Lee Smith (author of 12 novels including THE LAST GIRLS, ON AGATE HILL, and GUESTS ON EARTH (Coming October 2013)) has this to say about the novel: "Heart-breaking yet life-affirming, Cindy Lou Daniels’ brilliant novel IN THE GARDEN OF EVERYTHING had me by the throat from page two. This is a fast, hard read---hard to put down, hard to take in, hard to quit thinking about for even one minute. Ivy Mattison is a genius girl-child growing up in the scary underside of America---her story shows how a family’s alcoholism and improvidence can spiral down into desperation and depravity, and how children---the most fragile, powerless, and underserved minority of all---can so easily fall through the cracks in our society. Yet Ivy is as tenacious as her namesake; honesty, intelligence, and spunk shine through in every word of her remarkable narrative voice, letting us know that she’ll somehow make it. Her story is a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit through even the darkest of times. In the tradition of Kaye Gibbons’ ELLEN FOSTER, Dorothy Allison’s BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA, or Connie May Fowler’s BEFORE WOMEN HAD WINGS, Daniels’ IN THE GARDEN OF EVERYTHING is a page-turner as well as a literary tour de force."DESCRIPTION: IN THE GARDEN OF EVERYTHING tells the story of Ivy Mattison, a precocious seven-year-old bordering on intellectual genius born into a dysfunctional family. Her mother is an alcoholic and her father doesn’t have the strength or inclination to hold them together, even though he is willing to use force to keep the mother by his side. Ivy has two sisters, Connie and April, who are so caught up trying to figure out their own fragile path that Ivy is left on her own. Ivy’s life, which consists mainly of emotional neglect, intellectual starvation, and physical abuse, is revealed throughout the novel, as she tries desperately to fit into a family so out of control she fears she may never be able to save herself. Using all of her intelligence and heart, Ivy struggles for years to be accepted, but in a harrowing moment of sexual abuse, after which she emerges lost and confused, she must figure out once and for all where she belongs within the garden of everything. Recommended for 17+ due to sensitive subject material, harsh language, and sexual content.
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