Thank you, Netgalley, for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!

I had great expectations going into this book! The cover and description were amazing! The idea for this book had such great potential. I also liked that it was written in first person from the perspective of the three main characters. I love diving deep into the psyche and thought process of morally grey characters. All three characters were "nutty" in their own personal way, with some being crazier than others. However, this book did not live up to my expectations. It kept dragging on and on. When I thought it would reach a climax in the plot, it let me down and didn't make it all the way to the climax. As I said, this book had great potential, but unfortunately, for me it missed the mark.

The cover and title for this one caught my eye immediately. That cover is absolutely haunting, and with a title like Shadow Garden, I thought it just about had to be a doozy of a read. So, I checked out the blurb and went for it. And I realized pretty quickly that what I expected and what this book actually is are two very different things. It is certainly domestic drama, and there is some suspense, but it's a bit too predictable for much of that. Nevertheless, there's something immensely readable about this story, something as compelling as it was frustrating at times. The story is told by three characters, Donna, Edward, and their daughter Penelope, and not a one of them is exactly a reliable source of information. There also isn't a likable one in the bunch, so there's that. However, those things aren't what frustrated me. Unlikable and/or unreliable characters in a story like this are practically a given. What did frustrate me was the jumping back and forth in the timeline with little to no warning. It all feels rather scattered, but the more I read, the more it started coming together, and the more I felt like the style worked for this story. Donna felt scattered, herself, so the storyline reflecting that made sense. What it all comes down to is there were many things about this book that I wouldn't care for in most cases, but Alexandra Burt brings all those things together to create a story that I felt compelled to finish. Even the ending isn't what I would've liked for it to be, but again, it just worked for this book. My advice would be to go ahead and check out that terrific cover, and go ahead and read the intriguing blurb, then wipe the slate clean, and forget them both. Go into this one without preconceptions or expectations, and just settle in and read. Admittedly, this isn't the book for everyone, but it turned out to be the one for me.

"Shadow Garden" by Alexandra Burt is not at all what I thought it would be. There were so many questions and there just wasn't quite enough back story for me. You get an unreliable description of events that take place and it is slow moving. I was very disappointed with this one. Not a book I would recommend.

Shadow Garden is a dark, atmospheric examination of the wealthy and influential Pryor family. Edward is a successful plastic surgeon. His wife, Donna, devoted her life to making their home a showplace and raising their only child, daughter Penelope, now twenty-nine years old. To outward observers, they are to be envied because they appear to have everything.

But as the story opens, Edward has deposited Donna in a luxurious apartment where her housekeeper, Marleen, comes every day to see to her needs. In her intense first-person narration, Donna talks about her estrangement from Edward after thirty years of marriage, concerns about her finances, and her ongoing recovery from an injury that has made movement difficult. Edward does not communicate with her. Neither does Penelope. Each day Donna asks Marleen for news of her daughter, inquiring as to whether she has called. And each day the answer is the same: no. Donna becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her perfect family and learning Penelope's whereabouts.

Burt says the inspiration for Shadow Garden was her pondering the myriad ways that money impacts morality, relationships, and even mental health. And she wondered how far a parent would go to save his/her child and whether "the more one has to lose, the harder one fights to keep it — whatever ‘it’ may be? Money, a reputation, a standing in the community?"

The result is a compelling examination of the careful construction and eventual disintegration of a family. Donna remembers bits and pieces of their life together, such as the way she decorated their showplace home, the carefully curated image of perfection she ensured that they projected, the parties they hosted, and the place they held in society. But she can't fully reconstruct her family's history in her mind. And she can't stop worrying about Penelope. She confides in Dr. Jacobson, whose office is located at Shadow Garden, about her concerns, relating details about her marriage and "Penelope being a difficult child, a trying teenager, the ensuing tension. My accident. The shattered hip. The subsequent depression. My recovery." When Dr. Jacobson asks about her last interaction with Penelope, Donna relates a made-up story about sitting on her daughter's bed and holding her hand.

Donna says her thoughts are like "a runaway train," and her friend, Vera, a famous author who also resides at Shadow Garden, urges her not to trust anyone. Not even Dr. Jacobson. Worse, she tells Donna,"I'm so sorry. I wish I could do something about what happened to Penelope."

The gates of Shadow Garden are locked and Donna becomes convinced that Edward does not want her to leave the complex, so she devises a clever way to navigate back to the home she shared with Edward and Penelope. She is confident that she will find answers there. And she indeed does.

Burt skillfully intersperses Donna's recitation of her experiences with aspects of the story related from the perspectives of Edward and Penelope. Edward is skeptical. Not fully convinced that Donna is being truthful, perhaps because of his own difficulty accepting the reality with which the family must now grapple. Employing richly descriptive prose, Burt describes a marriage characterized by secrets, a deeply disturbed child, and parents who were unequipped to deal effectively with their child's problems but remained steadfastly determined to protect her. And the toll their choices took on each of them individually, as well as collectively.

