. A search for peace that everything around seeks to disrupt.
There were a few things with the writing and the story that didn’t work for me. At times, especially in the first 1/3 of the book, it’s pretty heavy on the five- and ten- dollar words. I think the goal was to make it feel akin to the writing of that time, but some of the words are so obscure and archaic that it takes you out of the story just long enough. Fortunately, the back half of the book, they were used much more sparsely, and the writing really rolled along smoothly.
Another thing I could have done without was all the compound words the author created (or again may be outdated usage) that didn’t really benefit the story, in my opinion, and a few times did it a disservice as you had to stop to sort out what was being said.
Also, there are no quotation marks used for dialog, dashes were generally used to distinguish it. However, he wouldn’t always start a new line when moving from dialog back to narration, and so you’d have to stop and re-read to see where the dialog ended.
There were also a few story beats near the end that didn’t feel narratively earned, to me, and felt a little heavy handed as the author making a statement about the current day. I could have lived without the coda as well.
But these are minor critiques. It was still an incredible book, especially from a young Australian author, published by an independent publisher in Chicago. This should be getting a lot more attention, and I hope more and more people continue to discover this gem.
April 28, 2024
The Garden invites the reader to embark on a journey through rural America during the American-Mexican War. The novel delivers themes of identity, personal growth, friendship, and good versus evil.
The year is 1847, and we're introduced to Jimmy, an outlaw attempting to survive the atrocities that people are capable of committing. As a result, he adopts this kind of lifestyle himself. He gains purpose when he meets Beth, another outlaw and outcast who, on the other hand, has a clear destination. The looming threat of the antagonist, Augur, juxtaposes the conflict between good and evil. However, are Beth and Jimmy good people?
The fascinating depth of the characters is depicted through their actions without requiring the reader to enter their heads. Everything is shown carefully via interaction and the initiatives the characters take to move forward on their quest.
Scott has a unique, sophisticated storytelling voice that pays meticulous attention to detail. As an original piece of fiction inspired by historical occurrences, its style and tone strongly echo Cormac McCarthy's works. The detailed portrayal of the environment and surroundings is like a breath of fresh air, enabling you to vividly picture the landscapes and scenes.
As a well-crafted Western story, you'll also get descriptive violence and gore that are indicative of that era.
The Garden marks Scott's debut as an author. If you're an author and read this piece, it'll be difficult not to feel mildly intimidated by his writing skills! By that, I mean I'm totally in awe of Scott's talent and the hard work he spent studying the Old West dialect, not to mention its history. This not only makes him a history lover but also a language genius and a fiction writer from whom you can learn.
The year is 1847, and we're introduced to Jimmy, an outlaw attempting to survive the atrocities that people are capable of committing. As a result, he adopts this kind of lifestyle himself. He gains purpose when he meets Beth, another outlaw and outcast who, on the other hand, has a clear destination. The looming threat of the antagonist, Augur, juxtaposes the conflict between good and evil. However, are Beth and Jimmy good people?
The fascinating depth of the characters is depicted through their actions without requiring the reader to enter their heads. Everything is shown carefully via interaction and the initiatives the characters take to move forward on their quest.
Scott has a unique, sophisticated storytelling voice that pays meticulous attention to detail. As an original piece of fiction inspired by historical occurrences, its style and tone strongly echo Cormac McCarthy's works. The detailed portrayal of the environment and surroundings is like a breath of fresh air, enabling you to vividly picture the landscapes and scenes.
As a well-crafted Western story, you'll also get descriptive violence and gore that are indicative of that era.
The Garden marks Scott's debut as an author. If you're an author and read this piece, it'll be difficult not to feel mildly intimidated by his writing skills! By that, I mean I'm totally in awe of Scott's talent and the hard work he spent studying the Old West dialect, not to mention its history. This not only makes him a history lover but also a language genius and a fiction writer from whom you can learn.
October 22, 2024
I'm really torn on this one. For a young and up and coming author, this is a wonderful work. He displays great talent and creates a memorable story. It seems sure that he will have an excellent career and definitely deserves to be followed.
So what do I do with my concerns with this work. I hate to be critical as he has immense talent and my credentials as a critic are non-existent. So... ignore what follows.
I found the work to be overly and needlessly pretentious. I realize he wants to create a mood and a distinctive style. But, much is over done. At times the word selection is ill-fitting or simply distracting. Much of what he wants to convey is already done so by the story itself. His, at times, overheated prose actually takes us away from the powerful narrative. I kept wanting to say "Stop trying so hard!".
It does seem as though he wants to emulate Cormac McCarthy. But, he needs to find his own voice and let the story create the power. In my sincere and humble voice I would say he needs a mature talented editor.
I'll be quiet now.
So what do I do with my concerns with this work. I hate to be critical as he has immense talent and my credentials as a critic are non-existent. So... ignore what follows.
I found the work to be overly and needlessly pretentious. I realize he wants to create a mood and a distinctive style. But, much is over done. At times the word selection is ill-fitting or simply distracting. Much of what he wants to convey is already done so by the story itself. His, at times, overheated prose actually takes us away from the powerful narrative. I kept wanting to say "Stop trying so hard!".
It does seem as though he wants to emulate Cormac McCarthy. But, he needs to find his own voice and let the story create the power. In my sincere and humble voice I would say he needs a mature talented editor.
I'll be quiet now.
September 16, 2024
A lone voice shouting into the wind.
What I did like: the story, the journey, the characters, the pacing, most of the prose.
What I didn't like: the blatant copy-catting of many aspects of McCarthy's style. I found some of the prose even more overly florid and difficult to read than CM's. I found the constant mashing together of words & descriptive adjectives distracting and irritating.
I'm sorry, but leave the master his masterpieces. This book was not a favorite.
What I did like: the story, the journey, the characters, the pacing, most of the prose.
What I didn't like: the blatant copy-catting of many aspects of McCarthy's style. I found some of the prose even more overly florid and difficult to read than CM's. I found the constant mashing together of words & descriptive adjectives distracting and irritating.
I'm sorry, but leave the master his masterpieces. This book was not a favorite.
March 26, 2024
The Garden is an apocalyptic vision of biblical proportions, steeped in the rich imagery of a distantly familiar world like a hospice patient’s fever dream. Not since Cormac McCarthy or William Faulkner have I read prose so searing, so hypnotic in its overwhelming display of talent. Aidan Scott has written nothing less than a modern masterpiece.
READ IT!
READ IT!
July 3, 2024
What an incredible read. This book is proof that larger publishers are missing out on some extremely talented writers. I was lucky enough to see a group of Instagramers posting high praise for this small press novel and decided to jump in and was rewarded with a fantastic read. The prose was gorgeous and the story flow was consistently interesting from beginning to end.
July 12, 2024
In The Garden, Scott slits the underbelly of Antebellum America, opening manifest destiny to the red. Rather than tracing words in spilled blood, the ink is the brine of diseased spirit. An inspired, intelligent work, and a haunting odyssey.
February 23, 2025
A solid debut and an entertaining read. I'd say that about 80% of this is very good. The Augur character didn't work for me at all and I found his purpose and storyline to be under developed. Will be taking note of what this author does next.
December 6, 2025
This guy is seriously talented. Incredibly beautiful prose. Go support him and buy this book!
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