At the end of February, Catherine Cavendish and Flame Tree Press will be releasing The Garden of Bewitchment. This novel is a period piece, and although I’m not familiar with Ms. Cavendish’s other work, I sincerely doubt this is her first foray into historical horror. Cavendish writes 1893 with a certain sense of comfort and drops her characters right into the world she’s created.

The story focuses around twins, Evelyn and Claire, who live together after the deaths of their parents. The girls spend their days collaborating on a story in the vein of their literary idols, the Brontë sisters. The sisters generally live in harmony until a stranger and a game start to make their way into Evelyn and Claire’s lives.

This novel has some spectacularly creepy imagery and Cavendish excels in writing scenes dealing with hallucinations and supernatural happenings. The reader does not have an easy time figuring out exactly who and what can be trusted when being walked through the events of the story. While the supernatural aspects of the titular game/toy were somewhat strange, Cavendish worked them into the narrative with relative ease.

My only issue with the story is that there is a development late in the story that is foreshadowed, maybe forecasted might be a better word, so hard and so early that I thought it must be a red herring and couldn’t possibly come to pass. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. Granted, there was an extra wrinkle when the events finally transpire, but it felt like a little more subtlety would have gone a long way at certain places in the story.

If you enjoy period horror that dabbles in the supernatural, but maintains one foot squarely in the realm of psychological horror, this just might be the book for you.

I was given a copy of this book by the publisher for review consideration.