The story is instantly intriguing, if bewildering at first. Donna's confusion is palpable, but Burt incrementally reveals details that permit readers to gradually understand exactly what transpired and how the characters' journey led them to the point at which the book begins. As Donna inches closer to discovering the whole truth, Burt subtly ramps up both the dramatic tension and pace, compelling the story forward with horrifying and shocking revelations.

Once all is divulged, Burt leaves it to readers to decide how they feel about the Pryor family. Are they empathetic? Burt illustrates how their values and decisions inform their fate. Is it what they deserve? Readers can consider how far they might go, if placed in similar circumstances, to protect their child. Burt hopes that readers will think about "how even carefully weighted choices can be the wrong decisions to make." At what juncture did the Pryors reach a point of no return? Does such a point in time even exist?

Burt notes that "memory is at the center of . . . Shadow Garden . . .but memory is fundamentally malleable which is disturbing and opens the door to many fictional scenarios," a fact Burt demonstrates as she mines some of those fictional scenarios to great effect. Is it sometimes better to forget? Even Donna remarks at one point on her pilgrimage to the truth, "I want to spare myself the memories of what happened next . . ." Readers will, however, want to know everything that Donna remembers, as well as Edward's slant on what befell the Pryor family and come to understand Penelope better.

Shadow Garden is a unique, haunting story about an American family with means, potential, and opportunities . . . and how it all went wrong.

This book was very disjointed. I could hardly tell where I was and had to keep going back to re-read chapters. I felt the explaining of Penelope's issues was way too involved but yet there wasn't any background info on Donna and just a little on Edward. All in all, I struggled to get through this and will not recommend for purchase at my library.

Told from multiple perspectives with a jumbled non-linear timeline, I struggled to maintain interest in this book. By the time I got to the end I didn’t really care what happened to any of the characters.

Title: Shadow Garden
Author: Alexandra Burt
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780440000327
Edition: E-Book
Publication date: 21/07/2020

Content:
"Donna Pryor lives in the lap of luxury. She spends her days in a beautifully appointed condo. Her every whim is catered to by a dedicated staff, and she does not want for anything.
Except for news of her adult daughter.
Or an ex-husband who takes her calls.
Donna knows something is wrong, but she can't quite put her finger on it. As her life of privilege starts to feel more and more like a prison, the facade she has depended on begins to crumble. Somewhere in the ruins is the truth, and the closer Donna Pryor gets to it, the more likely it is to destroy her. "

Opinion:
Firstly, I want to say something about the cover. It is dark and so beautiful at the same time. The woman's face in front of this dark environement is kind of mystical.
Secondly, there is the story itself. It was so thrilling. I actually tried finding out whats wrong myself together with Donna. The end was quite surprising and I would not have thought that all this would happen.
The protagonists are also quite interesting, especially Donna. I like her a lot and she also developes a great character throughout the whole book.

Conclusion:
All in all, this book was quite amazing and a really good thriller. I would totally recommend it to everyone loving tension and thriller.

Shadow Garden has all the luxuries Donna Pryor could want. She is cared for by hired staff who cook all her food, do all the cleaning, and who make sure that she gets to her physical therapy appointments on time. And yet, despite the care and the luxury, she cannot help but feel like something is deeply wrong. The phone rings every day. Twice and then a hang up. But her caretaker swears that there was no call. Her daughter, her only child, her Penelope, has never called or tried to contact her. It seems clear that something is wrong. That somehow, since abandoning her at Shadow Garden, her estranged husband must have turned her daughter against her. That Edward must have her caretaker spying on her for him. She wants to, needs to, know what is going on. Donna Pryor needs to find the truth even as finding it might destroy her.

In many ways Alexandra Burt’s Shadow Garden feels like it wants to be a book about truth and all the ways that can be extremely subjective. It feels like it wants to pull back the layers of Donna’s perceptions of the things in her life and lay bare how very empty a great deal of it really is. It feels like Burt was reaching for so much, for meaning and pathos and a look into a woman whose life and mind are falling apart. Shadow Garden is a book that feels like it wanted to be so much and overstretched.

A tremendous issue I had while reading Shadow Garden was the mismatch between how very much it needed the audience to empathize with its characters and how very hard it worked to make empathizing with its characters all but impossible. It should not be as hard to empathize with a woman trying to find out why her daughter has chosen not to talk to her for months as it is with Donna. Her early characterization feels really judgmental and untrusting and just obsessed with material goods and the signifiers of her former life of wealth. We do get some good suggestions early on that Donna is an unreliable narrator, but then nothing gets done with that until well past half way through the book. Which makes it a little hard to talk about without spoiling the entire twist ending.

