The Girls in the Garden

Product Information

Mysterious, life-threatening injuries to a teenage girl cause previously close-knit neighborhood families to examine each other with concern and suspicion. 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.

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 her small naked breasts. Her hair is spread about her. Her face is a bloodied mass. What did I think?: I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't the heart-racing tale that I had possibly hoped, but it wasn't disappointing either. I see this one really being popular with many readers and I'm glad I was able to get my hands on it and share it with others early on. The Howes, Mom Adele and Dad Leo are new age, free thinking hipsters. Adele homeschools their girls, Catkin, Fern, and Willow (ages commiserate with Grace and Pip) making the atmosphere of this close knit, insular community, even more claustrophobic.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 … There is something on the brow of the hill, a strange shape emerging from the hedge that encircles the Rose Garden. She heads toward it. 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. 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 highly recommend this drama to all lovers of fiction...there is a little something in here for everyone to enjoy! One of People ’s, Glamour ’s, and BuzzFeed ’s Best Reads of Summer, from the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone We all loved the enchanting communal garden that appears to be the perfect oasis and a parent’s dream place to let their kids play and always have friends around, however we soon learn of the danger lurking in the garden. Two mysteries are among the bushes and thorns that had us suspecting almost everyone and Jaline even suspected a total bystander. We came up with a few different scenarios and our thriller imaginations were running all over the place. In the end we were very happy we were wrong about many. 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.

Table of Contents

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. 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.