Acknowledgments

This book went through an unusually long gestation period from idea to finished manuscript. I often have ideas, but most of them never make it because there’s always a newer, shinier one to pick. At the Bottom of the Garden is different. It survived a temporary burial in a file folder named “Graveyard,” rose from the ashes, and became a real book. That is no small feat, and only goes to show that you should never delete anything.

I first had the idea in 2019 but wasn’t quite ready to write the story back then, and so it was forgotten until 2022, when I—by sheer luck and happenstance—opened the file and rediscovered Clara, Lily, and Violet. I knew right away that this was still something I really wanted to write, and that I finally was in the right headspace to do so. What followed were months of joyful typing and delightful fictional company, so I would like to thank past me for being wise enough to jot down the idea while it was fresh.

I would also like to thank my editor Anne Groell for seeing the potential in the story when it was little more than that initial—once dead—idea, and for her brilliant input, guidance, and faith in the story as it developed. Another heartfelt thank-you goes to the rest of the team at Del Rey, for making me feel so welcome, and for working so hard for this book. I am likewise very grateful to my UK editor Wayne Brookes and the team at Oneworld for seeing something special in this novel.

My agent, Brianne Johnson, deserves all the flowers for helping me shape this wild, unruly story into something more presentable. As always, thank you for all your wonderful ideas and ceaseless encouragement. I couldn’t have asked for better support.

This book would probably not exist without Liv Lingborn, with whom I share a long and multifaceted obsession with wicked women, fairy tales, and strange little girls in fiction. We have fed each other book and movie recommendations for years, and endlessly discussed the importance of subverted tropes. Liv is one of my greatest supporters, often my first reader, and this time she even helped me with the title. Liv, this strange book of weirdness is for you.

To me, At the Bottom of the Garden is, at least in part, a book about death—or about coming to terms with death. The idea was first hatched following a period where there had been a lot of it in my life, including both of my parents. Later on, while I was doing revisions, I very sadly lost a cousin, too, so this book is thoroughly steeped in death, which is why I want to thank my dead as well, not just for their lives, but for all that I learned from their passing.

As always, many thanks to my son, Jonah, for his patience and support, and my cat, Tussa, who is probably the strangest little girl of them all.