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Lost in the Garden
"Like an old wives’ tale, like a piece of wisdom passed down through generations which no one questioned or even thought about too hard. Like folklore. It was just something everyone knew, a rule to be followed:
Don’t go to Almanby."
Heather, Rachel and Antonia are going to Almanby. Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver, and her life depends on it. And Antonia—poor, lovestruck Antonia just wants the chance to spend the day with Heather.
So off they set through the idyllic yet perilous English countryside, in which nature thrives in abundance and summer lasts forever. And as they travel through ever-shifting geography and encounter strange voices in the fizz of shortwave radio, the harder it becomes to tell friend from foe.
Creepy, dreamlike, unsettling and unforgettable—you are about to join the privileged few who come to understand exactly why we don't go to Almanby.
Don’t go to Almanby."
Heather, Rachel and Antonia are going to Almanby. Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver, and her life depends on it. And Antonia—poor, lovestruck Antonia just wants the chance to spend the day with Heather.
So off they set through the idyllic yet perilous English countryside, in which nature thrives in abundance and summer lasts forever. And as they travel through ever-shifting geography and encounter strange voices in the fizz of shortwave radio, the harder it becomes to tell friend from foe.
Creepy, dreamlike, unsettling and unforgettable—you are about to join the privileged few who come to understand exactly why we don't go to Almanby.
385 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 16, 2024
260 people are currently reading
15217 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 736 reviews
May 30, 2024
After I finished this read last night I wrote a delirious stream of thoughts in my journal, which is probably exactly the way this book should be reviewed. So here I am, trying to decipher my handwriting (and paraphrase my thoughts for your reading pleasure):
Based on the description on the back and the cover of this book, I went into it hoping it would be a feverish, delirious, toxic friendship situation a la Bunny by Mona Awad and Midsommar. So imagine my disappointment when a few pages in, zombies made an appearance. Well, not zombies. Corporal ghosts? Anyway, something post-apocalyptic and sinister was going on. I don't really like post-apocalyptic stories. They are bleak and depressing.
On top of that, all of the characters in this book are annoying. Bordering-on-insanity, completely-irrational, constantly-yapping-and-being-inconsiderate type of annoying. I'd probably have pushed Heather out of the car within five minutes, if it was me driving to Almanby.
And that was before the weird stuff started happening.
Despite all of my disappointments and frustrations, I found myself reading on. It seemed as if I blinked and I was a 150 pages in. I started questioning myself: didn't I hate this book? Why can't I stop, then? Something about the writing was hypnotic. It lulled me into a reading trance, convinced me to give myself over completely the insanity of this book. If you expect any part of this to be rooted in reality, you are terribly wrong. If you expect moments in which you can breathe, recover, grab a wall of sanity to hold on to, you are terribly wrong.
The closer the characters got to Almanby on their ill-advised roadtrip from hell, the more surreal it all became. I never thought a book that seemed one big fever-dream could keep me entertained for 440 pages, but this one did. The writing was so sensory, almost touchable, that I could not help but let myself be dragged into the stickiness of summer, flies buzzing around rotting things, bees high on nectar, the smell of it all sweet and sickening.
Not everyone will enjoy this one. This really is the type of book that I would shelf under 'just let it happen to you'. The blurb on the back doesn't do it justice, the plot is inexplicable, but if you are willing to follow the pull of Almanby, this book is like a delicious, horrifying painting that reveals itself further on every page.
Based on the description on the back and the cover of this book, I went into it hoping it would be a feverish, delirious, toxic friendship situation a la Bunny by Mona Awad and Midsommar. So imagine my disappointment when a few pages in, zombies made an appearance. Well, not zombies. Corporal ghosts? Anyway, something post-apocalyptic and sinister was going on. I don't really like post-apocalyptic stories. They are bleak and depressing.
On top of that, all of the characters in this book are annoying. Bordering-on-insanity, completely-irrational, constantly-yapping-and-being-inconsiderate type of annoying. I'd probably have pushed Heather out of the car within five minutes, if it was me driving to Almanby.
And that was before the weird stuff started happening.
Despite all of my disappointments and frustrations, I found myself reading on. It seemed as if I blinked and I was a 150 pages in. I started questioning myself: didn't I hate this book? Why can't I stop, then? Something about the writing was hypnotic. It lulled me into a reading trance, convinced me to give myself over completely the insanity of this book. If you expect any part of this to be rooted in reality, you are terribly wrong. If you expect moments in which you can breathe, recover, grab a wall of sanity to hold on to, you are terribly wrong.
The closer the characters got to Almanby on their ill-advised roadtrip from hell, the more surreal it all became. I never thought a book that seemed one big fever-dream could keep me entertained for 440 pages, but this one did. The writing was so sensory, almost touchable, that I could not help but let myself be dragged into the stickiness of summer, flies buzzing around rotting things, bees high on nectar, the smell of it all sweet and sickening.
Not everyone will enjoy this one. This really is the type of book that I would shelf under 'just let it happen to you'. The blurb on the back doesn't do it justice, the plot is inexplicable, but if you are willing to follow the pull of Almanby, this book is like a delicious, horrifying painting that reveals itself further on every page.
August 5, 2024
(Edit - I've hidden a section of this review in case it could be considered a spoiler. For some reason, I remember hearing or seeing somewhere this same info about the set-up of the book prior to picking it up, and I thought it was in the synopsis, but see now it's not there. It is an aspect that's established very early on, but just in case, possible spoiler warning.
