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 Weekly Lisa Jewell's characters are so real that I finish every book half-expecting to bump into one of them. Modern, complex, intuitive, she just goes from strength to strength." - Jojo Moyes, author of After You 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.

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. What drives Catkin and Fern to follow Tyler’s lead? What do you think were their motivations for taking the actions they took? The book is really more of a study in family and communal neighborhood dynamics than it is a mystery novel or suspense thriller. It focuses on the relationships of adolescent children, especially the girls, with the one boy in the group apparently clueless. 'Boys are so dumb and girls are so mean' seems to be the moral of the story. So if you approach it from that perspective, you may accept it, but there's still no reason for leaving so much hanging at the end. Just because the young victim doesn't want anyone to know what happened doesn't mean the reader shouldn't know. Meanwhile, I'm getting tired of anticlimactic endings.Well, I am going to be in the minority here. I had heard a lot of good things about this book. I anxiously awaited my copy to be available at the library. I waited and waited and waited. Then finally it was ready. 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.

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 … 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 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.DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of The Girls (previously titled The Girls in the garden) by Lisa Jewell, narrated by Colleen Prendergast and the author's daughter Amelie Jewell, published by Audible Audio, via Overdrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own opinions. I highly recommend this drama to all lovers of fiction...there is a little something in here for everyone to enjoy! 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. 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.

In some ways, this story is a little quirky, told from various POV’s, but also does a pretty good job of creating a feeling of unease, and building suspense at a steady pace, with a few very surprising twists thrown in along the way. So, overall, I enjoyed the book, although it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, and think fans of psychological suspense will like this one too. 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 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.

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 most interesting and disturbing character in the book is 13 year old Tyler, a girl who is neglected by a narcissistic mother. and who becomes jealous of a new girl who seems to be taking the males in her life away from her. The end of the book leads to speculation about what this girl will do next, as she's obviously a very troubled child, yet very vengeful and manipulative, one who may illicit your pity but watch out! You might want to take her in your arms and hug her, but be careful, she bites. All the characters are fascinating and well developed, but she's the one for whom I felt a combination of love and fear, a child crying out for love and affection but who is potentially dangerous, especially as she heads into adolescence like an out of control freight train. Danger ahead, I predict. Would love to read a sequel to this book. Who should read it?: If you like thrillers or mysteries, I wouldn't say this necessarily fits into that niche, but I still think you would probably enjoy it. It wouldn't surprise me if we saw this in theaters in the future. Next, neighbors. Please if you are one of mine who happen to stumble upon this, don’t confuse my enjoyment of reading about neighborhoods with actually wanting to interact with any of you because that is most certainly not the case. However, I am a voyeur at heart and I love sneaky peaks into various family dynamics so stories like these feed my fetish without the risk of me going to jail for being a creeping peeper. Also, any time you give me a place where you can look into multiple dwellings courtesy of a shared courtyard (or in this case garden) I can’t help but think of . . . . .

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 author slices our attention among distinctive characters with lovely descriptions and the lilting Britspeak that enchants so many Americans." - Library Journal 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. They lost everything in the fire and had to start from scratch. They also lost their father but not to the fire. What is it with all these books with “Girls” in the title? The last book I read was The Girls. Now I have just finished The Girls in the Garden – which I gather was titled The Girls in the UK. And last year I read Those Girls…Things happen in that park differently to how they happen in the real world. Different rules apply.” 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. 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.