The Girls in the Garden

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While Jewell creates a story ripe with anticipation and emotion, she ultimately fails to develop a climax that would bring together the several dramatic tropes at work (a mentally unstable father who believes he hears rodents in the walls; the tensions between teenage girls, especially when it comes to friendships and dating)." - Kirkus That said... the prose was lyrical as usual. The imagery was wonderful. I wish I could live there, but without my neighbors running in and out all the time. I also think the girls should've been 14/15 instead of 12/13, especially given the sexual activity they engaged in. I know what I did when I was 12/13, and while I can understand the point in this story, it would've been stronger if the girls were a bit older -- still underage, but enough that I'd possibly get why the mothers were less focused on monitoring them. Or maybe that's the point; they thought they were too young for things to happen.

This reading group guide for The Girls in the Garden includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. I found the ending to be very satisfying and, if not completely happy, it left me feeling hopeful that everyone in the book had learned valuable lessons from the events that took place, and that they would ultimately allow those lessons to govern their futures. We are given only a limited window into Tyler and Grace’s points of view on the day of Virginia Park’s annual summer party. As a group, choose an earlier scene to write in either Grace or Tyler’s voice. Share and discuss your creative pieces with your book club. Overall, it wasn’t what I was expecting but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be reading more from Lisa Jewell! I highly recommend this drama to all lovers of fiction...there is a little something in here for everyone to enjoy!I hesitate to go into too much detail because each development is important to the progression of the story. Sure, you kind of know where the story is going from the start but as you begin to piece together the puzzle you realize just how much more complex things really are. There's murder, mental instability, love (which you might could argue is mental instability in itself), and most of all, the dynamic of neighborly fellowship. Even if things weren't seemingly crumbling from within, the last thing this place needs is more drama. Clare’s feeling of safety was false because she did not have any idea of the way the introduction of her daughters into the territory of the group of teens who had grown up in the park would change the hierarchy and status of that situation. Adele, who had lived near the park all of her married life sensed the changes in the group but thought that it was the result of the children growing older and changing loyalties. When Adele realized that Dylan, who had been friends with Tyler since they were babies, appeared to be romantically involved with Grace, she believed perhaps jealousy was at the center of the feelings of unease among the group of friends. There are some really stand out characters in this story. Like every other female in the book, I too fell madly in love with Leo. Of course Leo is fictional...does anyone like him really exist?! :-) Even Gordan, Leo's grumpy and obnoxious father was well imagined, and I think we all have someone like him in our own family. But my absolute favorite has to be Pip. 12 years old but wise beyond her years, with a fierce love for her family that is infectious. COVER LOVE! The first thing that drew me to this book on NetGalley was the cover. That mixed with the concept of living in a somewhat communal neighborhood sold me. I’ll be honest, I’ve always dreamed of what it would be like to raise my baby girls in a simpler time; one where “it took a village” and everyone’s door was always open to visitors. I think our generation has lost something important in the fact that we are so incredibly isolated as families now; not borrowing sugar from our neighbors and having another families kids over for the night so that their parents could have a night off. This book did a fantastic job of solidifying that vision for me while also bringing to light all the things that can go wrong when you are too close to your neighbors.

Envy is a dangerous emotion. That, and a sense of entitlement. I remember having spats with my friends, usually a dispute over a toy (or later a boy), something that was all over and done with, forgotten in no time at all. But under the friendly communal spirit of these gardens, lurks something deeper and darker. Envy, resentment, secrets and teenage hormones combine to form a dangerous mix, and provide us with a wonderful mystery written in Lisa Jewell's easy and freeflowing style. The park and specifically its residents were quite odd. The main characters were teenagers who could run free and do whatever they wanted in their park gardens. Pip and Grace are both significantly affected by their father’s struggle with schizophrenia. As a group, try reading another novel which depicts the impact of parental mental illness, such as Outside the Lines by Amy Hatvany. As she nears the shape, she can see it is a foot. She holds her breath deep inside her body and rounds the corner timorously. Although, we wouldn’t say that this was a nail-biting thriller it was the way that the story was told and the drama within that really grabbed our attention. Would recommend!