_________________________________
Looking through my highlights from this book, I have a hard time reconciling the examples of beautiful writing with my overall disappointment, but unfortunately, that's where Lost in the Garden left me.
Rachel, Antonia and Heather are young twenty-ish friends living a world rendered incomprehensible But those questions, like pretty much every other one that came up for me while reading this book, remain unanswered.
For different reasons, the three friends have decided to journey to the village of Almanby, which seems to be a place of dangerous legend and yet which is also treated as very real. It doesn't exist on any map, until it does for a little while, and you can only find Almanby by following some kind of invisible beacon of foreboding it throws out once you enter its general vicinity.
This journey takes a long, long time.
Against this sinister backdrop, the reader is treated to long scenes filled with detailed descriptions that evoke the bucolic bliss of an endless summer in the countryside and random snippets of nonsensical radio broadcasts. These things seem to serve no purpose and provide no set-up for any actual forward momentum or plot. It's just there for the sake of being there, and we are stewed in it for the sake of stewing in it. Which is fine, which is actually sort of what I came for with this book, but after a while it gets pretty tiresome.
Speaking of tiresome, we have the character of Heather, the most manic of manic pixie dream girls, who another character succinctly and accurately refers to as "Insane Toddler Heather" at one point. This is all you really need to know to understand how annoying this character is to spend pages and pages with.
After devoting much of my time to closely reading every word on the page for clues to that "aha" moment that must surely happen at some point to bring Almanby, its meaning, and the whole story of this book into some kind of focus rather than just a blurry summer heat haze, I gave up and began to skim here and there as scene after protracted scene heralded an ultimately unsatisfying end. And...yeah.
I'm a reader who doesn't mind character over plot, or a fever dream experience. My favorite book of the year so far is Bunny, for crying out loud. But Lost in the Garden draws it out way too long, and you end up reading in circles, not just disoriented, but bored. This may very well have worked for me if it had been half the length.
_________________________________
Looking through my highlights from this book, I have a hard time reconciling the examples of beautiful writing with my overall disappointment, but unfortunately, that's where Lost in the Garden left me.
Rachel, Antonia and Heather are young twenty-ish friends living a world rendered incomprehensible But those questions, like pretty much every other one that came up for me while reading this book, remain unanswered.
For different reasons, the three friends have decided to journey to the village of Almanby, which seems to be a place of dangerous legend and yet which is also treated as very real. It doesn't exist on any map, until it does for a little while, and you can only find Almanby by following some kind of invisible beacon of foreboding it throws out once you enter its general vicinity.
This journey takes a long, long time.
Against this sinister backdrop, the reader is treated to long scenes filled with detailed descriptions that evoke the bucolic bliss of an endless summer in the countryside and random snippets of nonsensical radio broadcasts. These things seem to serve no purpose and provide no set-up for any actual forward momentum or plot. It's just there for the sake of being there, and we are stewed in it for the sake of stewing in it. Which is fine, which is actually sort of what I came for with this book, but after a while it gets pretty tiresome.
Speaking of tiresome, we have the character of Heather, the most manic of manic pixie dream girls, who another character succinctly and accurately refers to as "Insane Toddler Heather" at one point. This is all you really need to know to understand how annoying this character is to spend pages and pages with.
After devoting much of my time to closely reading every word on the page for clues to that "aha" moment that must surely happen at some point to bring Almanby, its meaning, and the whole story of this book into some kind of focus rather than just a blurry summer heat haze, I gave up and began to skim here and there as scene after protracted scene heralded an ultimately unsatisfying end. And...yeah.
I'm a reader who doesn't mind character over plot, or a fever dream experience. My favorite book of the year so far is Bunny, for crying out loud. But Lost in the Garden draws it out way too long, and you end up reading in circles, not just disoriented, but bored. This may very well have worked for me if it had been half the length.
September 7, 2025
☆☆☆☆
Lost in the Garden is absolutely not going to be for everyone but it was definitely for me. This book is wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful. At times it feels like an acid trip or fever dream (in the best possible way). I literally have no idea what I just read, but I loved the experience of not knowing.
My favorite character was Heather, who really embodied the chaos and uncontrollability of Almanby. She felt like the spirit of the book itself: unruly, unpredictable, and impossible to pin down.
I do think this could have worked as a novella, but for me the 450 pages never dragged; it didn’t feel overly long. In fact, I think this book makes the most sense as an audiobook, where the disorientation and strangeness can wash over you even more fully.
If you’ve enjoyed the surreal and bizarre elements of Bunny by Mona Awad or Death Valley by Melissa Broder, there’s a good chance you’ll find something here to love. But again—this is not a universal recommendation. It’s polarising, odd, and at times completely unmoored from reality… which is exactly why it worked so well for me.
Lost in the Garden is absolutely not going to be for everyone but it was definitely for me. This book is wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful. At times it feels like an acid trip or fever dream (in the best possible way). I literally have no idea what I just read, but I loved the experience of not knowing.
My favorite character was Heather, who really embodied the chaos and uncontrollability of Almanby. She felt like the spirit of the book itself: unruly, unpredictable, and impossible to pin down.
I do think this could have worked as a novella, but for me the 450 pages never dragged; it didn’t feel overly long. In fact, I think this book makes the most sense as an audiobook, where the disorientation and strangeness can wash over you even more fully.