Neither Edward, the estranged husband distant from everything except himself, nor Penelope, the troubled daughter with a history of violence and lashing out, were any better than Donna. Penelope actually manages to be worse because she has all this lovely build up focusing on the frankly awful things she did across her childhood all the troubling behaviors she displayed, and it came to nothing once the plot finally arrived somewhere around two thirds of the way through the book. She was functionally just a plot coupon, there to be traded in for a twist and some bad feelings for the actual characters. And I did not care about any of them. In a book that relied so heavily on character work and reader empathy, I simply did not care and found myself unable to get into the book as a result.

There were moments that had promise. Hawthorn Court itself occasionally felt like a character, a cursed house bringing out the worst in the people living in it while also being built up as a refuge for our desperately lost protagonist, which is a fantastic note of Southern Gothic that could have been great with a little more focus. The vast differences in how Donna, the parent who actually puts forth the effort of parenting, and Edward, the distant parent who provides for the family financially but not emotionally, view Penelope could have been way better especially if it was matched with more details that supported Donna’s unreliable narrator status. But the characters get in the way of any promise the book might have had.

The twist falls flat because everything leading directly up to it relies on a number of things that themselves were poorly supported in book. The reader gets a number of out of character choices from Penelope. Donna’s mental issues, previously largely down played by Donna herself, come roaring to the fore in an attempt to rewind and show yet another truth of what happened. So much happens that should have been better supported through out. It is the kind of twist that I told myself early on in the book was too obvious to have actually been used, but that still feels unearned. And because the twist feels unearned and the characters never earned my empathy, the ending feels unearned.

The ending actually brought down my scoring for this book. Leading into the last fifth of the book or so Shadow Garden had earned a two out of five from me. I really did not like it and would not have recommended it to anyone, but it did not leave me feeling like the book was a total waste of time. Then the ending hit. Up to that point, I had considered that if the first third or so of the book was edited down or omitted the book would have felt more tightly plotted. Up to that point, it seemed like the book could have been saying something. But the ending felt like a poorly executed reset and I found that I could not get past that. So, for me, Shadow Garden gets a one out of five.

After a terrible accident, Donna Pryer is sent to recuperate at Shadow Garden. It’s a place for the wealthy to be taken care of and pampered. She’s been there for several months, but has had no word from her ex-husband or her adult daughter. It’s as if they just abandoned her. Donna tries her best to find out what’s going on, but with no one to turn to, she’s not very successful.

It took some time for me to get into this book. I was a bit confused at first. The book went back and forth from present to past. As I kept reading, each chapter gave the reader more insight into what was actually happening. It was slow in some parts, but the author has a way of grabbing your attention with little tidbits to whet your appetite.

I didn’t particularly find the characters likeable, but I couldn’t stop reading. It is an intriguing tale. I wanted to know what what was going on and why. I did start to put a few things together, but eventually it all came together by the end of the book. A very captivating book, but difficult to review as I didn’t want to give anything away.

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200717/secrets-lurk-in-alexandra-burtrsquos-lsquoshadow-gardenrsquo

Honestly, this wasn’t my most favorite thriller. I thought it was a bit slow to start and then it didn’t really pick up any speed.

Shadow Garden was a quick and okay read. I would not classify it as a thriller though. This one reads more like a mystery or psychological suspense story. The storyline was pretty predictable but still a decent read. Overall this one gets 3 stars.

The book I thought I was going to read: a woman, living in an expensive condo, isolated from her family. She searches for the truth and finds.......something terrible.

What I DID read: A predictable family drama with an obvious and unsurprising ending.

Well, the cover was nice.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

Shadow Garden is an imaginative and creative story that pulls you into a dark and twisted place. A great psychological thriller takes you a while to realize that your mind is being manipulated along with the story. The author's writing is remarkable! I was drawn in from the beginning and sent on a roller coaster of twists and turns until the surprising ending!

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar

Shadow Garden starts with Edward Pryor leaving his wife, Donna Pryor, in the luxury community of Shadow Garden to heal from her hip injury. Their goodbye is estranged, and Donna feels that she is being sent away, over time she comes to the conclusion that her marriage is over. After some months, Donna comes out of a cloud of depression and notices that neither Edward or their daughter, Penelope, has called her in months. She worries that Edward has not sent her divorce papers and doesn’t have any financial means if Edward stops paying for her stay.

As Donna tries to figure out what is wrong with her family, she notices that objects are appearing in her condo that shouldn’t be there but instead back at her house. Donna believes that somebody is playing games with her and doesn’t trust anybody except her friend Vera who lives next door.

What follows is a trip down memory lane and the piecing together of the events that brought her to Shadow Garden, her accident, her estranged family, and the notion that she seems to have forgotten something important.

Shadow Garden was an interesting story, the characters did their best to find the answers that haunted them, and everything comes to the light at the end. It was a good fictional story with hints of mystery that kept the reader interested in the narrative and wanting to know what would happen at the end.

