THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN is the first book I have read by
Lisa Jewell. She is quite a popular author and one of my
reading resolutions of 2016 is to read new authors. When I
saw this book up for review I grabbed it quick and the
pretty cover made it easy too. The cover and blurb appealed
to me and sounded mysterious enough for me to read and
uncover the secrets in the whimsical garden of London. The
title doesn't give away much and when you read the story you
would have never expected the main themes in it.
The main stars of the story are Pip and Grace who due to
disastrous circumstances move to a smaller house surrounded
by a secret, thickly treed, mysterious garden in the midst of
the city. Without their father, in a new, slightly weird
communal house they are a bit out of sorts. As they settle
in and make sense of the surrounding gardens and its
secrets, things happen. Nothing new but definitely a bit
weird and unusual things. When tragedy strikes the sisters,
secrets and mysteries of past and present
unravel, a layer at a time. The girls' mother Claire and
their neighbor Adele are
opposites and while Claire did not make a lasting impression
on me, Adele and her family were a bit creepy. There were
some lovable characters like the old lady, the young loner
boy Max and definitely some creepy, weird characters too.
Reading THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN
is like sitting around a fading bonfire and listening to a
story from the past. The story wasn't anything unusual, but
it sure
was weird and creepy at places. Overall I wouldn't pick it
up again or remember its characters fondly.
THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN is one of those stories about life
where things happen and there isn't much done about it in
reality. There
wasn't anything that would have made it better or worse, it
just was. I felt the secret gardens were a living, breathing
entity in THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN and if it weren't for the
gardens there
wouldn't be this story.
Imagine that you live on a picturesque communal garden
square, an oasis in urban
London where your children run free, in and out of other
people’s houses. You’ve
known your neighbors for years and you trust them.
Implicitly. You think your
children are safe. But are they really?
On a midsummer night, as a festive neighborhood party is
taking place, preteen
Pip discovers her thirteen-year-old sister Grace lying
unconscious and bloody in
a hidden corner of a lush rose garden. What really happened
to her? And who is
responsible?
Dark secrets, a devastating mystery, and the games both
children and adults play
all swirl together in this gripping novel, packed with
utterly believable
characters and page-turning suspense. Fans of Liane Moriarty
and Jojo Moyes will
be captivated by The Girls, the next unforgettable novel by
New York Times
bestselling author Lisa Jewell.