If you’ve enjoyed the surreal and bizarre elements of Bunny by Mona Awad or Death Valley by Melissa Broder, there’s a good chance you’ll find something here to love. But again—this is not a universal recommendation. It’s polarising, odd, and at times completely unmoored from reality… which is exactly why it worked so well for me.
Read
May 12, 2024This folk horror tale takes readers on a fever-dream journey across the English landscape, in a time of perpetual summer where the dead are rising as corporeal and violent ghosts.
English kids are raised on the old warning: never go to the village of Almanby. But Heather's boyfriend has done just that, and he's been gone too long. And so, Heather invites her friends Rachel and Antonia to join her on a trip to that forbidden village.
My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/modern-horror...
English kids are raised on the old warning: never go to the village of Almanby. But Heather's boyfriend has done just that, and he's been gone too long. And so, Heather invites her friends Rachel and Antonia to join her on a trip to that forbidden village.
My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/modern-horror...
June 24, 2024
“Antonia had read a book at school when she was small. It was called One Two Three & Away, and it was about a river that you could only cross via a line of white stepping-stones. But you mustn’t ever step on the black stepping-stone, everyone said, otherwise something terrible would happen. And Almanby was a bit like that. All other villages were fine to visit, but Almanby was the black stepping-stone.”
Lost in the Garden is such a strange fever-dream of a folk-horror story, one that’s hard to summarize yet unforgettable and definitely one that will stick with readers.
Three young women embark on a road trip to the English village of Almanby. Crafty, cunning Rachel is tasked with delivering a package. Whimsical, flighty Heather is on a rescue mission to find her missing boyfriend, and aspiring stand-up comedienne Antonia serves as designated driver, going simply because she’s in love with Heather. The three of them have knowingly signed up for danger, because no one is ever supposed to go to Almanby, a place shrouded in mystery. Those who go, never come back. To make matters even stranger, the world is trapped in an eternal summer, the dead (called “ghosts”) have risen from their graves for absolutely no reason at all and are shambling through neighborhoods, villages, and the countryside beating people to death, and there’s a local lore known as the fearsome Green Woman. Could Almanby have something to do with all of it? What's certain is that the closer our characters get to their ominous destination, the weirder the road trip becomes.
This book had all the ingredients of an A24 film with a delirium not unlike Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House. It’s dizzying, beautiful, melancholic, humorous, unsettling, haunting, eerie, vibrant. In spite of it being nearly 500 pages, the chapters are short and author Adam S. Leslie’s writing is alluring as well as easy to fall into.
If you’re looking for a book about a dreamy road trip with an ominous journey’s end, you’ve found it!
Lost in the Garden is such a strange fever-dream of a folk-horror story, one that’s hard to summarize yet unforgettable and definitely one that will stick with readers.
Three young women embark on a road trip to the English village of Almanby. Crafty, cunning Rachel is tasked with delivering a package. Whimsical, flighty Heather is on a rescue mission to find her missing boyfriend, and aspiring stand-up comedienne Antonia serves as designated driver, going simply because she’s in love with Heather. The three of them have knowingly signed up for danger, because no one is ever supposed to go to Almanby, a place shrouded in mystery. Those who go, never come back. To make matters even stranger, the world is trapped in an eternal summer, the dead (called “ghosts”) have risen from their graves for absolutely no reason at all and are shambling through neighborhoods, villages, and the countryside beating people to death, and there’s a local lore known as the fearsome Green Woman. Could Almanby have something to do with all of it? What's certain is that the closer our characters get to their ominous destination, the weirder the road trip becomes.
This book had all the ingredients of an A24 film with a delirium not unlike Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House. It’s dizzying, beautiful, melancholic, humorous, unsettling, haunting, eerie, vibrant. In spite of it being nearly 500 pages, the chapters are short and author Adam S. Leslie’s writing is alluring as well as easy to fall into.
If you’re looking for a book about a dreamy road trip with an ominous journey’s end, you’ve found it!
August 8, 2024
at first this was fun but then not so much. it seemed to not know when to end, it could have done with 200 pages less and two more editing rounds 😭
May 16, 2024
I purchased this book not 24 hours ago and was unable to put it down until I'd read the whole thing.
Lost in the Garden reads like a strange fever dream. I was initially drawn in by the promise of folk horror and a Midsommer-esque cover, picking it up in a cheeky lunch break Waterstones trip. I stayed for a strange and unique story that I'm now unable to get out of my mind.
I'd recommend going in with minimal prior knowledge and just letting the book... happen to you.
And remember, stay away from Almanby.
Lost in the Garden reads like a strange fever dream. I was initially drawn in by the promise of folk horror and a Midsommer-esque cover, picking it up in a cheeky lunch break Waterstones trip. I stayed for a strange and unique story that I'm now unable to get out of my mind.
I'd recommend going in with minimal prior knowledge and just letting the book... happen to you.
And remember, stay away from Almanby.
January 24, 2025
I've just had an acid trip minus the acid.
What a long strange trip it's been.
What a long strange trip it's been.
