BOOK REVIEW: The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell
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Publisher: Atria Books
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Synopsis
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?
Review:
Well this book was eerie. It think I need to switch up my reading for a minute because these last few books were a doozy.
Set in urban London on a communal garden square, Clare and her children, Grace and Pip are trying to start over after their house was burned down by Clare's husband in a schizophrenic episode. Seeing danger everywhere Clare believes that this quiet little neighborhood will be safe for them. Until she finds her daughter lying comatose blood on her face in the middle of the courtyard.
This book is broken into two parts, the first part is when Clare and the children move in and establish themselves in the neighborhood and make friends with their quirky neighbors Adele and Lois and their 3 girls. The second part is after Grace is found and centers around who may have caused Grace's condition. There are a lot of suspects. Lois is a little too friendly with all the children and rumor of him being in a relationship as a teen with another girl who was found in the park makes him a very good suspect. Then there is Lois's father Gordon who says really inappropriate things and is just a bit creepy. Then there are the neighborhood kids, and lets not forget Grace's father who is now out of the hospital and has figured out where they are living despite Clare not being ready to forgive and embrace him back into their lives just yet, if at all.
I know not everyone liked the ending but in some ways I found it quite fitting. Without giving too much away I think many of the characters are looking for redemption for things they blame themselves for. Maybe they think they can fix things from the past or even protect some from the future. I worry that while their intentions are good it may not be enough and that years later they may have to come to terms with what they have done.
I really enjoyed this book, the cliques and the petty jealousy, the yearning to fit in, even as an adult its all there. Dark and broody but a good quick read.
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