The story moves from the point of view between the Pryor family members and across different stages of their lives to explain how they got to this point and the decisions they took. Overall, among the Pryor members I liked Edward the most, he tried to help his family and was easiest to relate to. His decisions were more practical until the end and I believed he thought of family first instead of a social position.

While Donna had some interesting scenes, in the end, her character mostly came off as a rich housewife that would do her best to keep everything perfect for outside prying eyes and decided to ignore and bury her problems.

Narrative wise, the story was easy to follow, but it had some moments where explanations or memories were too long. I liked the mystery aspect of the story, and I wasn’t expecting the last twist towards the end.

If you are a fan of Alexandra Burt, then I recommend Shadow Garden. In this story, memories are not to be trusted and in their darkest moments, humans bend their reality to protect themselves from the pain.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

I'm having a hard time rating this book. The beginning was super confusing and just started into the story. I was trying to figure out who the characters where and what was happening the first few chapters.

A few chapters in once things started to be explained a little and I got a better handle on who the characters where and how they were related I began to enjoy the book.

I liked how I wasn't sure if the wife was in a facility for mental health or just a regular facility. I wasn't sure if the husband had some kind of issues and I was left trying to figure out if the daughter had something wrong or if it was the wife or husband making it up.

The book reminds me a bit of The Girl on the Train. I was left wondering until the last few chapters what exactly had happened to the daughter, who did it and why the wife was in a facility.

Overall, I liked this book once I got past the beginning.

Thanks to Netgalley, Berkley publishing and Alexandra Burke for this ARC. This book
has gotten a lot of attention, and I was anxious to read this one.
Shadow Garden is an amazing story. Alexandra Burt did a wonderful job of making her characters realistic and not always likable. The story itself was intriguing and kept me guessing at what would happen next. This is the first book I have read by Alexandra but I will be looking for much more in the future from her.. 4 stars because it’s my first book by this author.

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Shadow Garden
By: Alexandra Burt


REVIEW ☆☆☆☆

Donna, Edward and Penelope are an American family just living the dream. Actually, it's more accurate to say they are living a dysfunctional nightmare. Edward is a plastic surgeon, and the family are affluent show offs. Donna is the comfortable wife who spends her days in luxury and planning perfection for her family. Their is definitely an obsession with wealth and staging every little thing because anything less than perfect is unacceptable. Penelope is the seriously troubled daughter who gets swept under the rug because her true behavior is bad for the image Donna has created. But, now, Donna lives in a place called Shadow Garden, recovering from a surgery she doesn't remember, with no husband and no daughter. They don't answer calls or visit, and Donna has no clue why. How did she end up here alone? Donna is still living an opulent life in this place. Told through three perspectives, Edward, Donna and Penelope, we learn a little bit at the time how and what is happening. The characters are not likeable or reliable. The narrative is slow and a disjointed mess. Donna is also a disjointed mess, and I think the style of story telling mirrors her mindset. As readers, we are confused by multiple voices and a timeline that skips around with no clear explanation. I know some people will dislike the pace and confusion because it's not for everyone. I liked the whole psychological, twisted baffling mystery all the way to the shocking but satisfying end. Try this book and I think you might like it, but you must give it a chance!

Umm... hello! What a ride I just went on. There were times I had no idea where I was heading or where I would end up but I loved every minute of the ride. There was no doubt that there was something going on with Donna but I couldn’t be sure what that was. She seemed to know what was going on, she seemed to understand life, and she seemed to want to find new happiness but she first had to figure out what got her to where she is right now.


Shadow Garden is an amazing story. Alexandra Burt did a wonderful job of making her characters realistic and not always likable. The story itself was intriguing and kept me guessing at what would happen next. This is the first book I have read by Alexandra but I will be looking for much more in the future from her.

3 1/2 stars...

Shadow Garden is the story of Donna. On the outside, Donna appears to have it all. Her husband is a wealthy plastic surgeon, they have a daughter and a stunning mansion for a home. But looks can definitely be deceiving and Donna's life is anything but perfect.

As the story starts, Donna is residing at Shadow Garden. She is upset that neither her husband or daughter have reached out to her or returned her calls. She feels as if something is missing but can't exactly put her finger on what it is.

The book tells the story from three perspectives: Donna, Edward (her husband) and Penelope (their daughter). It also goes back and forth in time so that you understand how the characters ended up where they are now. Things slowly unfold and the mysteries are revealed a little at a time.

I enjoyed the book. It moved a bit slowly for me initially, but did draw me in more as the story went on. I didn't find the shocks to be huge. By the time we got to them, I usually had them figured out. However, I still felt that this was a good family drama type suspense. It definitely demonstrates how difficult parenthood can be and the consequences of our decisions, especially over time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this ARC. The opinions contained within this review are my own.