Skip to main content

My Review of The Girls by Lisa Jewell

I am a big fan of Lisa Jewell and I always get really excited when she has a new book coming out. Her last book, The Third Wife was a firm favourite of mine last year and has haunted me ever since, so I was over the moon when I got accepted to read this on Netgalley.

What They Say:

You live on a picturesque communal garden square, an oasis in urban London where your children run free, in and out of other people’s houses.

You’ve known your neighbours for years and you trust them. Implicitly.

You think your children are safe.

But are they really?

Midsummer night: a thirteen-year-old girl is found unconscious in a dark corner of the garden square. What really happened to her? And who is responsible?

What I Say:

Wow! That was my first reaction when I turned the last page of this book. I mean, just, wow! That was intense!

Ok, so this book is set in an idyllic communal garden community. The kind of place I imagine most British children wished they grew up in (and the kind of place a lot of Canadian kids did grow up in) with kids running free and all the parents taking equal responsibility for them. Doors were open and everyone was family.

So, what happens when the unthinkable happens to one of the children? Who do you blame? And how do you get the truth out of a tightknit group of people, I mean someone must know the truth...

Clare, Grace and Pip are a lovely family trying to escape a troubled past. All they want is somewhere quiet to heal and learn to trust again after a troubled past. The girls, are traumatized and are desperate to make friends and fit in. Clare is less so, she wants to keep to herself and protect her girls from the outside world. But as almost-teenagers, Grace and Pip want their freedom.

Adele and Leo and their gang of wild children are a lovely (if somewhat bizarre) family. I like their lifestyle and agree with their parenting style, personally. But they seem almost too nice. I wanted them to have a fatal flaw, something dark...

I guess the thing I'd say stood out most about The Girls is the character development. Lisa is a master at this. Every single character is so real and complete. They come alive on the page and you can almost hear the dialogue being spoken in your head. That's what makes it so horrible when something bad happens.

I loved how the story began with the tragic event and then we go back to the beginning, trying to figure out Whodunnit. I spent the whole book looking for clues. I was totally wrong, by the way!

Another amazingly woven story from an author who never seems to get it wrong, in my opinion. 10/10

Thanks to Netgalley for my e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Tour Stop - Would Llike to Meet by Polly James

  Welcome to my stop on the Blog Tour for the fabulous Would Like To Meet by Polly James!!!!   I'm so excited that I get to bring you an exclusive audio clip! So, sit back have a read, have a listen and enjoy!     WOULD LIKE TO MEET Polly James Publishes in eBook & Paperback: 30 th June   A hilarious, heart-warming read perfect for fans of Shirley Valentine and You’ve Got Mail. Could the worst thing that’s ever happened to Hannah Pinkman also turn out to be one of the best? She and her husband Dan have reached the end of the line. Bored with the same gripes, the same old arguments – in fact, bored with everything – they split up after a trivial row turns into something much more serious. Now Hannah has to make a new life for herself, but that’s not easy. She’s been so busy being a wife and mum that she’s let all her other interests slip away, along with her friends. And when Hannah is persuaded to join a dating site, her ‘b...

2015: The year of working, laughing, loving and living

Well, here we are. A week and a half into the new year. Are you all sticking to your resolutions? I am, so far. I decided that I want to be more Sparkly. That to me, means happier, nicer, more kind and caring. It means feeling good about myself and my choices. It means feeling free to love and laugh. Over the years I have lost my giggle. That was one thing my Mum told me in a letter she wrote me before she died. Never stop giggling. And I'm sad to say I did stop. People have noticed, family and friends have commented on it. My fiancé has mentioned it more than once and it was starting to cause problems. I got quite depressed and struggled on a daily basis. Books were kind of a saving grace as was Twitter. But the real world and my REAL life were shut out. So, this year I have decided to change all of that. 2015 is my year of laughing, loving, travelling, working, smiling, playing and giggling. I will still read and review, but only the books I choose. No more blog tours unl...

Blog Tour Stop with Review - The Missing Girls by Carol Wyer

  Welcome to my stop on the Blog blitz for the fabulous third Instalment in the DI Robyn Carter series! What They Say: One girl found dead. Another girl gone... Long shadows danced on the tin walls. Inside the trunk lay Carrie Miller, wrapped in plastic, arms folded across her ribcage, lips sealed tight forever... When a girl’s body is found at a Midlands storage unit, it is too decomposed for Detective Robyn Carter to read the signs left by the killer. No one knows the woman in blue who rented the unit; her hire van can’t be traced. But as the leads run dry another body is uncovered. This time the killer’s distinctive mark is plain to see, and matching scratches on the first victim’s skeleton make Robyn suspect she’s searching for a serial-killer.  As Robyn closes in on the killer’s shocking hunting ground, another girl goes missing, and this time it’s someone close to her own heart.  Robyn can’t lose another loved one. Can she find the sickest individual she h...