Review | The Forgotten Garden

Title: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Date Published: June 1st, 2008

Dates Read: August 17-21, 2021

Current Goodreads Rating: 4.13/5

FINALLY. My re-read of Kate Morton's novels has been completed! I remember reading this book when I was a kid and I remember it being a gut punch just like it was when I read it this summer. I don't know if I would have picked this Morton book as my last Morton book of the year, but it was probably the most heart wrenching and intense of Morton's novels even after the novel that has a character who suffers from such bad PTSD that he's constantly being monitored in case he flies into a violent rage.

I am a little sad that I've run out of Kate Morton books to read, but I know for a fact that these stories she's woven will stay with me for a very long time. And who knows, maybe in ten years I'll re-read all of them again and catch up on the ones I've missed along the way.

Ok, so what happens? A small girl, Nell, is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. No one is there to claim her when she arrives so she is taken in by the dockmaster and his family and brought up as if she were their own. When the truth is revealed to her on her 21st birthday something inside her shatters. Who was she before she boarded the ship? Why did no one ever look for her? Who were her parents?

What starts with a small girl continues through the generations and ends with Nell's granddaughter, Cassandra. She finishes what her grandmother could not and journeys to the Cornish coast to Blackhurst Manor where she learns about Nell's biological family and the woman who lived hidden away in the forgotten garden.

Ok, so what did I think? What a fucking ride. I mean really. This book may start in 1913 where Nell finds herself lost and alone on a dock half-way around the world, but in reality the story starts much further back than that. Morton weaves the story of three interlocked women together, Eliza, Nell, and Cassandra. Throughout the course of the novel we get to see each woman live through a unique time - Eliza surviving in the slums of London during Jack the Ripper's reign, Nell searches for answers in the '80s, and Cassandra finishes what had been started in the mid-2000s. Each woman uncovers more of the mystery that started the whole book: who is Nell and where is she from?

It can be difficult to have so many unique characters, voices, and places, but I think Morton does a great job keeping the story going without letting it get too confusing. There is one particular moment that I enjoyed where Cassandra meets an ancient old woman who lives in the building Eliza used to back in the early 1900s. It isn't until later that it's revealed to the readers that we've met that woman before, but she was slightly younger then. Its those little details of a world that's changed, but not too much that really tickle the lizard part of my brain while reading.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room. At the beginning I said that this book is probably one of the more depressing Morton novels and I stand by that. This will get into spoiler territory so be aware. In all her past novels, Morton has made her characters suffer. There really is no better way to say it and books wouldn't be good if there weren't some kind of action or heartbreak. However, despite the suffering these characters endure they always suffer the loss of someone else. Laurel watches her mother murder a man, Seraphina's nightmares cause her to murder her sister's lover, even in The Clockmaker's Daughter the story of the ghost's death doesn't really color the story until the very end. Things are a little different in The Forgotten Garden. We're almost immediately introduced to Eliza. We ache for her when her brother dies, when she's forced to move back to her family and her creepy uncle at Blackhurst Manor, and we rejoice when she finds joy in things like writing her fairy tales or getting to know her cousin's daughter. If Eliza's story played out anything like Morton's other books we'd see her fade into the distance, eventually dying at 100 years old still surrounded by a little mystery, but also lots of family. Instead, Eliza is murdered so that she can't reveal her secrets and is dumped in an unmarked grave. It's such a sudden and brutal ending to a character that it took me by surprise even now. There is a resolution to the mystery, maybe even a somewhat happy one for Cassandra and the memory of Nell, but Eliza will forever be that body that was suddenly uncovered almost 100 years later.

This book was Morton's second novel after The House at Riverton which in itself was a pretty intense and somewhat depressing novel so maybe this was just where she was at while she was getting into her writing career and I don't necessarily think it ruins the book or makes it worse than the others. I'd just say if you're looking for an uplifting story of family coming together through the generations, maybe this one isn't it?

Long Story Short:

• This book is depressing. Just throwing that out there.

• Dude, living during the time of Jack the Ripper must have been INTENSE.

• Kate Morton needs to release another novel so I can jump back into her intricate stories. Please and thank you.

My Rating: 5/5