Yuliana traveled to the Garden
She left her old life behind.
She left her daughter.
She left her home.
She left her whole damn mind.”
The Garden
The Garden 🍃 📖 by Tomi Adeyemi
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.
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Genre:
- Magical Realism
- Dark Fantasy
- Fantasy
- Coming of Age (Late Bloomer)
- New Adult
- Poetry
Tropes & Themes:
- Parental abandonment
- Empath
- Depression & Grief
- Brazilian Folklore/Mythology
- Adventure > Journey > Local Guide
- Mythical Garden
Rating:
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Lęina’s mother abandoned her daughter for “The Garden”, leaving behind an old battered journal with pressed flowers tucked between the pages, and old pieces of film, handwritten notes and maps, and other mementos that heartbroken, grief-stricken Lęina believes are all part of the puzzle that is her mother’s disappearance.
Lęina didn’t think there was a way she could sum up fifteen years. From the moment the journal first fell into her hands, she had committed herself to following its path. Its teaching broke through her barriers and lines. For the first time, there was order in her mind. Lęina had vowed to follow its pages to the bitter end. She had spent her nights piecing together the fragments of its secret map. Scribbles her mother left began to merge with the red ink of Lęina’s pen. This journal had taken her life and given her a journey instead.”
The Garden
The young woman is escorted to Brazil, by a local guide named Angelo, a chestnut-colored-haired-man with unusual feet. More on that later… ⚠ Spoilers ahead about my interpretation of The Garden ⚠
I think I’m addicted to sadness.”
The Garden
This is one of those stories where if you know, you know, and if you don’t get it, consider yourself fortunate. I believe this is a story about grief, sadness, depression, and being lost in your own mind. While reading this story I picked up on several themes related to mental health, and the state of Lęina’s was extremely poor.
I also believe that the local guide escorting her was loosely based on Brazilian folklore, specifically the Curupira, a red haired man-creature who guards the forest and leads people in wild directions, deep into jungles and forests. Above I mentioned Angelo is described as having chestnut curls, which essentially is a hue of red. He also has strange feet and per legend, the creature has backward feet. It’s of my interpretation that the author of this story used this bit of folklore when crafting Lęina’s journey with Angelo through Brazil. Misadventure and possibly a Curupira led her into a dark jungle and with only an old journal of her mother’s, she chases the “ghost” of her mother’s memory.
She could smell sadness like a fragrance sprayed in the air. Something young girls dotted behind their ears. She smelled the way men carried sadness in their chests, always given to them by their fathers, or a girl who broke their heart.”
The Garden
The “Garden” represents what I believe to be a conceptualization of the after-life. Sadly, I think her mother unalived herself and her daughter was walking down the same path, eventually meeting her own end, when she reaches the mythical Garden. (It should be mentioned that the reader isn’t taken this far into her journey through the jungles of Brazil and this is simply my interpretation of the story ending.)
I loved the dark poetry alternating with beautiful prose. Lęina is deeply introspective, inquisitive, and sadly, deeply depressed. She questions her tour guide about his thoughts on curses, ones on objects versus people. Her topics of conversation are bleak, the state of her mind depressed. She reveals a lot about her inner-being with her words. This was not a happy girl on a fun adventure. This was a literal su!c!de mission she felt had to take, desperate to get answers and ultimately pay for those answers with her soul.
⚠ End of Spoiler Warning ⚠
Overall, this story of magical realism mingled with dark fantasy resonated with me. I enjoyed the whimsical writing style and the inclusion of poems. I would definitely read another work by this Author.
About the Author:
A Well Read Woman Blog 📖 