BOOK REVIEW
“THE POISON GARDEN”
By Alex Marwood
(Penguin, $22.78)
Grade: A
To hide her pregnancy for fear her baby will be taken away from her, and to find her two half-siblings who are now living with her mother’s sister Sarah, cult survivor Romy has no qualms about what she has to do in order to survive.
“The Poison Garden” smoothly explores Romy’s life among “the Dead,” as residents of the Ark called those who live in the outside world, and her memories of the commune, why her mother, Somer, settled there and Sarah’s inability to move past the influence of her deceased controlling parents.
Marwood’s extreme sense of place makes both contemporary Britain and the Ark seem both appealing and appalling sites to live. Both places can easily be considered a poison garden, depending on a person’s perception as Marwood parallels life at the Ark and the stifling, unforgiving home ruled by religious fervor in which Sarah and Somer had been raised.
An Edgar winner for her “The Wicked Girls,” Marwood again shows a mastery at creating new worlds.
