A review by diannastarr
The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

One of my friends was reading Alex Marwood's The Poison Garden and, out of curiosity, I decided to read it for myself.  Focusing on the aftermath of a mass suicide by members of the fictional Plas Golau cult in Southern England, it follows three different women and their relation to the organization.  Sarah is grieving the loss of her estranged sister after she took her own life with the rest of the doomsday cult, Somner is the estranged sister in question and her chapters chronicle her own indoctrination, and lastly Romy is Somner daughter and, as one of the few survivors of the cult, finds herself struggling to adapt to modern society. The premise was intriguing and, in a way, Plas Golau bore many similarities to Jonestown and Colonia Dignidad.  The brainwashing, the indoctrination, the fears of the future and what drives a group of people into taking action in the way that they did were all important questions that I was looking forward to unraveling.  However, it felt a bit lacking and I cannot place why.  In retrospect, I feel like the first few chapters started off really strong, it fell a little flat in the middle, and then it picked back up again in the end - and while the "twist conclusion" should have felt like a whirlwind, it didn't.  Some chapters were much stronger than others, and while it was an all around enjoyable book, it would have been nice for it to have been a slow, gradual inching of suspension and mystery as opposed to this feeling of forcing myself to push through the other chapters in order to get to those spurts of the great.  As for the ending,

while some might find Sarah's indoctrination and Romy's return to the cult disappointing, I will be the first to say that it made me mad.  I was pissed off, just staring at the book thinking: "that's it?"  But it's been over a month since I finished it and I feel like that was what Marwood was getting at all along.  It wasn't supposed to be a happy ending, it was supposed to make you feel that dread in the pit of your stomach, wanting to shake some sense into Romy and Sarah. 

Despite my own personal taste in writing styles, I am still going to keep this in my library as Marwood's work made me think about what it means to be a member of society and what following the "status quo" entails - and I suppose that's all that really matters in the end.  No matter the writing style, the author's choices in pacing, the characterization and content and everything else under the sun, everything comes down to wanting your story to stick with your readers.  As I sit here and write this review, I know that

Somner's final thoughts before downing the laced drink

will always stick with me.  Even if it's just a small piece of the story, The Poison Garden did its job, and for that I applaud it.