Review of There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of Our Garden - Erin Evans - Staff review by Laura Lyndhurst

The memoir of a family coping with the evils of two deadly diseases; cancer and drug addiction.

Told through the journal entries of a mother and her two daughters, the narrative documents the efforts of mother Judi when she is diagnosed with cancer and is forced to come to terms with impending death while embarking on treatment to keep the illness at bay for as long as possible. Determined to live what life is left to her to the full, Judi takes a trip to Britain to visit the areas where her family originated. She works through her bucket list and goes to music festivals and other events in the USA when she isn’t writing her poems. There Are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden is one of them.

Her treatment regime is tough, but she’s determined to make every day count. But that’s not all, Judi has the worry of her daughter Hayley’s drug addiction to cope with. Submerged in a life of crime to fund her addiction and living in a trailer with her partner, a violent and abusive addict, Hayley makes repeated attempts to get clean. Inevitably they end in her regression into her drug-fuelled life. It taxes her supportive family to the limit and Haley’s sent to jail when the consequences of her criminal actions catch up with her.

The elder daughter, Erin, holds the family together. She suffers hair loss and anxiety attacks while trying to keep a grip on her own life. Her impending marriage to Mike and her developing career in TV all have to be juggled— leading to too many balls in the air. Other members of the family are involved as the tragedies plaguing the family, and the evils of addiction are exposed. Cancer takes its victims fast or slow, and spares neither man, woman nor beast.

How much can one family take?

An excellent read for the most part–but not an easy one.

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