May 31, 2024
Before I expand on why I didn't enjoy this book, I want to make it abundantly clear the sort of person who WOULD like this book:
People who love: enchantment and whimsy only, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the childlike mindset of Huck Finn, elements of Peter Pan, The Seanan McGuire books that starts with Every Heart a Doorway, dream-like sequences, The Wizard of Oz, and absolute unabridged whackiness remniscent of Monty Python and Pee-wee Herman. Also, the people (and you'll know who you were, you youngest of those Gen-Xers) who loved to get stoned and watch Teletubbies and The Adventures of Cat-Dog.
Words to describe this book: Surreal, Magical Realism level 11, Ne-dominant (for those Jungians and MBTI lovers out there), and Whacky.
My Bookish Etsy Shop: https://novelfindswithkassi.etsy.com
- - - - - - - - - -
I rated this 1 star because I need my stories to have at least some percent located in a reality that I understand, that I can navigate and believe in, because it has certain laws that I feel nestled safe inside of. I don't mean that this book felt unsafe and that's why I didn't like it; I mean, that I couldn't believe anything I read and that made for a very disorienting reading experience. I think the reader is supposed to be disoriented, though, to be fair to the author.
There were aspects of this book that felt like a merry-go-round. It was dizzyingly repetitive, odd bits were juxtaposed next to one another like children and sex and ice cream and serial killing. This book doesn't ask questions or give answers. It just exists. It's absolutely devoid from any sort of reality. It reads like a manic episode.
I felt as I read this that I was in free fall and longing for the floor. I only finished it because I didn't want the book to "beat" me and I wanted, desperately, for it to make sense to me.
People who love: enchantment and whimsy only, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the childlike mindset of Huck Finn, elements of Peter Pan, The Seanan McGuire books that starts with Every Heart a Doorway, dream-like sequences, The Wizard of Oz, and absolute unabridged whackiness remniscent of Monty Python and Pee-wee Herman. Also, the people (and you'll know who you were, you youngest of those Gen-Xers) who loved to get stoned and watch Teletubbies and The Adventures of Cat-Dog.
Words to describe this book: Surreal, Magical Realism level 11, Ne-dominant (for those Jungians and MBTI lovers out there), and Whacky.
My Bookish Etsy Shop: https://novelfindswithkassi.etsy.com
- - - - - - - - - -
I rated this 1 star because I need my stories to have at least some percent located in a reality that I understand, that I can navigate and believe in, because it has certain laws that I feel nestled safe inside of. I don't mean that this book felt unsafe and that's why I didn't like it; I mean, that I couldn't believe anything I read and that made for a very disorienting reading experience. I think the reader is supposed to be disoriented, though, to be fair to the author.
There were aspects of this book that felt like a merry-go-round. It was dizzyingly repetitive, odd bits were juxtaposed next to one another like children and sex and ice cream and serial killing. This book doesn't ask questions or give answers. It just exists. It's absolutely devoid from any sort of reality. It reads like a manic episode.
I felt as I read this that I was in free fall and longing for the floor. I only finished it because I didn't want the book to "beat" me and I wanted, desperately, for it to make sense to me.
June 13, 2025
This is such a beautifully written book, and truly, I would classify Lost in the Garden as literature. It's the kind of novel that is absolutely perfect for graduate analysis--the language and style are original, and the form is so innovative. It's almost like one long "leaping poem," if you are familiar with the leaping poetry movement. Every word choice is loaded with suggestion. At the same time, it's a fluid, deceptively simple read. You don't get bogged down in the language--it's never too heavy or purple. For readers who just want to be entertained, no worries. It has so many scenes of hilarity, and a surface reading is all that's necessary for comprehension and enjoyment. Literary readers: you absolutely cannot miss this one. You'll love the layers--It's five tiers of rich chocolate cake and thrillingly clever.
The genre itself defies classification. Set in a dystopian reality just after a pandemic forever alters the world, it blends horror, romance, adventure, and science-fiction. The main characters are the surviving few. They are young adults who are coping with being on their own and surviving any way they can, and they try very hard to have fun while doing so. Eventually, despite a plethora of warnings, they decide to travel to a city rumored to be incredibly dangerous, a city from which "no one returns." The journey takes on a sort of mythic quality, and of course high jinks and mayhem ensue.
I wish I was in a position to write a conference paper on this novel. The writing and form are new, fascinating, and brilliant. I think there are several places that needed to be scaled back a bit and other moments I wish had been expanded. But that's the only reason why I haven't given it five stars.
This is an LGBTQ+ positive storyline. Characters reflect strong diversity in general too.
The genre itself defies classification. Set in a dystopian reality just after a pandemic forever alters the world, it blends horror, romance, adventure, and science-fiction. The main characters are the surviving few. They are young adults who are coping with being on their own and surviving any way they can, and they try very hard to have fun while doing so. Eventually, despite a plethora of warnings, they decide to travel to a city rumored to be incredibly dangerous, a city from which "no one returns." The journey takes on a sort of mythic quality, and of course high jinks and mayhem ensue.
I wish I was in a position to write a conference paper on this novel. The writing and form are new, fascinating, and brilliant. I think there are several places that needed to be scaled back a bit and other moments I wish had been expanded. But that's the only reason why I haven't given it five stars.
This is an LGBTQ+ positive storyline. Characters reflect strong diversity in general too.
May 5, 2025
This was everything I've been looking for all in one book and much like last January's If We Were Villains, set the bar so high for the rest of the year that I almost feel there's little point to doing anything other than reading this over and over.
