I found this book over-academic, rambling and long-winded. Parts of it feel like a botany text-book, parts of it like an academic treatise. There are a few brief moments of human interest, when the author tells us about her young daughters, or how she's going about her research, but they're scattered here and there rather than in one introductory or concluding chapter.

Perhaps for someone with a good visual imagination it might be easier to read, but I found the descriptions rather tedious and the botanical detail entirely uninteresting. I appreciated a few details about the young Charles Darwin and his sisters but their characters didn't really develop and it was all told factually rather than as a story.

I struggled to finish the book, skimming not just paragraphs but some entire sections - however, it's clearly very well-researched. Others have found it inspiring, and most reviews are positive, so don't necessarily take my word for it. I wouldn't personally recommend it, however.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-ghost-in-garden-by-jude-piesse.... ( )