Lost in the Garden by Adam Leslie: A Fever-Dream Journey in Weird Fiction

Lost in the Garden by Adam Leslie: A Fever-Dream Journey in Weird Fiction

This folk horror tale takes readers on a fever-dream journey across the English countryside. At a time of seemingly perpetual summer where the dead are rising as corporeal and violent ghosts, trio of friends ignore a lifetime of warnings and decide to take a road trip to a neighbouring town of Almanby after one of their boyfriends decides to take the trip and never returns. Lost in the Garden is like if Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation was set at a village fete, complete with an ice cream van and a tombola. It’s cosy and familiar while also sitting firmly in the weird fiction category.

It is a tricky book to situate in the horror genre

Because while it definitely falls under ‘folk horror’ the novel wears its horror rather lightly. The blurb and cover art makes it seem like the novel is going to be an exploration of toxic friendships set amid a kind of Midsommar-like atmosphere. While it does definitely deliver on the exploration of friendship the horror is not of the culty variety.

Instead, the horror begins with ‘ghosts’ returning to the small town which is the setting of the first quarter of the novel. These ghosts are corporeal though, behaving more like slow zombies than your typical ghost as they will kill people if they can get their hands on them – they just rarely do. It’s a really interesting take on the zombie or post-apocalyptic plotline as it explores our capacity to rapidly acclimatise to even the most extraordinary events and just carry on living as usual.

The setting of Almanby was also very intriguing and its enduring mystery and inability to be accurately mapped, navigated or described came across perfectly whilst Adam Leslie provides just enough anchors for the reader’s imagination. Again, the effects Almanby has on its inhabitants and visitors and the way its shape shifts and seems to purposely disorientate both time and space means that this novel chafes up against the confines of horror and perhaps spills more into weird fiction. 

There are definitely things in the novel that will frustrate readers.

None of the questions you might have about the story really get answered, whether they may about the logistics of the post-apocalyptic society at the start or the weirdness of Almanby, what the town actually is or why it has these strange effects.

The novel is very effective at conjuring that fever-dream style, like a road shimmering in high summer heat or a mirage glittering in the desert, but at 450 pages long this sense of permanent questioning might not appeal to some readers. Additionally, the characters can border on annoying at times. I do believe this is on purpose and that we are supposed to be frustrated alongside them as they drive each other to their wit’s end on the long drive to Almanby. Leslie did a great job but all things considered it might prove too much for some.

The main strengths of the novel are its descriptions of the landscape in the sticky and oppressive endless summer. The writing was extremely sensory in places, almost touchable, and you cannot help but be dragged into the world of bees drunk on nectar, hot asphalt, and the sense of something rotting in the heat just out of view.

Lost in the Garden is for those looking for a great summer weird read akin to Lucie McKnight Hardy’s Water Shall Refuse Them or something which captures the meandering and threatening English countryside like Kay Dick’s They.

Lost in the Garden by Adam Leslie

Like an old wives’ tale, like a piece of wisdom passed down through generations which no one questioned of even thought about too hard. Like folklore. It was just something everyone knew, a rule to be followed.

Don’t go to Almanby.

‘Eerily enchanting and profoundly inventive… a dreamy and unsettling masterwork written with such care and aplomb. In this perfectly composed and dazzlingly intricate folk horror phantasmagoria, reality becomes infected while a charming and yet deeply sinister strangeness crawls from page to page, chapter to chapter. This is one of the freshest and most spiritually rewarding novels I’ve read in quite some time.’ ― Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

‘Lost in the Garden is like trying to recall a troubling and beautiful dream; it’s like peering through a wound in the world; sorrowful, uncanny and utterly stunning. This book is magnificent, like nothing I’ve ever read before.’ ― Matt Wesolowski, author of the Six Stories series

‘England’s overheating, death-warped countryside is a genius setting for Leslie’s shamelessly unhinged novel – equal parts road trip and bad acid trip. But for all the weirdness, it’s the characterisation that makes the novel so compelling: Lost in the Garden has a wit and groundedness that bring something fresh to the folk horror tradition.’ ― Matt Hill, author of Lamb

Heather, Rachel and Antonia are going to Almanby.

Heather needs to find her boyfriend who, like so many, went and never came back.

Rachel has a mysterious package to deliver, and her life depends on it.

And Antonia – poor, lovestruck Antonia just wants the chance to spend the day with Heather.

So off they set through the idyllic yet perilous English countryside, in which nature thrives in abundance and summer lasts forever, and as they travel through ever-shifting geography and encounter strange voices in the fizz of shortwave radio, the harder it becomes to tell friend from foe.

Creepy, dreamlike, unsettling and unforgettable – you are about to join the privileged few who come to understand exactly why we don’t go to Almanby.

The Heart and Soul of Horror Book Review Websites