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The Children at the Bottom of the Gardden
At the edge of the coastal city of Seadon, behind a dilapidated farmhouse surrounded by rotten trees, something titters and calls. The Gardden. Its playful voice promises games, magic, wonders, lies - and roaring torrents of blood. The Gardden speaks not just to its eccentric keeper, but also to the deviants of Seadon's criminal underworld: a restless goth, a cheating waster, a sullen concubine, a perverted drug baron, and a murderous sociopath. Haunted by shadowed things with coal-black eyes, they'll soon be lured to a place where nightmares become flesh, secrets rise from the dark, and a voice coaxes them to play and stay, yes yes yes, forever.
- GenresHorror
496 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2018
About the author
Jonathan Butcher
32 books264 followersSplatterpunk Award-nominated author who writes disturbing horror with a difference.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 5, 2021
Set in a seedy seaside town, the story begins with the 'gardden' mentioned in the title, before introducing us to various dubious characters. As it goes on we see how they are not only linked to one another, but the eventual relevance of the gardden to them. This is a dark, graphically violent, sometimes sickening tale with a humourous edge. Despite not being the most endearing bunch of characters overall, they are written in such a way that brings them to life in all their awful glory - I was drawn in and engaged by them, and towards the last section I couldn't put the book down, wanting to find out what fate awaited them.
December 13, 2018
This is a 4.5⭐️! And this book really surprised me, in a delightfully, disturbing way!! About 2/3 of the way into the book I felt myself being drawn into the characters world of Seadon! The people involved are unique and the author draws the reader into their depraved lives! I actually liked, felt sorry for, and cheered a couple on! As the reader gets further into the story, you come to realize how entwined the characters become in relation to each other through horrible circumstances! This is the first work I’ve read from the author and I have become a fan! Great read!
May 17, 2019
I read “The Children at the Bottom of the Gardden” by Jonathan Butcher after reading a review by a fellow team member of Ginger Nuts of Horror. It sounded to me like book that wanted to push some boundaries in the horror genre. I think the book does just that. It takes topics/themes that you might see in horror - violence, derangement, body horror, supernatural forces - and puts them all in one book. It goes a step further to be probably one of the more visceral books I’ve ever read - some of the scenarios and the gory details within were enough to make me cringe. And that’s hard to do for me with books!
There are several different characters within the book, and each chapter is told from a single character’s point of view. It becomes very interesting how the characters are woven together and what becomes of them in the final scene. I do enjoy books with the various chapters told by a single character. However, I will say that my biggest complaint with the book is that with some of the characters, the chapter formatting was different with some characters than from the others. For example, even though all the chapters were told from 3rd person point-of-view, sometimes the words of the narrative took on the character’s spoken voice. Which I think is a creative way to do that since I don’t see that often. But when stories are told in 3rd person POV, I like for the narrative text to be consistent throughout the book. Or it could be that most of the character’s chapters had very similar styles, but two of them (Percy and Henry) were just so different from the others, it’s odd that two stuck out to me, and the rest did not. Despite this, I was still able to stay immersed in the story.
Another thing that I loved about the book is that I was constantly guessing until the very end whether the children of this creepy garden were real creatures or if they were just very vivid delusions created by one of the characters. Either way, whether real or creations of the mind, the children were excellently creepy. And the house itself, too, was full of horrors that were creepy and cringeworthy.
All of the characters were very real to me, which made it easy for me to find the people I wanted to feel sorry for, and the ones I wanted to hate. And I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but the relationships between some the characters’ back stories were surprising and made for great plot twists.
If you’re someone who likes to be challenged not to be creeped out or grossed out by what I would call “coarse” situations, then definately give this one a read.
There are several different characters within the book, and each chapter is told from a single character’s point of view. It becomes very interesting how the characters are woven together and what becomes of them in the final scene. I do enjoy books with the various chapters told by a single character. However, I will say that my biggest complaint with the book is that with some of the characters, the chapter formatting was different with some characters than from the others. For example, even though all the chapters were told from 3rd person point-of-view, sometimes the words of the narrative took on the character’s spoken voice. Which I think is a creative way to do that since I don’t see that often. But when stories are told in 3rd person POV, I like for the narrative text to be consistent throughout the book. Or it could be that most of the character’s chapters had very similar styles, but two of them (Percy and Henry) were just so different from the others, it’s odd that two stuck out to me, and the rest did not. Despite this, I was still able to stay immersed in the story.
Another thing that I loved about the book is that I was constantly guessing until the very end whether the children of this creepy garden were real creatures or if they were just very vivid delusions created by one of the characters. Either way, whether real or creations of the mind, the children were excellently creepy. And the house itself, too, was full of horrors that were creepy and cringeworthy.
All of the characters were very real to me, which made it easy for me to find the people I wanted to feel sorry for, and the ones I wanted to hate. And I don’t want to give too much away about the plot, but the relationships between some the characters’ back stories were surprising and made for great plot twists.
If you’re someone who likes to be challenged not to be creeped out or grossed out by what I would call “coarse” situations, then definately give this one a read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews