The Poison Garden
The shockingly tense thriller that will have you gripped from the first page
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3.7 • 58 Ratings
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
'I devoured The Poison Garden . . . Gripping and utterly convincing, it's Alex Marwood at the top of her (already impressive) game' JOJO MOYES
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Where Romy grew up, if someone died you never spoke of them again.
Now twenty-two, she has recently escaped the toxic confines of the cult she was raised in. But Romy is young, pregnant and completely alone - and if she is to keep herself safe in this new world, she has some important lessons to learn.
Like how there are some people you can trust, and some you must fear. And about who her family really is, and why her mother ran away from them all those years ago.
And that you can't walk away from a dark past without expecting it to catch up with you...
Shocking, tense and sharply written, The Poison Garden is the gripping new novel from the international bestseller and Edgar award-winning Alex Marwood.
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Praise for Alex Marwood
'So good I wish I'd written it myself' VAL MCDERMID
'Scary as hell' STEPHEN KING
'Marwood blends story-telling prowess with characters so real that we inhabit their predicaments quite viscerally' SOPHIE HANNAH
'Without a doubt, she is one of crime fiction's brightest stars' MEGAN ABBOTT
'I'm in awe' MARK EDWARDS
'I cancel all engagements and turn off my phone for a new Alex Marwood book' ERIN KELLY
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Romy, the 21-year-old protagonist of this creepy psychological thriller from Edgar-winner Marwood (The Darkest Secret), is the only adult survivor found at the site of the mass death of more than a hundred people at the messianic doomsday cult, the Ark, in North Wales. She tries to keep her pregnancy secret as she transitions to the outside world, where she seeks out her teenage half-siblings, Ilo and Eden, the latter a child of the cult's patriarch, Lucien Blake, and thus possibly destined to become the One. The narrative alternates between Romy's sinister efforts to reconnect with family and provide for her unborn child's future, and the experiences of her mother, Somer, who joined the Ark when Romy was a child. Marwood makes life inside the controlling and Spartan survivalist compound appear simultaneously appalling and idyllic, leaving the reader feeling revolted, but just a bit complicit. The dangling plot line at the end leaves the story feeling less complete than it should. Hopefully, a sequel will provide some resolution.
Customer Reviews
Disappointing
I’ve loved the other books so I pre-ordered this with much anticipation. The concept is good and it starts off well enough but to me it just meanders along and doesn’t really go anywhere. I was hoping it would build up into a shocking conclusion or at least have an unexpected twist in the story but sadly not. The ending was unsatisfactory for me too. Sadly not my cup of tea I’m afraid.