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    The Girls In the Garden
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    The Girls In the Garden
    Unavailable
    The Girls In the Garden
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Girls In the Garden

    Written by Lisa Jewell

    Narrated by Colleen Prendergast

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateMar 7, 2017
    ISBN9781520066981
    Unavailable
    The Girls In the Garden
    Author

    Lisa Jewell

    Lisa Jewell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels, including The Family Upstairs and Then She Was Gone, as well as Invisible Girl and Watching You. Her novels have sold over 10 million copies internationally, and her work has also been translated into twenty-nine languages. Connect with her on Twitter @LisaJewellUK, on Instagram @LisaJewellUK, and on Facebook @LisaJewellOfficial.

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    Reviews for The Girls In the Garden

    4/5

    145 ratings38 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I feel like Liane Moriarty and Megan Abbott had a book baby and it's this novel. It has similar aspects to both their writing styles. I really enjoyed the plot because it was very different from most mystery/thriller arcs and I found it refreshing. For a mystery book I would say it's pretty light and a bit predictable, but still a very worthy selection. I enjoyed myself all the way through.
    • 4/5
      I liked the suspense in this story because it seemed like there were so many people who could have done it, and they all had reasons why. At the end, you’re still not completely sure about what happened - and even if that sounds annoying, it’s actually really satisfying because it’s like real life cases where you might never know something for sure.
    • 3/5
      In need of refuge after a family tragedy, Clare and her two pre-teen daughters, Pip and Grace, move into a central London flat that backs onto a walled communal park. It’s not long before the girls make friends with some of the other children in the community, notably homeschooled sisters Catkin, Willow and Fern, neglected wild child Taylor, and the handsome Dylan, but the girls presence unwittingly upsets the delicate balance of the insular group.The narrative of The Girls in The Garden is divided into four sections. It begins with a shocking incident on midsummers eve, then leaps back several months to relate earlier events in ‘Before’, leading to the immediate aftermath in ‘After’, with an additional epilogue set ten months later. It’s an effective format that piques the reader’s interest from the outset, however though we learn how, and why, Grace was attacked, to me the story ultimately felt unresolved. I think this is due to what I felt was a lack of consequences for all those involved.Themes Jewell explores in the story includes mental illness, contrasting parenting styles, the illusion of safety, and the dynamics of group behaviour. The setting of the private community was an inspired choice, providing the ideal backdrop for the author to delve into these issues.It’s commonly accepted to be difficult to authentically portray children in novels. To be fair they are often contradictory creatures, and ‘tweenagers’ are particularly mercurial. I thought Jewell captured the personalities of the quite adolescents well in The Girls in the Garden, however the contradictions in Pip’s character didn’t quite work for me. I just didn’t believe she had the sophistication necessary to interpret the undercurrents of motive and emotion in the story in the manner in which she did.Though it has its flaws, I did quite enjoy The Girls in the Garden. It was a quick read, that I found thought provoking and suspenseful.
    • 4/5
      The Girls is the first book by Lisa Jewell that I have read. I didn't really know what to expect and like to not read the blurb as sometimes it can give too much away. The story follows a few neighbours that live in properties that have a large communal garden. The children of the families have grown up spending time in the garden. Clare and her two girls Grace and Pip move into one of the houses after a family problem. Every summer the residents hold an annual party in the garden and something goes horribly wrong.The story starts at the party and then goes back to tell the story leading up to this point. I was expecting a thriller and for me the first part of the story is all about the residents, how they live their lives. The second part of the story is where it really gets going and everything is revealed, and for me this was the best part.Overall I did enjoy the book and would read more by this author. At times I did feel the style of the story was very much like books by Liane Moriarty, whose books I have enjoyed in the past. For me this book was one where it held my attention as I wanted to see how it was going pan out. Not knowing what to expect I was quite surprised.
    • 4/5

      I do really enjoy Lisa Jewell's books ever since I chanced upon The Truth About Melody Browne. This one had a strong mystery element, as well as some psychological suspense. It starts with a young girl being found who was attacked and we don't know if she lives or dies, then the first half of the book builds up to the incident before then moving to after the event. I would certainly recommend her books. There were definitely some surprises towards the end of the book.

