A review by alex_conners
The Girls in the Garden by Lisa Jewell

dark emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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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