June and her infant son are abandoned by her boyfriend Ward.June is left at a cottage by the ocean owned by Mabel. When it is fall and time to close the cabins for winter, Mabel asks her friend Iris to take in June and her baby. There are many characters in the book that help with June. Duncan , Sam, Oldman, Iris, and Mabel all tell their life stories through the book. Sad stories of loss and of life letting them down and them picking themselves up again. Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an ARC of this book for an honest review.

This is a very intriguing story with intriguing characters. However, The rambling sentences and excessive descriptions left me exhausted at times. I felt as if I was panning for gold, sifting through all the excess to get to the heart of the story. But I did enjoy the story, so much so that I wished for it to continue and give closure to many of the characters.

An amazing and powerful example of fine literary fiction.

June is a young mother, timid and painfully thin, with a small infant. She is abandoned by her partner at a seaside tourist cabin somewhere in New England. Penniless, she is taken in by Mabel, the widow who owns the cabins. This premise, and the beautiful book cover, are what led me to read "The girl in the garden".

June is the daughter of 'trailer-trash'. She has never known parental love. Now, age fifteen, she is a mother herself... When the baby's father abandons her penniless and alone - she is not surprised at her fate.

"And as she'd lived so much of her life in abandonment, she found desertion a normal state of being."

Mabel married the love of her life. Now, still reeling from his recent death, she is sympathetic toward June. She understands loss. Her heart breaks for the plight of June and baby Luke.

"...she knew a great deal about loss and knew that the sorrow it spawns is impervious to consolation, allows no solace"

When Mabel was newly widowed she felt cast adrift - wondering how she could go on... A neighbor, Roland, stepped in and helped her with the night shift at the cabins and any chores that she was unable to do herself. Now, she doesn't know how she would manage without him. He is a constant and steadfast ally.

Mabel and Iris are long-time friends. In fact Mabel is Iris's ONLY friend. It is Iris's choice. After the death of her husband, Iris became a recluse. Her husband had been physically and emotionally abusive - a monster. Iris has a daughter Claire. Claire reminds Iris so much of her dead husband that she cannot abide the sight of her. She has arranged for her lawyer to act on Claire's behalf. She has a small cabin built in her garden where Claire is to live on her own - with NO contact from Iris. In fact, Iris's only contact with the world is Mabel and her lawyer, Duncan.

When the winter months come, Mabel knows that she cannot let June and baby Luke live in the cold, unheated cabins. She turns to her friend Iris and, in return for a favor bestowed many years previously, Iris feels obliged to acquiesce to Mabel's request. So it is that June and baby Luke move into the cabin in the garden formerly occupied by Iris's daughter, Claire.

Claire hasn't lived there for years. When she graduated from high school she took herself off to see the world through the lens of her camera. Always more comfortable behind the lens, than any other way.

On the surface a reader might think Iris cold and unfeeling. However people always have their own reasons for behavior which is sometimes shocking and hard to understand. Iris had a unique marriage that left her shamed and betrayed. She felt the only way forward was to retreat from the world and her young daughter.

These and other characters in this powerfully written novel are all damaged in some way. In fact, one of my favorite characters in the novel I haven't yet mentioned. His name is Oldman. A WWII veteran and a long confirmed bachelor, he is Duncan's friend, he was once a friend to Claire, and now he befriends June and baby Luke.

"it's never the scars which can be seen that matter"

Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention Sam. A Vietnam war veteran he accompanies Claire back to where she grew up. He and Oldman form a deep, indescribable bond.

"before meeting Oldman his life hadn't had much rhyme or reason to it and that he'd felt for a long time that he was at its mercy, which hadn't been very merciful."

June, Mabel, Iris, Claire, Duncan, Oldman, and Sam. If "The girl in the garden" were a movie, it would be categorized as an 'ensemble cast'. The seven divergent protagonists were equally important in their own right, yet indelibly connected.

This novel was written in a very different style from what I am used to. There was very little dialogue. As I kept reading I realized that that was intentional. All of the characters in this book were essentially solitary people. So... it stands to reason that we get to hear their thoughts, not their conversation. For one reason or another they are attempting to navigate life alone. Despite the long sentences and rambling paragraphs, I found this very easy to read. The words painted such vivid pictures, and the characters were so engaging that I feel I will miss them all now that I've finished the book. They were all victims of circumstance - yet aren't we all?

Two scenes that I don't think I'll ever forget. Without giving too much away, I'll say only that one involves a heroic dog, and the other describes a photograph of two men and two horses. Truly a magical use of words!

