The Curse of Hester Gardens by Tamika Thompson

Synopsis:

Nona McKinley raised three boys in the Hester Gardens section of Medford, Michigan, an impoverished community divided by those who follow their faith in God and those who turn to crime to survive. With her drug dealer husband behind bars and her eldest son shot to death at eighteen, Nona has devoted herself to ensuring her other children escape their brother’s fate.

Her second son Marcus is on the right path. He’s a valedictorian heading to an Ivy League school. He can get out.

But then, strange things start happening to Nona and other mysterious footsteps are heard when she’s alone, people have phantom encounters in the streets, unattended appliances go off at all hours. Even more concerning is the state of Nona’s living sons. Her youngest, Lance, is hanging around with a bad crowd, and Marcus becomes moody and secretive. Sometimes he even seems to act like a different person entirely.

Nona has her secrets too. Her affair with the married church pastor has been weighing on her conscience, but that’s not the only guilt haunting her. She fears that someone—or something— is seeking revenge for an act she made in a moment of weakness to protect her family. And now everyone in Hester Gardens must pay the price…

My Edition:

Net Galley ARC

My Thoughts:

To me, The Curse of Hester Gardens feels a lot like Candyman. But like the Nia DaCosta version. Which is a huge plus for me – I thought that movie was incredible, and used the source material to make an even more meaningful story than the original movies (all of which are really quite different than the story – idk, Candyman is a vast and powerful world). That is to say that Hester Gardens takes on some very meaningful, and very real social issues under the guise of a horror story (what is so much of life if not that). Hester Gardens is rife with hauntings – it and its inhabitants are haunted by violence, by poverty, by each other, and those lost in the past.

One of the things that I think Hester Gardens does most beautifully is the way Thompson handles the looming specter of violence. Because it is always there. And she doesn’t shy away from the reality that although we treat it like it’s a symptom of project living (or even just poverty in general), the epidemic of violence is deeply ingrained into every segment of American society. Nona’s nephew, a journalist, is covering shootings all over the area – in the projects, in the suburbs – everywhere. Nobody in this country is safe from gun violence. Don’t ever fool yourself into believing otherwise. We are a nation of seemingly random acts of violence.

I spent the entirety of this book rooting for Nona and her boys. I wanted them to get out and be safe so badly. But, Thompson has certainly created a realistic world in Hester Gardens – nobody’s just bootstrapping their way out of anywhere (because that never happens – just so you know – the bootstraps idea is a bunch of twattering bullshit perpetuated by people who want you to believe you’re just one choice away from being a millionaire). Nona is a great character. She’s not entirely likable – she makes some really not-so-great choices, and she tends a little toward sanctimonious, but you can tell that at heart, she’s a good person who cares about her boys more than anything. She feels real. She feels relatable. Every loss, every trauma, and every minor annoyance Nona endures, I endured with her.

I reviewed Tamika Thompson’s short story collection previously, and I absolutely loved it. So it will probably be no great surprise that I loved this novel as well. But even beyond that, I have to say that as a debut novel, I truly do think that Hester Gardens is an incredible piece of work. The story is well told, fully realized, nuanced, and incredibly impactful. You will not leave Hester Gardens the same person you went in as.

Rating:

The Curse of Hester Gardens is a phenomenal debut novel. It is a beautifully told story about the lasting impact of violence and violent culture. It’s a horror story with a ton of heart.

The Curse of Hester Gardens
By: Tamika Thompson
Erewhon Books
Published: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9781645663195
Hardcover, E-book, Audio
448 Pages