Cover Image: The Girl In The Garden

The Girl In The Garden

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Sixteen year old June is abandoned by her older partner in a small cabin away from her family and with her infant son. June is timid and unsure of everything. Soon she befriends Mabel and learns of the gift life is through various people.
This was a sneaky little gem of a read that I enjoyed. Thank you to netgalley and the author for this arc In Exchange for my honest review.

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Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of The Girl in the Garden by Melanie Wallace.

This is mostly a story of a small town, and the secrets within. But it starts when a young girl, her baby, and her completely dismissive partner drop in to Mabel's hotel during off season. After she is abandoned, the town flocks around her to take her under their wings, while exposing long kept secrets of their own.

The bones of this was good. I enjoy a slow burn, each layer of the onion pulled away to reveal the next. But I just could not get into this. The writing was tough for me to get into, it was scattered and disjointed. After a while of not being able to tell what story we were onto next, I struggled more and more to really care.

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I had no idea at the beginning that this would be a 5 * story. For the first chapter or two, the language seemed to get in the way of what is a fairly simple story line. After that I began to develop strong attachments to the characters and it was the beautiful writing that got me there. Young mother June is abandoned at a seaside motel in rural New England. While the townspeople gather to help June, her presence also seems to fill a need in each character. The chapters alternate between each different character and by the end I didn’t want to let any of them go.

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The Girl in the Garden left me with such mixed feelings that I can’t figure out how I felt about it.

The plot is so gentle-paced it, quite literally, went backwards. Each time we are introduced to a character, there is at least a chapter focused on their backstory. The writing meanders, rambling to a certain degree, without adding anything to the plot. I read half the book before the story moved forward.

While these backstories do help us to understand more about the characters, the only person I felt this was crucial for is Iris. Her reclusion and withdrawal from society makes far more sense when you know what drove her to those actions. But while it fleshes out the other characters (as otherwise they run the very risk of being two dimensional), it doesn’t bring them to life.

I felt pity for June, but struggled to connect to her character on an empathetic level – she just floats along. Claire seems brash and cold – understandable until given an insight into her mother, Iris, then I wanted Claire to connect with both the other characters and readers on a more personal level.

Duncan has gone his entire life with unrequited (and unsuitable) love and his actions are controlled by those emotions. He was a nice guy – but nothing more. Oldman is the town’s sage and, again, is a decent character, only his reaction to everyone else appears to be to adopt them. I probably connected with Oldman’s character the most: he is the one you really see put himself out for June and Claire, determined to make a difference to their lives.

The plot revolves around June trying to find somewhere safe where she can build a life after being abandoned with a young baby. It’s a moving and heart-felt story, where the characters and their relationships are the moving force. But the backstories mean there is a lot of time dedicated to characters who have either changed dramatically or are dead before the story begins. It doesn’t feel there is enough time to get to know the characters who are the driving force as the attention is focused on the past.

This was a light and enjoyable read, with a few darker elements thrown in to help define the characters and give the plot a driving force. It’s a `curl up on a Sunday afternoon` type of read. It’s not gripping, it’s not a page-turner, it’s just a gentle read.

I’m struggling with this review. The book left me feeling…nothing. I, for the most part, liked it and I got through it. The second half was stronger, as the narration moved forward rather than focusing on the past. But while there were some sad scenes, the lack of connection to the characters meant they didn’t impact me on an emotional level.

I was disappointed: I never felt the book was going anywhere. That being said, I have read far worse and, technically, the writing was sound. An average read.

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This is a sad story but one filled with warmth and interesting characters. Place is very written and the New England setting is depicted vividly and with great detail.

It became too saccharine in parts but is great book for a rainy day when you need a cosy read.

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Author interview:



The American expat talks about the writing process, the challenge of crafting strong characters, and her life in Greece.

Melanie Wallace’s new novel, The Girl in the Garden, is a dramatic and mysterious tale about what happens when a small coastal town finds its seemingly sleepy ways interrupted by the arrival of young June, her baby, and a man who abandons them at the first opportunity. As June and her child attempt to settle in, the lives of the townspeople are forever changed by the sudden discovery of well-guarded secrets.

How was the writing process of The Girl in the Garden different from your previous novels?

I was in a full-time staff position — which meant, very often, working 50 or more hours per week — while writing The Girl, so the “process,” if I can even use that word, was extremely disjointed: weeks often fell between paragraphs, at times even between sentences, and there were moments when I felt I’d really rather be pounding nails into my head than trying to earn a living while continuing with the novel. Worse, I had the comparison of having written one of my two previous novels under the best of circumstances, with a great deal of time on my hands while living in a small, very quiet Greek mountain village.

