Title: The GardenAuthor: Tomi Adeyemi
Series: Into Shadow #1
First Published: November 15, 2022
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Pages: 44
Genre: Poetry, Short Stories
Format: Ebook
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Synopsis:
In this dreamlike short story told in alternating prose and verse, number one New York Times bestselling author Tomi Champion-Adeyemi weaves a tale of a young woman’s journey to find her mother and uncover her secrets.
Fifteen years ago, Lęina’s mother, Yuliana, went searching for a mythical place called the Garden and never returned. Determined to learn the truth about what happened, Lęina travels to Brazil to search for the hidden realm, with Yuliana’s journal and a local tour guide leading the way. But Lęina soon begins to wonder if she’s looking for answers—or if what she truly wants to find is herself.
Review
What did I just read? The Garden is a drifting narrative about a young woman named Lęina, who is following a journal her mother left behind to find a place called the garden. It is a largely character-driven work as it only consists of conversations between Lęina and her tour guide, Angelo. I’m generous when I say conversations because it’s mostly Lęina asking Angelo silly questions that she thinks are deep and deciding that she’s falling for him. My boy Angelo needs help; his client is flirting with him, and she is Tumblr girl sad.
The story is told in alternating poetry and prose, but I didn’t find either to be particularly engaging. It felt like it was trying too hard to appeal to the sensibilities of Instapoetry fans. It was too short for there to be any character development, but the story runs with it like we’re supposed to know these characters and care about either of them. It’s a bite-sized story that can be read in a few minutes, so it was no great loss to read, but this short story didn’t really do anything for me. Normally I enjoy these original short story collections as a way to sample author’s works, but in this case I think the short story does more harm than good.
Quote
“My mother told me of a garden… she followed it to her grave.”
About the Author
About Tomi Adeyemi
Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. Her debut novel, CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE, comes out March 6th, 2018 and the movie is currently in development at Fox with the producers of Twilight and The Maze Runner attached. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil. When she’s not working on her novels or watching Scandal, she can be found blogging and teaching creative writing to her 3,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.
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