The Girls in the Garden

Do you think Adele does the right thing by keeping quiet after she discovers what happened to Grace? What would you have done in her position? I really like Lisa Jewell’s style. This is the second book of hers I’ve read and enjoyed. I don’t know if I would consider this a suspense, maybe more of a dark women’s fiction novel. I think in that realm her stories are different and sort of refreshing. Pip drops to her knees. "No," she mutters, "no. No. No. No." She pulls Grace's comisol down, pulls her shorts up. Then she runs down the hill, runs and runs, toward the warm safe lights of the Howese's apartment, toward the grown-ups, her heart thumping piston-hard in her chest. I so loved this book for the young people - who really drive the book. Even the adult mums are mostly motivated by what is happening with the children. And the children are the best characters. I think that may be why I am coming to love YAs and stories of teen friendship so much. Stories about 13 year olds seem so much more interesting and at least as mature as those about "adult" characters. And that seems just as true in real life as well. Most to the grown ups in today's world act mostly like 13 year olds. And real 13 year olds make so much better a job of being 13 than those in their mid-years or older who are running our world. Or trying to. Appropriately the most odious character here, Gordon the father-in-law of Adele, is the most elderly. He seems to have the maturity of a 3 year old and as the story has him returning to Africa, I hope he gets ebola.

Starred Review. Vivid descriptions of the bucolic park contrast with the evil lurking around the themes of teenage sexuality, perversion, peer pressure, and the desire for a complete family. Jewell adeptly creates a pervasive atmosphere of unease in this well-spun narrative." - Publishers WeeklyThis story really puzzled me, and not completely in a good way. I find it hard to decide exactly which genre it falls under - its a little drama, a little mystery, a little crime. Jewell is known for stories featuring complex family and friend orientated issues, which this book does well. However, there is no one lead protagonist, which makes it difficult to fully understand any one character. Another winner. Beautiful writing, believable characters, a pacy narrative and dark secrets combine to make this a gripping read." - Daily Mail (UK) The lives of wives, daughters, and mothers are what is dissected here and how do we truly know anyone? The Girls in the Garden focused on two families--one just recently moved in and one who's been there for a long time. Tiny Clare and her daughters, Grace (12) and Pip (11) have just arrived and are reeling from the consequences of their dad's mental illness. Why do you think Lisa Jewell wrote primarily from Pip, Clare, and Adele’s perspectives? What do these narrators have in common? What is unique about their different standpoints, and how does this affect the story? A beautiful private garden where close-knit families keep the children safe from the dangers of urban London.

Despite the odd presentation and the strange way these characters developed, leaving me unsure of how I felt about them, I enjoyed the book, and found it weirdly absorbing, and kind of unique, which is a good thing! The foot is attached to a person. Pip passes the beam from her mobile phone across the figure: a girl, half undressed. Shorts yanked down to her thighs, floral camisole top lifted above small naked breasts. Her hair is spread about her. Her face is a bloodied mass. Clare and her 2 daughters move into a new home that shares a communal "garden" with other families. Things seem fine at first as they always do, but then things turn out to not be as fine as they seem. There are cliques, family secrets, jealousy, relationships changing upon the arrival of the new family, and a 15 year old murder mystery of another teenage girl.And what is it with seat mates on flights who don’t get the hint when you have your nose in a book? Last year it happened when I was reading The Seven Good Years. Yesterday, it happened as I was reading The Girls in the Garden. Some drunken idiot sitting next to me kept asking what I was reading, whether it was any good, and sorry for bothering you, it won’t happen again... I used to read too but I don’t have time anymore, how’s that book by the way … Meanwhile, Pip began making an effort to get to know her new surroundings. She talked to Rhea and learned about Phoebe, a girl who died of an apparent drug overdose in the park. Rhea told Pip that Gordon, Leo’s father, was a pedophile. Rhea hoped that Leo, the father of the Howes sisters was not a pedophile as well. Rhea’s suggestion made Pip consider the way Leo treated Tyler as well as the way Grace seemed unusually attracted to him and wondered if perhaps he was following in his father’s footsteps. Adele became suspicious of her husband while proofreading Rhea’s memoirs. Rhea mentioned that Leo had dated Cece, a girl who was 13 years old while Leo was 18. I give Lisa Jewell a lot of credit, right from the start I felt totally immersed within the garden community. The setting descriptions are beautiful and almost at times unsettling in their real-ness. I found myself feeling like I could totally picture the places these characters were walking. It's a real sense of adventure to be able to immerse yourself in a book like that. I love this author’s style of writing. I also enjoy her well-written plots. In this one, I also enjoyed the accompanying, childlike drawings that are funny and, in some instances, illuminating. As in many of her books, this one is about families, many of which are different and each with its own issues.