Was it challenging to write the story from so many POVs?

I actually can’t claim to have told the same story from different POVs, but I did try to use one narrative “voice” — a stylistically consistent one — to describe the different experiences of the several main characters while giving each a singular way of speaking and his/her own take on the world. As the novel took shape, it was a relief to concentrate on one character at a time and interweave their very different lives and disparate experiences into what I hoped would be a cohesive story that allowed these characters to come together and interact — believably — with one another in one place.

I know that you currently live in Greece. Was this sleepy New England town in the novel inspired perhaps by the coastal villages of Greece?

I’m sorry to disappoint, but, no. Greece — where my husband and I have lived off and on over the last 25 years (in Athens at times, off and on for 17 years in the Greek village I earlier mentioned, and now here, in Thessaloniki) — has always been and still remains for me a distinct and parallel universe to the world I came from, the one I’m obsessed with, the only one (at least until now) that provides the basis for my fiction. Which I consider purely American.

None of the characters in this novel are simple. They are exquisitely multi-layered and complicated. Was there a particular character that was difficult for you to write?

As I’d never before structured a novel in this way, I came up hard against the fact that the characters all demanded in-depth descriptions of their dissimilar backgrounds in order to make their relationships with the other characters credible. Sam, the Vietnam veteran, and Iris, the recluse who, after her husband’s death, turned her back on everything (including her daughter), were the characters who most resisted coming fully into focus at the start, but eventually — and somewhat surprisingly, as if I’d had nothing to do with their creation — each took on their respective personas.

Conversely, which character was your favorite?

In many ways, Claire — the photographer who is Iris’ daughter and who doesn’t have a discrete section to her name — is my favorite, as she embodies certain preoccupations I have concerning the nature of return, the importance of memory, the meaning of photography, and the constancy of love.

The book highlights that unique bond found in small communities, where everyone knows who’s who. Would you say it’s the secrets that each of them keeps that tie them together?

Overall, those secrets of course tie certain characters to others, but the unspoken — such as Duncan’s love for Claire, or Iris’ refusal to discuss the past with her daughter — also serves to hold certain characters at arm’s length from each another and so forces them to resolve their relationships by circumventing those secrets.

Do you see June and her baby as the catalyst that opens up old wounds for everyone in town, or more as a vehicle for healing those wounds? Or both?

Both. June is central to the story because happenstance brings her into the lives of all the other characters, so in this sense she’s a catalyst that prompts the revelation of their stories and secrets. In another sense, because her mere presence has caused others to grapple with their memories and, in some instances, with sentiments long suppressed, she — unknowingly — becomes the reason other characters are able to come to terms with their pasts.

Did you have the ending planned when you started writing the book?

I never know how anything will end, least of all any work of fiction I begin. But, of course, at one point — I’m not sure exactly where in the novel, or when in the writing of it — certain inevitabilities that became the end were clear to me.

What projects are you working on now?

I’m actually working at learning how to be a dressage rider. As to fiction and nonfiction, well, at this moment, I’m simply letting thoughts, words drift about and come to me as they may — but only after dismounting.

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Judging the cover and title, I was expecting another woman in cabin 10 or another girl on the train. I was wrong.
The book is not just about the girl in the garden. June, young and abandoned with her newborn, met Iris, an old and sick woman, that helps her in some way through this period of life. She met Duncan and Sam and many others that happen to have absorbing stories of their own. From war, accidents, and recovery.
Sometimes, the book might be too descriptive, naming different types of trees, for example. To me, this is perfectly fine and I know some people will enjoy this type of writing. I recommend this novel and I would like to thank NetGalley for an ARC.

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The Girl in the Garden is one of the most beautiful novels I have ever read. It is extremely slow-moving, but it works for the story as the various layers of the characters and their histories are slowly revealed. It is very descriptive and has a ton of prose, and while the writing style is a bit difficult to get into, once you do it flows so gracefully. I especially loved how there is an underlying theme of helping each other and while June, a young single mother, requires a lot of help from others, she sometimes doesn't realize just how much she is helping others as well.

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This is a well written old fashioned tale of a town and its people. Using June and her infant as the center, Wallace has managed to tell us a little about a lot of people but also to have given us a portrait of how we can work together as one. My quibble is that this is a short book so we don't really get to know or appreciate any of the characters as much as I would have liked. That said, I did enjoy it and thank Netgalley for the ARC.

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Given my months long reading slump and lack of books to review, you'd think I would have gotten around to reviewing a book I finished weeks ago sooner. But the it kind of got finished up with a fizzle as I raced to read books that had to be finished by a certain time. Unfortunately, it means that my feelings about the book have faded and my copy has expired so I can't even go back and refresh my memory.

