A review by dalmavatai
The Girls by Lisa Jewell

dark emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed my fourth Lisa Jewell and she's absolutely become a go-to mystery/thriller writer for me! The characters and their relationships are well developed and interesting to read about, and you feel for each one of these characters in the Garden. I liked the past mystery interwoven with the present one, and enjoyed that we get multiple POVs, mostly from Adele and Clare but also from Pip and Grace, and we also get to see the letters Pip writes to their dad which were really sweet and heartfelt. 

I do wish the pacing had been done a bit differently, there was a LOT of setup, much of which was needed, but maybe it could've been shortened just a tad bit so that we could've gotten more at the end. I liked the resolution though, and especially enjoyed the way that we kept going back and forth between the past and the present towards the end which created a really frantic atmosphere where you just wanted to get to the truth. 

It was a bit slow paced, especially in the first half, which is why I didn't enjoy it as much as I could've but honestly this book made me really excited to get to more of Lisa Jewell's backlist!
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