    • 3/5
      The author's descriptive prose really brought the scenes to life for me. This particular community set-up seems alien to me, yet I could picture it vividly.
    • 4/5
      In THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN, Lisa Jewell starts by presenting many mysteries and builds up to the main who-done-it of the book. I enjoyed trying to figure it out; Jewell made me suspicious of everyone. Then, when I thought I knew, she added a twist. Her best twist of all left me undecided but in a good way. I ended up thinking how crafty of Jewell to do this to my imagination.What the English refer to here as a garden, I would call a park with gardens in it but also playground equipment. Encircling this 3-acre private park are what I imagine are different types of condominiums and apartments (although this is not what they are called in the book). I would refer to this arrangement as a complex. Because of this complex arrangement, neighbors are involved with each other perhaps more than they might otherwise be.So we learn enough about some of them to be suspicious when a tragedy occurs. And we learn more and more as one of the neighbors investigates and as a very smart 11-year-old questions what she sees.Although THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN involves several children who are 13 and under, which you may think would bore you, the story contains enough adult characters and material to keep your attention. I recommend it.
    • 3/5
      A festive neighborhood party is taking place and Pip discovers her 13 year old sister, Grace, unconscious and bloody in a rose garden. What happened to her? And who is responsible? I have read a few other books by Lisa Jewell and really enjoyed them all but this one seemed to fall flat for me. I t was an interesting story but the end did not really make sense to me. If you want to read Lisa Jewell, I suggest you start with another of her books.
    • 5/5
      I really like the writing style of this author. I've read some of her other books and have to say I haven't really been disappoint. With this one...it seemed the ending was a bit rushed and not quite realistic... but maybe it was it wasn't what I was expecting. Overall it is a very worthwhile read that should appeal to any mystery fan.
    • 3/5
      I thought that this was a good book overall. I have heard great things about Lisa Jewell's writing and decided to give her work a try with this book. For some reason I never seemed to be able to fit this book into my reading schedule so I decided to listen to the audiobook. While I didn't love the book, I did enjoy the hours that I spent listening to it.This book takes place with a community garden at its center. Families have grown up around this garden where children have been free to play and watch out for each other. This book does have a rather large cast of characters and we hear from several main points of view. Pip is a new resident and doesn't seem to fit in quite like her older sister, Grace. Adele has lived in the community for a long time and is the mother of some of the girls that Grace has become friends with. Clare is Pip and Grace's mother and has recently had some major life changes and is trying to find her way.The book opens with Grace being found after an attack then goes back to the events that lead up to that moment. Despite the fact that I knew there would be some excitement, I found that the book seemed to move pretty slowly. There were a lot of characters and I never really connected with any of them very well. There were a lot of side stories that were interesting but never seemed to take the book to the next level for me.I believe that this was the first time that I have listened to Colleen Prendergast's narration. I thought that she did a good job with the story overall. There were a few times that it took me a moment to determine which character's point of view the book had moved to. I did think that she had a nice quality to her reading voice and it was easy to listen to this book for hours at a time.I would recommend this book to others. This wasn't a favorite for me but it was a quality story that did keep me guessing. I definitely plan to read more of Lisa Jewell's work in the future.I received a digital review copy of this book from Atria Books via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from the library via Hoopla.
    • 5/5
      This a another great delivery from a great writer. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the characters - there were so many they needed to be kept clear. I found it an easy read with a great storyline. The ending was probably the weak point for me but I think I could have continued to read about these characters for a long time and it may just have been the disappointment of it being over.