Here's what I do remember:

This is a tough book to read - very little dialogue, very few breaks on a page and long sentences that would make William Faulkner proud. Your eyes don't get a break and your mind doesn't get a break.
As much a collection of short stories as a novel, Wallace moves the story along by letting different characters take the lead in each chapter. It's an interesting way to get the back story of each character although it can take you a long way from the main story line.
Characters - this book is all about its broken characters, and they are all broken characters. Some of their stories worked for me. Others were harder for me to buy into. Part of that has to do with my feelings about being a mom - it's always hard for me to read about moms who neglect or harm their children.
In the end, it's a book about a community of broken people who come together in support of June and her son. Which is all lovely. I'm just in a place right now where I read that and instead of making me feel better about the world, I read it and and think that it's implausible that one quiet girl would have the power to heal so many broken lives.
Maybe the wrong book at the wrong time for me. But there would be a lot here for book clubs to talk about.

**I really enjoyed the writing style when I started the book and I feel that I might have continued to enjoy it very much if I had been in a better frame of mind for working at my reading at the time.**

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This is my first book from this author and I enjoyed it very much. I found it slow sometimes, but the book is well written.

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Sad and beautifully written. It was the writing that drew me in from the beginning. The story is heartbreaking and I had to keep putting it down and coming back because the broken characters really got to me. This is not a beach read by any means but it is so well written that you will really enjoy it

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This book is very, very slow. I just cannot get into it!

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I have to be quite honest. I was very excited to get approved to read this book. The story sounded good and I loved the cover of the book.

The writing style was not to my liking. The sentences were so long and descriptive and it took a lot to focus and read this book. I understand for many this is a beautifully written book. I don't want to take away from that. To be honest I found myself skimming the last 1/4 of the book as it just did not fit my reading style. I don't usually like to do this. The story was ok and I'm positive many other people would enjoy the writing style. Unfortunately it was not for me.

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I was unable to read this book before it archived.

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This book took a while for me to read. I enjoyed the story, but the format was terrible. There is no dialogue in this book, at least none with quotation marks. This means there aren’t any breaks to speak of and it makes the book pages look like one long paragraph. I found this to be very tiring on my eyes and needed to take breaks. There were a few times that I even had to reread parts because I would lose track of where I was or what I was reading. I eventually got used to it, but can’t say that I enjoyed it and it definitely detracted from the book in my opinion.

Sample page: (I wouldn’t suggest trying to read the page, if you want to read the book. It was taken towards the end of the book.)
<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=11822kg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i65.tinypic.com/11822kg.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic”></a>

Otherwise, The story was good. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and looked forward to seeing how the relationships would develop. Aside from the format, the writing was very good. I felt that there was exactly the right amount of descriptive detail, enough for you to form a picture in your head, but not so much that it was overdone. I was able to get a sense of who the characters were and the a feel for the area in which they lived.

I think I would try another story by Melanie Wallace, but only if the formatting was different. I honestly don’t think I could tolerate going through another whole book without parenthesis. I feel like that’s unfortunate as I believe I might miss out on a really good story.

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This was just "ok". I felt that the characters could have been a bit more fleshed out.

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This is a book to be read slowly, less about plot and more about damaged reclusive characters and their inner thoughts and feelings. The first thing you'll notice once you've read the first few pages is the writing. Wallace writes beautifully and it does require focus to really appreciate this novel.

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During the mid-seventies, a group of lonely individuals is brought together to help June, a young girl and her infant son, Luke. The mother and child had been abandoned at a motel run by Mabel who is grieving the loss of her husband. She convinces her friend Iris, who has been a recluse since the death of her own husband many years ago, to allow the pair to stay in a small cottage on her property. Iris takes them in reluctantly, turning their care over to her lawyer, Duncan, who, in turn, introduces them to Oldman, a kind older bachelor, who takes them under his wing.

A few years later, Iris is terminally ill and her daughter, Claire, from who she has been estranged since her husband’s death, convinces Sam, a Vietnam vet severely wounded both physically and mentally, to drive her to visit with her mother, to help but also to learn about her father and why her mother abandoned her, like June, to the care of Duncan and Oldman when she was a teenager.

In The Girl In the Garden, author Melanie Wallace, has created a beautifully written, quiet, and moving story about abandonment, loss, grief, and ultimately redemption; how dysfunction and secrets within families can damage and how a community of strangers can come together to provide the emotional and physical shelter needed to heal.

Thanks to Netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

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I read at least 30% of a book before I decide to abandon it or not and this one, unfortunately, was abandoned. The ideas were okay, but it was the writing style that killed it for me. It felt like one giant run-on sentence. I felt like there was no natural pauses at any point.

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