If you've ever been to one, England's villages are weird. There's entire episodes of Doctor Who dedicated to how weird they are. This story really captures their vibe, as three girls tied to each other through little more than familiarity travel to the forbidden Almanby.
Avoiding murderous ghosts while in search of ice cream, the radio plays on and on, from Antiques Show transcripts to lists of dinosaurs, and the story and the stories told on the radio start to shift and merge, as they get closer and closer to Almanby. This book is an absolute fever dream, and I loved every page.
If you've ever been to one, England's villages are weird. There's entire episodes of Doctor Who dedicated to how weird they are. This story really captures their vibe, as three girls tied to each other through little more than familiarity travel to the forbidden Almanby.
Avoiding murderous ghosts while in search of ice cream, the radio plays on and on, from Antiques Show transcripts to lists of dinosaurs, and the story and the stories told on the radio start to shift and merge, as they get closer and closer to Almanby. This book is an absolute fever dream, and I loved every page.
December 18, 2025
Lost in the Garden
“STAY AWAY FROM ALMANBY.
Almanby is dangerous.
Go anywhere, but don’t go to Almanby.
But no one ever specified why. No one thought to impress upon the children exactly what terrible fate would befall them if they did happen to venture across its threshold. It was likely no one actually had any idea. It was simply a fact: Almanby was dangerous. Everyone knew it, even if they couldn’t remember how they knew. But there was certainly no need to question it or look into it any further. All anyone was really sure of was that if you went to Almanby, you’d never come back.”
“Don’t walk on the quicksand, don’t touch the powerlines, don’t go off with strangers, don’t play on the farm, don’t go to Almanby.”
I’ve read a review of this which described it as psychedelic folk horror, not a bad description. It is strange, odd and haunting and Leslie nods at a number of genres. There is a touch of road trip. The dead walk around the countryside aimlessly and slowly (a nod to the zombie genre). Despite being slow the dead do carry wooden clubs, branches or other blunt instruments and use them on any who they catch,
This is very much a rural novel, it features villages rather than cities and towns. The whole landscape feels dreamy and out of focus and this is an alternate Britain, There are shades of The Wicker Man and The Day of the Triffids as well as more modern issues like the Covid pandemic.
There are three main characters who decide to travel to Almanby. Rachel says she has to deliver a package, Heather whose boyfriend has gone to Almanby and disappeared and Antonia who is in love with Heather.
Some sort of cataclysm has happened and most of the adults are dead:
“Only the young survived. They thrived, climbing trees, scavenging food and building fortifications. Childhood called them back; it had prepared them for this moment.”
The novel is impossible to date, but, it is very funny. There is also, oddly, a cosiness to it and anyone who knows English villages will relate to the descriptions.
The ending is as strange as the rest of the novel. It’s really not like anything else I’ve read.
“STAY AWAY FROM ALMANBY.
Almanby is dangerous.
Go anywhere, but don’t go to Almanby.
But no one ever specified why. No one thought to impress upon the children exactly what terrible fate would befall them if they did happen to venture across its threshold. It was likely no one actually had any idea. It was simply a fact: Almanby was dangerous. Everyone knew it, even if they couldn’t remember how they knew. But there was certainly no need to question it or look into it any further. All anyone was really sure of was that if you went to Almanby, you’d never come back.”
“Don’t walk on the quicksand, don’t touch the powerlines, don’t go off with strangers, don’t play on the farm, don’t go to Almanby.”
I’ve read a review of this which described it as psychedelic folk horror, not a bad description. It is strange, odd and haunting and Leslie nods at a number of genres. There is a touch of road trip. The dead walk around the countryside aimlessly and slowly (a nod to the zombie genre). Despite being slow the dead do carry wooden clubs, branches or other blunt instruments and use them on any who they catch,
This is very much a rural novel, it features villages rather than cities and towns. The whole landscape feels dreamy and out of focus and this is an alternate Britain, There are shades of The Wicker Man and The Day of the Triffids as well as more modern issues like the Covid pandemic.
There are three main characters who decide to travel to Almanby. Rachel says she has to deliver a package, Heather whose boyfriend has gone to Almanby and disappeared and Antonia who is in love with Heather.
Some sort of cataclysm has happened and most of the adults are dead:
“Only the young survived. They thrived, climbing trees, scavenging food and building fortifications. Childhood called them back; it had prepared them for this moment.”
The novel is impossible to date, but, it is very funny. There is also, oddly, a cosiness to it and anyone who knows English villages will relate to the descriptions.
The ending is as strange as the rest of the novel. It’s really not like anything else I’ve read.
Want to read
February 27, 2024This sounds like my kind of strange and everything my heart desires in a novel! 🥰
June 8, 2024
A cloying, dream-like novel that feels like a fever dream from start to finish.
I loved this one - the world full of ghosts ready to batter people's brains out, the everlasting summer, the haunting call of Almanby drawing people in. It's the sort of folk horror that really works for me - vague and unsettling, dreamy and incorporeal.
If I had to criticise this at all I'd say it's a little long, but in a way this adds to this strange feeling of drowning in dreams, unable to escape a countryside that takes hours to navigate, even when the characters move very little.
Strange, incredibly unique and meshed with a sort of darkness that leaves you questioning everything you've read.
I loved it - but I'm not sure it will have very wide appeal.