      The story starts quite small with a new family in the neighbourhood but stretches over lots of individuals and situations and timeframes in the end. A great read I totally recommend. It does not delve as deep as you would like into a number of threads but to keep in contained is also a skill that is clearly shown in the end.
    • 3/5
      This book was good, but entirely forgettable.
    • 4/5
      I quite enjoyed this book. I definitely wouldn't say it was a mind boggling ending, but the story was well executed. It was a well written story weaving history and present together. What happened to Phoebe all those summers ago? Was it really an accident or something more sinister? Did the same person hurt Grace? I thought the characters were so well created and developed. I think I would recommend this book. I am definitely intrigued to read more of her books.
    • 4/5
      Clare's husband Chris has experienced a psychotic break and burned down their house with no regard to whether their children, Grace (12) and Pip (10) were in it at the time. When the story opens Clare has moved the two girls into a small house which backs onto and enormous communal park. Chris is in hospital and Clare cannot imagine ever letting him come home again, since she cannot trust him not to harm the children.Grace and Pip meet the other children/teenagers with access to the park, including the fabulously named Catkin, Fern and Willow, and Grace spends most of her time with the gang from the park, including her boyfriend Dylan. Then one night after the park summer party, Grace is discovered unconscious, apparently having been attacked.The novel opens with the night of the party, goes back in time to explain the family's history and then describes the aftermath, which in places reads like a police procedural. I enjoyed the story and it kept my interest; I wanted to find out what had happened to Grace. Having said that, some of the characters were better developed than others; Pip was a full-rounded character, but I never got any sense of who Clare really was. Adele was well-drawn, but I kept getting her daughters muddled.The ending was both satisfactory (and more restrained than I feared it would be) and at the same time a little under-whelming. I believed in the choices Clare had made for the future, but Adele's decisions were disturbing.
    • 5/5
      Clare Wild and her two girls, Pip and Grace, move into a small rental flat in London after a devastating fire and an estrangement from her husband left them homeless. The apartment buildings form a ring to enclose a beautiful private communal garden place for the residents. Full of roaming teens, talkative neighbors, hidden nooks and crannies, and more than it's fair share of secrets, the garden is the backdrop to a mysterious crime which leaves Grace unconscious, in a coma.I guess I have another thriller writer to add to my ever growing list of authors who have wowed/stumped/blown me away. Jewell has so many complex and interesting characters, each with their own secrets and agendas, that it's hard not to suspect everyone of some nefarious wrong doings in the book. Starting off the book with a bang, the opening chapter is Grace being found unconscious in the park by her sister Pip. The rest of the book (except the very end) take us back, months prior, to when the Wild's first move into the flat. Working through the devastating house fire and estrangement from their father, the young girls navigate life in the new terrain of the communal garden forming new ties, and making new enemies. I found myself suspicious of everyone in this book, certain with each new piece of information, that I had sleuthed out the person behind Grace's attack. If there was one thing I learned from this book, it's that you can never really know someone, not if they don't want you to and especially if you don't care to look. The lengths to which some people go to cover up or ignore those in our lives who we suspect of wrong doings was disturbing and certainly can make one uneasy. Overall, it was an insanely addictive page turner with an quietly explosive ending that left me more than a little terrified of what people are capable of, both in committing, participating in, and turning a blind eye to chilling crimes.
    • 5/5
      Clare and her girls, almost 13 year old Grace and Pip, her younger sister by a year, move into a house with a huge communal garden which is shared by all the residents. When Grace is attacked in the garden, suspicion falls on various key players in the story.I loved this book and couldn't put it down. The author really conveys how living in such close quarters can be nice but it can also be extremely claustrophobic. The story is character driven rather than plot driven as we are taken through the 'before' and 'after' (the attack) sections. This is probably one of my favourite Jewell novels.
    • 4/5
      3.5 From the very beginning we know something terrible has happened, which lends an ominous air to all that follows. After a family disaster Clare and her two daughters move into this gorgeous place that because of its communal space, acres that are shared by all the houses surrounding it, seem like a good place to call home. I kept thinking of Lord of the Flies as I was reading this. Children that seem to be basically raising themselves, either because of neglect, a hand off approach to child rearing, or because it is assumed they are safe. Didn't agree with much in the way of parenting here, not sure I cared much for the parents who seem oblivious to all the undercurrents happening within this gang of kids. Pip, who is only twelve seems to have more sense than any of them. Still, it was an engrossing story and one I would have rated a solid four except for the ending. Seemed somewhat anticlimactic, not in keeping with the rest of the story. That is of course only my own opinion and up to then felt the story flowed well, was suspenseful because the reader knows where it will lead but not how or who. This author has a good storytelling ability and it is well worth the read. Maybe as a precautionary tale for parents.ARC from Netgalley..
    • 4/5
      Moving into a garden park community after their beautiful home was burned down definitely was a change for Pip and Grace as well as their mother Clare.They lost everything in the fire and had to start from scratch. They also lost their father but not to the fire.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.There are a lot of present and past secrets hiding among the residents that keep up the intrigue from the first few sentences that tell of a young girl found in the bushes either unconscious or dead.THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN was more about the characters and their personalities rather than having a plot. It was quite an unconventional book but the oddity of the book is what kept me reading.Pip was my favorite character. She tried to stay away from the "gang" and not participate in all the bizarre happenings of the teenagers. A few of the adults were definitely different too and seemed to have the biggest secrets.If you enjoy a different read with different characters along with a bit of a mystery, THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN is definitely a read you will enjoy. The book's suspense and the guessing who caused the young girl to be found in the bushes was non-stop until the last word on the last page. 4/5This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      *I received an arc through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
      This was my first book by Lisa Jewell. I've heard good things about her writing and the premise of this story sounded so intriguing! The opening of the book started with a bang. I was immediately hooked. And then Jewell brings it back a bit to begin when Pip, Grace and their mother move into the neighborhood after a tragedy involving their father. The narrative bounces back and forth between a couple of the neighbors, but mostly Pip. The entire story is gripping and the characters are unique and add a special touch to the story. There were times when it seemed to drag a little bit but for the most part the book was good. I don't want to give away any spoilers but I will say that this book is definitely worth the read!
    • 3/5
      Clare moves her daughters, both of whom are teetering on the brink of becoming teenagers, to a flat in a communal garden in London. They've all been through a terrible ordeal and this quiet community, where neighbors look out for each other, and the children play together, seems the perfect place. But on the evening of her eldest daughter's Grace's 13th birthday, something terrible happens. Her younger sister, Pip, finds Grace unconscious in the garden. Grace is covered in blood, with her clothes askew. Pip has heard rumors of a young girl who died here years before. Suddenly the garden no longer seems like a safe place. What happened to Grace? Will it ever be safe for Clare and her girls again?

