The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I enjoyed how this book worked for me. The situations and characters brought out that genuine sense of dread and impending danger I recognize from nineteenth-century gothic novels. While Auxier cites different author influences, I was reminded clearly of Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, who was also excellent at evoking similar feelings. And he also noted that his wife is a scholar of Victorian literature, so it made sense.
I thought the storyteller character was a bit overdone and anachronistic, but it also appears to be a signature device of Auxier's (after visiting his site and seeing the romantic significance of the Anglo Saxon scop). The ending was also difficult to stomach, too tidy and preachy. My favorite gothic novels, while reaching a satisfying resolution, also do not work so strongly to dissipate the horror--it lingers in the story and then in my mind for a few days afterward.
So Auxier's directly didactic 'message' about wishing (he actually has characters cite Aesop in the text) was over the top in the ending, but was very interesting to follow throughout the body of the text (parts 1 & 2), where the power of the magic over the characters made a lot of sense.
Lu, you were right, it does have a lot of the tone and elements from Splendors & Glooms!
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