I loved this one - the world full of ghosts ready to batter people's brains out, the everlasting summer, the haunting call of Almanby drawing people in. It's the sort of folk horror that really works for me - vague and unsettling, dreamy and incorporeal.
If I had to criticise this at all I'd say it's a little long, but in a way this adds to this strange feeling of drowning in dreams, unable to escape a countryside that takes hours to navigate, even when the characters move very little.
Strange, incredibly unique and meshed with a sort of darkness that leaves you questioning everything you've read.
I loved it - but I'm not sure it will have very wide appeal.
July 22, 2024
My god. This book frustrated me to no end. Lost in the Garden is advertised as a folk-horror tale of a group of friends who take a road trip to the village of Almanby, somewhere that they’ve always been told never to go to. This book was in desperate need of some editing. For a book that is desperately lacking in plot, 450 pages is a ridiculous amount. I found myself compelled to keep reading through the first 250 pages of the road trip, just to find out exactly why they had been told not to go to Almanby and I even started thinking that they might never actually get there at all; a “slow burn” doesn’t even begin to describe the first half of it. Every character was insufferable, not just the kind of unlikeable character I enjoy, but just the kind that anything could’ve happened to them and I wouldn’t have cared. I believe they’re supposed to be around the 25 year old mark, but all act so annoyingly like children that it was quite unbelievable. I’m just going to say it as well, when they reached Almanby, it was really not worth it to find out what it was all about…
The humour fell flat with me, the plot was so lacking, there was so much repetition I feel like you could have just skipped 100 pages and still known exactly what was going on. I feel really mean because I’m struggling to find anything positive to say, I just don’t think this was a well thought out plot at all, and the “trippy” and confusing element of the book was just a way to distract from that. I am so sorry lol. 1.5/5 stars ⭐️.5 rounded down
The humour fell flat with me, the plot was so lacking, there was so much repetition I feel like you could have just skipped 100 pages and still known exactly what was going on. I feel really mean because I’m struggling to find anything positive to say, I just don’t think this was a well thought out plot at all, and the “trippy” and confusing element of the book was just a way to distract from that. I am so sorry lol. 1.5/5 stars ⭐️.5 rounded down
October 29, 2024
If an A24 movie was a book.
Felt like I was dreaming whilst reading this, such a unique book. Adored the atmosphere and the fragile female friendships that featured. What an experience. It is defo weird and heavily a vibes kind of book but I can't stop thinking about this book.
Felt like I was dreaming whilst reading this, such a unique book. Adored the atmosphere and the fragile female friendships that featured. What an experience. It is defo weird and heavily a vibes kind of book but I can't stop thinking about this book.
April 17, 2025
Welcome to a phantasmagoria apocalypse feverdream roadtrip, where adults are zombies, only the young are truly alive, and summer lasts forever.
It's six years since the dead awoke and started killing the living. Now, three young women do what they've been warned against all their lives, a taboo much older than the apocalypse: they're going to Almanby. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver. Heather (a manic-pixie-dreamgirl) is looking for her boyfriend, who went to Almanby long ago and never returned. And Antonia, the driver, joined because she has a crush on Heather. This book is long and meandering, but you just have to let it wash over you.
As they travel through a landscape of eternal summer and corporeal ghosts, memories and thought experiments intercede themselves into the journey, and past, present and fiction blends together. But when the roadtrip nears it's end, and Almanby looms up ahead, the darkness of folk-horror threatens even the happiest of pixie-dream-girls. In Almanby, reality itself unravels.
It's six years since the dead awoke and started killing the living. Now, three young women do what they've been warned against all their lives, a taboo much older than the apocalypse: they're going to Almanby. Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver. Heather (a manic-pixie-dreamgirl) is looking for her boyfriend, who went to Almanby long ago and never returned. And Antonia, the driver, joined because she has a crush on Heather. This book is long and meandering, but you just have to let it wash over you.
As they travel through a landscape of eternal summer and corporeal ghosts, memories and thought experiments intercede themselves into the journey, and past, present and fiction blends together. But when the roadtrip nears it's end, and Almanby looms up ahead, the darkness of folk-horror threatens even the happiest of pixie-dream-girls. In Almanby, reality itself unravels.
August 5, 2024
I always feel guilty writing negatively about something that someone has spent a lot of time working on, but I guess that’s the nature of art. It’s subjective and some will adore while others hate. Unfortunately, I’m in the hate category for Lost in the Garden. (Spoilers ahead!!)
Reading the description I was immediately pulled in and excited, the niche category of strange girls and strange events being my favourite to read. However, by around chapter 23 I was starting to get ….tired. Okay we get it, Heather misses Steven and they’re going to Almanby. Can we please speed this up?
I can appreciate that the lengthy descriptions and events that happen in seemingly just a day or two alludes to the fact that as they get closer to Almanby reality becomes less and less like reality, but instead a lucid dream of mindfuckery and ice cream. However I just feel really underwhelmed and honestly disappointed.
The slow, tantalisingly slow, build up to finding Steven which then becomes an abrupt ending where the bomb doesn’t work and Antonia is Green Anne’s (who?) daughter and Heather now doesn’t care for Steven and they live happily ever after working for Green Anne (I think?) was extremely frustrating. I actually had to sit in silence for a few minutes out of frustration because I realised I’d spent my whole day reading this book just to be left completely confused and a mix of over and underwhelmed.