      Apparently this was Jewell's first foray into true suspense and overall, I thought she did fairly well. The majority of the book was tense and exciting, in that regard, and there is enough swirl around each of the characters that you truly don't know what happened to Grace, or who could be responsible for the incident. In addition to Clare and her daughters, we meet Leo and Adele and their three home-schooled daughters; Dylan, a teenager who lives near the garden; and Dylan's friend, Tyler, a a girl similar in age to Grace. These characters, along with several others, combine to tell the story-- we hear from Clare and her girls, plus Leo and Adele. It adds to the suspense of the novel, which opens with Grace's accident and then backtracks from there. It's an effective technique which had me madly flipping pages, trying to figure out what happened.

      One of my nits with this book was my inability to relate with the overall nature of the characters; perhaps never having experienced such communal garden living, it was hard to imagine a world where the children roamed so freely, with little regard for their parents. Some of the kids were obviously neglected, but not Clare or Adele's broods. Their attitudes toward their parents seemed off kilter, even for this day and age and turned me off a bit. My favorite of the group was Pip-- probably because she was less hateful and more introspective. Even then, I would have been okay with all of this, but after I sped through the book--really into the plot and loving the whole thing--the ending was just a disappointment. There was so much buildup and then it all just petered out at the end. I stayed up late to finish the book and then felt incredibly let down. Still a good 3-star read, but demoted from a higher rating due to the ending.

      I received a copy of this book from Netgalley (thank you!); it's available for publication in the U.S. on 6/7/2016.
    • 5/5
      What a beautifully written book. I could picture everything in my head.
    • 5/5
      I always enjoy her books. This one did not disappoint!
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable, suspenseful thriller set in a communal garden setting in London. Grace is found hurt in the garden one evening, and the novel then sets out to give background on the group of people who live around the garden. Some are odd, some eccentric, some sane, some crazy, but who hurt Grace? Plus, there is a long unsolved mysterious death that happened in the garden. How well do you know the people who are friends with your children? What are they capable of doing? Are you a good parent? How do you know?
    • 4/5
      Lisa Jewell writes excellent suspense novels. This particular story was set in a neighborhood sharing a large, rambling garden. As we all know, the garden is a place of temptation and mystery. Several daughters from multiple families come together and a mysterious event occurs. Themes abound, including first love, trust/distrust, coming of age, and more. Questions abound too. Can people be too open and tolerant? How do parents and their children and couples cope with intimate knowledge of one another? How much freedom is too much? Should the gardens of life have boundaries, fences? How old is old enough? It's a good one. I spent the first half getting the characters straight and knowing that something untoward was going to happen, and I spent the second half trying to figure out what really happened. Here's to a good page turner!
    • 3/5
      In the opening chapter, we join young Pip as she discovers her older just-turned-13-year-old sister lying unconscious, bloodied, her clothes partially removed in a community park. The following chapters are events prior to the attack. We meet the community members who have access to the park. The author builds suspicions on several of the characters, bringing in their past transgressions, old rumors, faults, and outside observations... It is definitely a tension-filled read. So I was rather disappointed in the ending. It was a horrible ending, it just wasn't what I was expecting.
    • 4/5
      I gave this 4 stars because it kept me interested all the way to the end. It was a unique picture of suburban life with some dark undertones. Well-written, good suspense.
    • 4/5
      It does not disappoint. The story has nuances. It is about how children need to be guided. They cannot be left alone or given too much freedom before they have the ability to think or make rational choices.
    • 3/5
      I have become a big fan of Lisa Jewell’s mysteries but this one was just meh...ok for me. There is a lush garden in the middle of a housing complex, setting is the middle of London.A woman moves in with her two daughters, Grace and Pip, and has a bit of adjustment to the communal lifestyle of the garden. Children freely wander around, into each other’s homes. There’s an Earth Mother sort who home schools and feeds everyone natural healthy fare, her very handsome charming husband Leo and a few dysfunctional characters.During a birthday party that runs late in the evening, children are still up running around mind you, 13 year old Grace is found in the bushes, bloodied and in a coma.  The resulting investigation reveals some interesting facts about both the adults and children. I’ll say I very much enjoyed Jewell’s other mysteries more but this wasn’t a DNF.
    • 4/5
      I thought this was a pretty good thriller. It could have been a little more thrilling and I felt that I am pretty sure who did it, but it never really gave a definitive answer. If someone wants to compare who they thought, let me know. I pretty much thought I had it figured out right away, just wasn't sure how the "crime" was done. But then I was kind of confused in the end and it almost sounded like who I thought was guilty, wasn't really. I also felt like the author could have expanded on some character profiles a little better, on some of the neighbors that we didn't really get to know. All in all, it was a pretty good read.
    • 1/5
      Ended so badly? Left me so confused. Love all of her other books