Set during the 1970s, this is a novel about people helping people, "The girl in the garden" is a testament to the good in the world. Sometimes, with all that is going on, we need reminding. It is also a novel about loss - loss that damages souls - and the souls attempt to heal... A novel peopled with survivors.

I will confess that while reading the final pages of this novel I was completely verklempt. Literary fiction at its finest!

Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this novel in consideration of my review.

This is a story about a young girl, still in her teens with a young baby, who is dropped off in a small coastal town, on the East coast of the US, by the babies father, who soon there after leaves, never to return. Certain people in this town take her under their wing.
This is a wonderful study of the characters that live in this small town or end up moving there, and all of the good, bad and ugly of their lives and how each one relates to the other. I have always been a lover of detailed character development, and this book is full of that, after the premise of the story is laid out, the author takes us into the lives of each of the characters and fills us in on the what has transpired through each of their lives.
To me this was a very satisfactory read. The author writes very well, and kept me engaged.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, allowing me to read it.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Girl in the Garden. This is my honest opinion of the book.

As Mabel was going through the process of winterizing the cabins at her campground, an exhausted young woman with a baby, accompanied by a surly man, requested a 10 day stay. Paying in cash with a questionable driver's license for ID, Mabel was instantly distrustful of the man who most certainly had something to hide. After he abandons the girl and her baby, Mabel allows June to stay, in exchange for work around the cabins. Having lost her husband two years past, Mabel is not ready to have June and the baby stay with her over winter, so she enlists the help of her friend Iris. Will the walls that Iris so carefully erected around herself, after discovering her husband's body when her daughter Claire was only a teenager, remain intact when June and Luke move in for the winter?

Told in multiple perspectives, the story is so disjointed that it never gained its footing for me. The only link that the characters have, besides being acquainted with each other, is that they all have something from their pasts that they need to reconcile. As they each come to terms and make peace, their lives change and become fulfilled. The problem is, with all the backstories in different vignettes, the book becomes almost like a series of short stories with the smallest of threads to tie them together. The Girl in the Garden was a miss for me, but readers who like multiple perspective stories may enjoy it.

It's 1974 in a coastal New England town, where a mysterious young woman, her baby and an unfriendly man posing as her husband show up at a seaside motel, looking for 10 days of lodging.

By the time the 10 days have passed, the man is gone, leaving behind the woman, June, and her infant son, Luke. Over the course of time, June captures the hearts of Mabel, the widowed innkeeper; Oldman, a colorful but wise World War II veteran; Duncan, the town's lawyer; and even Iris, an eccentric elderly woman who's cut herself off from the world ever since the death of her husband. When Iris' aloof daughter Claire returns home after about two decades, tensions run high.

These people barely know this mysterious out-of-towner, and yet they practically move heaven and earth to make her and her child feel welcome in their world. Each of them seem to have personal reasons for taking her in. They see something of themselves in her, perhaps - stranded, misunderstood, friendless. And as a result, we learn intimate details about all of them.

I really struggled to get into this book at first. In a mechanical sense, it is maddening. The author has a very poetic style of writing that borders on rambling. This book is rife with run-on sentences, which drove me crazy. And at the same time, she describes the town and the people in such a vivid and beautiful way that I could almost overlook the need for shorter sentences, fewer commas and more periods.

"The Girl in the Garden" is STRONGLY character driven - so much so, in fact, that there's never really any mention of exactly where these people are in New England. It seemed like a very deliberate choice by the author that we never learn where the girl came from. After all, her whole aim for going to New England was to leave home and see the ocean. The farther I got into this book, the less it mattered to me whether the author ever revealed specific locations ... because this book isn't about places at all, but people.

There are myriad themes in this book dealing with human nature - grief, loneliness, regret, resentment, desire, etc. I came to appreciate that pretty quickly. At times, when the author delved into painstaking detail about a character's past, I found myself wondering why I was supposed to care. But as it turns out, those details matter. They influence interactions and relationships between the characters in really interesting ways. I think the connections between Iris, June and Claire are especially fascinating, but I don't want to give away too much.

"The Girl in the Garden" is a story of people, at their best and worst, that incorporates subtle mystical undertones. If you can wade through the wordiness, it's definitely worth checking out.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful story, with such great characters. You will feel as if you know all of them.

