Mysterious, life-threatening injuries to a teenage girl cause previously close-knit neighborhood families to examine each other with concern and suspicion. Adele has a very lenient, alternative parenting style, homeschooling and preferring to let her children make their own choices, whatever they are. She repeatedly suggests that she feels judged by others for her lifestyle. How did you feel about how she is raising her children? Were there points in the book you felt supportive or critical of her maternal choices? What drives Catkin and Fern to follow Tyler’s lead? What do you think were their motivations for taking the actions they took?

It is hard to write a lengthy review on a book where the plot is secondary to the prose so all I will say is that this is a read that demands attention, time and appreciation. It will force you to slow down and allow you to consider, reflect and enjoy Wallace's insight, observations and description. One of People’s, Glamour’s, and BuzzFeed’s Best Reads of Summer, from the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was GoneThe Lower East Side, the East Village, Alphabet City, we're crawling with broken people lounging on broken stoops, unabashedly humping in the alleyways and parks, There is an undercurrent of hesitation, a feeling just below the surface that seems dangerous somehow. 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.

The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Jewell, Lisa. The Girls in the Garden. Atria Books, 2016.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. All the characters are likeable and in a way the novel is almost like a collection of short stories or character studies as you follow from one to the other, tugged gently along by the swell of the tide and aware of the undercurrent that links them altogether. The setting of the coast line is used very effectively to illustrate emotional turmoil, the sense of insignificance or failure and the isolation or sense of being lost that some of the characters feel. 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. The lives of wives, daughters, and mothers are what is dissected here and how do we truly know anyone? The Girls in the Garden focused on two families--one just recently moved in and one who's been there for a long time. Tiny Clare and her daughters, Grace (12) and Pip (11) have just arrived and are reeling from the consequences of their dad's mental illness.