Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Girls in the Garden

I really just don't think I was the audience for this book. It's well written. The characters made sense. The POVs shifts were relatively unobtrusive.

I simply didn't love it.

I don't like the pedophile question being dangled for the entire book. It's a thriller and obviously made to make you feel uncomfortable. It did that. But it wasn't the kids doing kid things. It was the hovering question of if Leo was taking advantage of these children like he had in his past. I just don't appreciate those kinds of plot lines. Then the actual reason that Grace is hurt is because we just pit two girls against each other over a boy who barely speaks in the books is.... just not my thing.

I will say once again that I think Lisa Jewells novels don't need prologues. This is the second time I've read one of her books that was kind of ruined by jumping forward and then back. It didn't let the story build naturally, I already knew the climax, so I spent the first two 180-page waiting for what I already knew was going to happen.

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abernathy_33's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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c0d3nam3qt's review against another edition

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2.0

This is the second Lisa Jewell book that I have read. (The first being “None of this is true”) If I hadn’t bought this one years ago, I don’t think I ever would have read another from her. After reading this one, I can confidently say, this one is my last.

I really dislike the marketing of these two books. They don’t lead on to the type of content within and I think it is inappropriate to not make the reader at least somewhat aware. These two books deal with very dark and disturbing content. From looking into this author’s backlist, it seems that the majority deal with the same few incredibly dark and triggering subjects, but no where is it warned. The front of this book has this kitschy whimsical drawn map, but there is no whimsy here.

Following spoilers also spoil “None of this is true”.

There are so many parallels between this story and “None of this is true”. Both have men that are objectively bad people, that don’t get even a slap on the wrist for their abhorrent behaviour. Or other characters try their absolute hardest to defend those men’s actions. The whole time you are supposed to think it is one of these awful men that did yet another awful thing, but sike it’s actually a female victim(s) turned evil/crazy/violent. Everyone who could have stopped it or could prevent something else from happening, just makes excuses and basically says it’s none of their business. Or even goes so far as to destroy evidence. There is no justice for anyone in either novel.

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madisonrose1519's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Fast paced. Kept my attention, particularly after a really tough-to-beat reading slump.

Likeable characters. Weird to read a book from the perspective of so many young teens now that I’m an adult. But it was done very well. The perspective shifts were exceptionally written. Pip’s point of view sounded exactly like my own early teen diary entries. Skillful writing for sure.

I wasn’t blown away by the ending. The “red herrings” referred to by some reviews were quite obvious to me. I was not particularly shocked by the whodunnit. I would say the ending was satisfying and everything was tied up into a neat little bow. Personally, I like to be left a little mind-blown and frustrated by the ending of a mystery, but I can’t say I hated this ending. It just felt a smidge lackluster.

Overall glad I read it, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to a friend unless I was asked about it.

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