I am so incredibly excited about reading and reviewing “The Girl in the Garden” today! Melanie Wallace has completely floored me with this outstanding novel about the experiences, hardships, generosity, and bonds of people in a small coastal town. The story is centered around a young girl named June, who arrives at Mabel’s rental cabins in 1974 with her infant son, Luke and the child’s father, Ward. After realizing that she was pregnant and tracking Ward down, he agreed to “keep her around” until the baby was born and then advised that he would take her wherever she wanted. June decided she wanted to go to the Atlantic ocean, which is where Ward drove her and left her. As soon as Ward and June come into the rental office inquiring about a cabin, Mabel immediately senses that he will leave her, but she rents to them regardless, knowing that the young girl and baby will have nowhere to go. When the time comes for Mable’s seasonal cabin rentals to close for the winter, she sends June to stay with Iris – a wealthy recluse with plenty of space for June and Luke and who just wants to be left alone. Other significant characters are Claire – Iris’ daughter, Duncan – Iris’ attorney, Oldham – a veteran that is a wonderful friend and supporter, and Sam – a wounded veteran that drives Claire back to see her mother.

Various chapters throughout the novel focus on various characters, describing their lives and how they came to be where they are at the present time of the novel. Each character is fully and beautifully developed allowing the reader a window into where they have been, how their situations affected them, and where they are now. All of the stories are heartbreaking in their own way, although they are each very different. Melanie Wallace has created an eclectic group of characters at different stages in their lives, but still have common bonds between them, as unlikely as it would seem. I was absolutely intrigued by each of their stories, although, there were times I went back to read their stories again to make sure that I understood exactly what had happened, especially concerning Iris. Although the recluse of the novel, basically all of the personal connections between the other characters involved Iris in some way. Initially, I didn’t feel very invested in her character, however, that quickly changed and I can’t stop thinking about this woman even after I have finished the book.

If I had to point out anything negative about this novel, it would be Claire. Granted she had a strange upbringing, especially after her father died, but I found her spoiled, entitled, and often very bossy. Other than being a common denominator between Sam and Oldham and June, I honestly saw no purpose to her character except to make me sympathize with Iris even more than I already did. Yes, she made kind gestures here and there regarding money, but otherwise, I felt like she looked down on everyone else as if they were her subjects waiting to serve her, which was completely unlike any other character in the novel.

I looked over other reviews of this novel before reading and reviewing it, and I noticed comments about there not being any conflict or the novel being slow. Regarding conflict, I felt that the entire novel included conflict. I’m thinking maybe the confusion was the fact that it was primarily internal rather than external? Everyone in the story had experienced loss and grief or insecurity and Wallace guided the reader through their experiences and emotions. No, there weren’t any huge, defining moments of climax or resolution – but it wasn’t needed.

Trying to avoid spoilers, I must say that I loved the ending. I don’t typically like such ambiguous endings because I just need more clarity and finality, but I think the way the author wrapped this novel up was beautiful, tasteful, and appropriate. Everyone experiences good and bad in their lives, we go through changes, ups, and downs. But the author left me with the overall feeling that things will be as they should and that things will work out. Moreover, the novel stresses that we all have different flaws from different circumstances, all of which should be embraced.

I cannot remember reading a novel that left me with so much running through my mind. I am in complete awe of Melanie Wallace’s beautiful prose that was perfectly paced and full of the thorough characterization that I love! I highly recommend this to anyone that is a lover of literary and women’s fiction 🙂

*Many thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I just didn't love this book. There were too many point of views, and it was super slow. From the description, I thought there was going to be a bit of a mystery, but the answer was revealed early in the book. I was hoping it was going to be a quick read for me, but it took me quite some time to get through it.

Every once in awhile, you run across a book that just sears your soul with the poignancy of the characters and their life. The Girl in the Garden by Melanie Wallace was just that type of book. June is a young girl with a baby abandoned by the ocean, She was one of the people who live on the edge of society without ever being able to depend upon and believe in the future. She has never had hope or understanding of anything beyond her small circle. Given a place to live by Mabel and Iris and finding herself in a small community where people do help and care as evidenced by Duncan and Oldman, June’s story slowly emerges to the reader, as do the stories of the other characters. Each with their own tragedy and show of resilience as they move forward with each other.

The Girl in the Garden has marked me, and I will carry these characters and story with me. Each portion tugged on heart strings and quite frankly leaves me speechless to share my thoughts. What I can say is the book is a wonderful read with characters that have faced adversity and have shown resilience and with each other perhaps found their way to happiness.

Strangely, I can't quite remember how I heard about this book; I know I read something about it, somewhere, and thought it sounded interesting. This is not a debut novel, but Melanie Wallace is a new-to-me author; these selections do not always pan out well, but I'm so thankful that something prompted me to give this one a chance.