Part of me credits Leslie for being able to write such a frustrating book where the reader feels just as lucid and confused as the girls. It just objectively is not that good. I feel like there was just so much time spent on the way to Almanby and finding fucking ice cream to the point where I don’t actually know what the rest of the plot was supposed to be. I’m hopeful that I’ll maybe reread at some point and grasp better.
now I really want ice cream :(
Reading the description I was immediately pulled in and excited, the niche category of strange girls and strange events being my favourite to read. However, by around chapter 23 I was starting to get ….tired. Okay we get it, Heather misses Steven and they’re going to Almanby. Can we please speed this up?
I can appreciate that the lengthy descriptions and events that happen in seemingly just a day or two alludes to the fact that as they get closer to Almanby reality becomes less and less like reality, but instead a lucid dream of mindfuckery and ice cream. However I just feel really underwhelmed and honestly disappointed.
The slow, tantalisingly slow, build up to finding Steven which then becomes an abrupt ending where the bomb doesn’t work and Antonia is Green Anne’s (who?) daughter and Heather now doesn’t care for Steven and they live happily ever after working for Green Anne (I think?) was extremely frustrating. I actually had to sit in silence for a few minutes out of frustration because I realised I’d spent my whole day reading this book just to be left completely confused and a mix of over and underwhelmed.
Part of me credits Leslie for being able to write such a frustrating book where the reader feels just as lucid and confused as the girls. It just objectively is not that good. I feel like there was just so much time spent on the way to Almanby and finding fucking ice cream to the point where I don’t actually know what the rest of the plot was supposed to be. I’m hopeful that I’ll maybe reread at some point and grasp better.
now I really want ice cream :(
January 7, 2025
This is definitely one to re-read. Haunting and chilling and funny and peculiar and nostalgic and beautiful. Lost in the Garden is on par with Shirley Jackson as far as beautiful, dreamy horror goes. I'm so in love with Leslie's prose, how effortlessly he takes me from laughing to crying to looking over my shoulder in fear.
I love the radio broadcasts(?), I love the imagery and the daytime horror of it all, I love the pacing and the characters and the great, cosmic fear that is woven so seamlessly into each scene. I'll never be able to watch the Wizard of Oz without feeling unsettled by her red shoes.
Maybe my newest obsession. I love this book so much.
I love the radio broadcasts(?), I love the imagery and the daytime horror of it all, I love the pacing and the characters and the great, cosmic fear that is woven so seamlessly into each scene. I'll never be able to watch the Wizard of Oz without feeling unsettled by her red shoes.
Maybe my newest obsession. I love this book so much.
August 23, 2024
absolute shite, only got 95 pages in before i decided to put it down. Very pretentious while being still badly written. It’s not queer at all, Antonia is embarrassed of being bi-curious yet is then a lesbian? Where’s the flow and the rhythm. It’s a lot of useless unnecessary gobshite rambling that could’ve taken out probably 300 pages? There’s a lot of meaningless plot points that don’t contribute to the actual plot at all. The characters are extremely unlikeable and makes it hard to root for them (im looking at you Heather and Rachel) I disliked this book with a passion, save your precious time to read something that’s a little better, even a children’s book would best this.
July 12, 2024
they could never make me hate you Heather
June 24, 2024
i don’t really care for ice cream
October 18, 2024
"They said that people who went to Almanby never returned. Rachel had been and, true enough, she hadn’t returned. Not fully. A half empty version of Rachel came home. She’d left some important part of herself there, something that kept calling her back. And each time she went, it chipped a little more of her away. And a little more… until there was hardly anything left. She was only complete when she was in Almanby."
Midsomar meets Bunny, anyone?
Quick first thoughts:
This was frustratingly close to being perfect, if only it had been about 150 pages shorter, specifically cut from the beginning.
Lost in the Garden is a hazy feverdream of nostalgia, horror and disorientation. It captures the feeling it sets of to portray perfectly and builds tension gradually in a way that’s more unsettling than outright horrific. The characters are insufferable, but fit the story perfectly, the vibes are hot and oppressive, and the slow unraveling as we find out the truth behind Almanby is truly freaky.
It’s just that unnecessary drag in the first 20-30% that costs it its fifth star.
Midsomar meets Bunny, anyone?
Quick first thoughts:
This was frustratingly close to being perfect, if only it had been about 150 pages shorter, specifically cut from the beginning.
Lost in the Garden is a hazy feverdream of nostalgia, horror and disorientation. It captures the feeling it sets of to portray perfectly and builds tension gradually in a way that’s more unsettling than outright horrific. The characters are insufferable, but fit the story perfectly, the vibes are hot and oppressive, and the slow unraveling as we find out the truth behind Almanby is truly freaky.
It’s just that unnecessary drag in the first 20-30% that costs it its fifth star.
April 13, 2025
This book blends sharp humor with creeping dread in a story about three friends heading into a place no one returns from—Almanby.
Heather is a chaotic, carefree mess, chasing after her missing boyfriend with zero sense of danger. Rachel is cold and closed-off, hiding behind sarcasm and distance. And Antonia, a quiet suffering soul who’s a stand-up comedian, and her inner monologue is a masterclass in self-inflicted emotional torture. Full of «what’s if» and missed moments.
Their banter is razor-sharp, but tension simmers under the surface. What begins as a bizarre rescue mission quickly unravels into something far darker—where trust is fragile.
