Review: A garden of contentment
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 20, 2013
The Twilight Garden by Molly Dean is, in some ways, a simple, unassuming book.  Daniel, a ten-year-old boy, is staying with an aunt and cousin in another aunt's house for the summer after his parents separate.  He meets Kat, a local girl a year older than he is.  They become friends.  Through her he meets other local people, many of them a bit odd to his way of thinking, but most of them nice and none of them unfriendly.They spend time in his aunt's run-down twilight garden and, by the end of the book, with the help of his family and the local people, they renovate it.  They help an elderly local man.  Daniel becomes friends with his cousin, who, up to that point, he didn't like.Not much of a plot?  True.  Just a story about a boy going through a difficult time and finding ways to deal with his problems?  Yes.  Unassuming?  Yes.Simple?  Not so much.  The characters are complex and multilayered.  People who at first might not seem likable show a deeper and more agreeable personality as they become known to Daniel and the reader.  Daniel and Kat prove wise beyond their years.The hint of mysteries; what happened to the granddaughter of the woman who owns the house and is the house haunted? are as subtle as the rest of the book.If you're looking for action or a supernatural element, this is not the book for you.  If you want a gentle, lovingly written novel about a boy's summer, you would have trouble finding a better book.