BOOK REVIEW | INTO THE WILD GREEN YONDER | PETER CROWTHER & TIM LEBBON

 

Book Description

Into the Wild Green Yonder Hardcover – August 1, 2024

by Peter Crowther (Author), Tim Lebbon (Author), Vincent Chong (Illustrator)

With their first child on the way, Sally and Gordon are looking for their forever home, and they think they've found it in 44 North Drive. It needs some work, sure. Walls are crumbling, carpets are rotten, and the plumbing is leaky. But it’s the large overgrown garden that excites them most. Though there is that weird sign on the gate: ‘Beware of the garden’.

When Gordon decides to start work out there, he takes his first step from patio to lawn...and everything changes. He discovers that their garden is much bigger than it seems. There are things out there in the undergrowth. And as the boom of distant footsteps approach, he starts to fear he’ll never make it back home.

There’s an eternal conflict being fought...and to decide what part he plays, he has to venture into the wild green yonder.

Review

When Sally & Gordon set their eyes on 44 North Drive, they immediately fall for its charms. Well, Gordon does. Sally on the other hand has her reservations.

After viewing the house, and meeting the strange owner, who offers them the house a reduced rate, they soon move in.

Not long after, they start to make some renovations to the house, Gordon then starts to tackle the garden. The one that has the creepy sign – Beware the Garden!

That’s when the trouble starts.

Into The Wild Green Yonder is an interesting novella that takes the battle of urbanisation and the fight of the natural world to reassert its authority as its main theme.

Now I have to say, I am a big fan of Tim Lebbon’s writing, but this is my first introduction to Peter Crowther’s work and after reading this novella I was mightily impressed.

The story itself resembles a portal fantasy in that Gordon enters a new world when he goes into the back garden and is peppered with some great set pieces. I had to remind myself to breathe on a number of occasions. I tell you; I have never found someone trying to reach for a carrier bag so tense in my life.

Whilst not out and out horror, the book has an unsettling feel to it and it becomes increasingly unsettling as the story moves on, especially when we meet Murk.

Throughout the story, we share the disorientation of Gordon as he gets to grips the new world that he has entered and the strange rules that govern the garden. There were many times I had to stop and ask myself what the hell was going on

At points, Into The Wild Green Yonder reminded me of a particular episode of Sapphire and Steel because it had that strange, eerie quality to it. The two writers gel together seamlessly and I could never tell any differences in the writing style of the two authors as they work so well together, riffing off each other all the way through the story.

Into the Wild Green Yonder was a fantastic read. It kept me turning the pages until the very end of the story.