Then there are kind of ghosts like things that are family members, friends, and neighbors come back from the dead.
Clever, eerie, and unsettling—this is horror with heartache and bite
I’ll not say more as I think this book is best if you learn as you go.
It was weirdly entertaining and fun, and surprisingly unputdownable. If you like Bunny by Mona Awad I think you might like this.
Heather is a chaotic, carefree mess, chasing after her missing boyfriend with zero sense of danger. Rachel is cold and closed-off, hiding behind sarcasm and distance. And Antonia, a quiet suffering soul who’s a stand-up comedian, and her inner monologue is a masterclass in self-inflicted emotional torture. Full of «what’s if» and missed moments.
Their banter is razor-sharp, but tension simmers under the surface. What begins as a bizarre rescue mission quickly unravels into something far darker—where trust is fragile.
Then there are kind of ghosts like things that are family members, friends, and neighbors come back from the dead.
Clever, eerie, and unsettling—this is horror with heartache and bite
I’ll not say more as I think this book is best if you learn as you go.
It was weirdly entertaining and fun, and surprisingly unputdownable. If you like Bunny by Mona Awad I think you might like this.
June 2, 2024
What happens when the folk horror goes there- Midsommar style and moves beyond threat and insinuation. You get psychedelic shades akin to Jeff Van Der Meer, that’s what. You also get some lovely 70s references in terms of those nasty public service videos about not swimming and the like. The female friendships are acutely explored and offer amusement - the hidden lives of others is on point and original. Loved it!
October 5, 2024
A 5-star based on vibes.
I believe this book came to me at the right time, I needed something new, different and a bit weird and 'Lost in the Garden' was exactly it.
I loved everything about it... 400 pages of a fever dream that I never wanted for it to end.
(I'm thinking of re-reading it again now)
I believe this book came to me at the right time, I needed something new, different and a bit weird and 'Lost in the Garden' was exactly it.
I loved everything about it... 400 pages of a fever dream that I never wanted for it to end.
(I'm thinking of re-reading it again now)
July 3, 2024
(4.5) i’m in such an awe that it’s hard to write anything at all, but i’m sure of one thing: I would sell my soul to read this book for the first time again… wow
September 18, 2024
What the fuck was this even 😩
April 16, 2025
This was so weird. And I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. I feel like I have no idea what I just read, but I know that I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. It was giving me massive Welcome to Night Vale x Shaun of the Dead vibes when I was picturing some of the scenes, so if those bizarre trippy horror adjacent stories are your sort of thing, I would highly recommend this.
I think this was so brilliantly written, the author put so much bold and fun personality into each character, I had a great time with them, even when we were doing nothing. Their conversations were so hilarious, and the effortless use of humour in here really made me giggle. It’s such a bleak and desolate landscape and it’s actually quite horrifying, but some of the jokes and internal monologue bits are so funny you momentarily forget what you were scared of. Momentarily being the key word. This was actually horrifying as a narrative, and the author was very skilled at building us tension and dread. It was a really disorientating and confusing landscape to find yourself in as a reader, and things were never as they seemed on the surface. So unpredictable and gross and weird. The vibes were perfectly curated, and the descriptions were so vivid you could picture everything.
The main reason this wasn’t a five star for me is the pacing was a little bit challenging. Because it’s so character focused and there isn;t much happening plot wise, it felt extremely slow to wade through at times. It’s also quite a chunky book to get through which exacerbated that. We seemed to go in circles quite a lot which while initially charming, did get a tad tiresome. It had a few random interludes peppered in too which added minimal to the story but seemed to make it feel more dense. I feel like we could have gotten to the point a little bit sooner.
I really enjoyed this! It read like an absolute fever dream. I’m not 100% sure I comprehended all of the tiny details or fully understood the ending, but it was entertaining none the less. A one of a kind story that will haunt me from time to time I’m sure.
I think this was so brilliantly written, the author put so much bold and fun personality into each character, I had a great time with them, even when we were doing nothing. Their conversations were so hilarious, and the effortless use of humour in here really made me giggle. It’s such a bleak and desolate landscape and it’s actually quite horrifying, but some of the jokes and internal monologue bits are so funny you momentarily forget what you were scared of. Momentarily being the key word. This was actually horrifying as a narrative, and the author was very skilled at building us tension and dread. It was a really disorientating and confusing landscape to find yourself in as a reader, and things were never as they seemed on the surface. So unpredictable and gross and weird. The vibes were perfectly curated, and the descriptions were so vivid you could picture everything.
The main reason this wasn’t a five star for me is the pacing was a little bit challenging. Because it’s so character focused and there isn;t much happening plot wise, it felt extremely slow to wade through at times. It’s also quite a chunky book to get through which exacerbated that. We seemed to go in circles quite a lot which while initially charming, did get a tad tiresome. It had a few random interludes peppered in too which added minimal to the story but seemed to make it feel more dense. I feel like we could have gotten to the point a little bit sooner.
I really enjoyed this! It read like an absolute fever dream. I’m not 100% sure I comprehended all of the tiny details or fully understood the ending, but it was entertaining none the less. A one of a kind story that will haunt me from time to time I’m sure.
May 10, 2025
I really wanted to love this fever dream of a book, but sadly I can’t get myself to. The plot kept going this way and that way with lots of extra subplots, causing the story to drag on and on while the lore of the mysterious village remained messy to me.
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