The novel begins with a young woman named June who, having recently given birth to a son named Luke, has, over the course of her life, learned not to expect much from anyone. She is dropped off at an oceanside inn in New England by the father of her child, with no money and very little of anything else.

"He didn’t have the impression that the girl even understood her luck; indeed, to the contrary, she seemed broken by never having had any luck whatsoever."

So much of what follows is character-driven; not by June, but by those she encounters in this community as she begins to create a life for herself and her child. These characters are beautifully broken and the author doles out their individual stories in bits and pieces, reminding me of the visits that I have with patients and families in my own line of work.

"Sam began laughing too, the room was no longer reeling but somehow expanding, contracting, as Oldman went on to ask: So, what happened to you? - and then Sam’s chest was heaving, a strangled sound came from him as he began sobbing into his hands, his tears salty and the taste of them bitter and Sam unabashed and anguished. For no one - not his parents or his brother, not Freddie, neither Rita nor Gloria, not Leonard, no one - had ever asked; they’d seen him, they’d seen what had become of him, Rita had often touched his scars, and maybe they’d all waited for Sam to recount what he’d been through, but their silence only reinforced his impression that they all, every last one of them, willed his story to remain untold, his past unspoken."

Throughout this novel, I would catch myself nodding empathetically and I thoroughly enjoyed the author's vivid descriptions, the writing that seemed, at times, almost like a stream of consciousness. I experienced these characters, and their stories, as highly relatable and I delighted in reading more about each of them.

While I haven't seen too much else about this novel, I certainly hope others will take a chance on it as I did; The Girl in the Garden has been an unexpected delight and I'll be recommending this one for months to come!

The prose is beautifully written and the characters are sympathetic, but I was a little disappointed in the pacing and the plot. Much of the book is sad and one can't help but feel sorry for some of the characters, but I never felt a total connection.

This is not an easy read, but it has some worthwhile points and insights.

This was a lovely piece of literary fiction. The story was good, the characters all different. I liked the ending a lot.

Even though it took me a couple of chapters to really get into this book, I continued reading and did end up liking this story. The prose is so different from other books I have read but Melanie Wallace does it beautifully. I liked the characters in the story, young June, Mabel, Iris and Sam, but especially liked the character of Oldman, a WWII veteran who is kind and decent and takes it upon himself to helping June and her baby son get settled in the town in which they were abandoned by the baby's father. This is not a fast-paced read and it is a sad at times but once finished, the story and characters will stay with you for awhile. At least, it did with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Sad and beautiful at the same time. A nice warm read for the winter nights

This is the story of June, a young woman and her baby, and also of Mabel, Iris, Duncan, Oldman and Claire. A beautiful and emotional novel where people come together after suffering several heartbreaks. Each one of the characters had their own sad story and because of that, I found this to be a really sad book. Although it seems that June might be the main character, this is not her story, but everyones'. Set in 70s, The Girl In The Garden had all the ingredients I look for in a book.

Sometimes, you know a book doesn't have anything wrong, it's just you that can't connect with it. I'm afraid that's what happened in this case. While Melanie Wallace's writing was beautiful and unique (I wish I could write like she does), I struggled with the long sentences that never seemed to finish, as I couldn't read as fast as I would've wanted.

Maybe it's not the right time or maybe I will never be ready, but I was quite disappointed when I realized wasn't enjoying this as I would've hoped. Not a lot happened in the story, but I think I could've liked this a bit more if I had been able to connect with the characters and the author's writing.

It's not you, it's me.

This book is not about one girl but a collection of people and their stories. I enjoyed the character development of everyone. It was different from many books I've read and takes place in the 70s. This book is short in length but it needs to be read slowly to fully feel like you are getting to know everyone. I loved slowing down with this book. The character development was some of the best I have read in books. Thank you to NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this book.

By VICKI ROCK

“The Girl in the Garden” by Melanie Wallace, Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt, 240 pages, $25.

A couple, Ward and June, and their baby, Luke, arrive at a resort on the coast of New England.

Ward doesn’t treat June well, and that makes Mabel not want to rent them a cabin, but she feels sorry for June and does. Within a few days, Ward has gone off, abandoning June and Luke.

This is a small town. Oldman is the person that everyone trusts. Claire is a photographer.

The style is the main problem with this novel. Wallace writes long, rambling sentences and doesn’t use quotation marks. There isn’t enough of a plot and the characters aren’t interesting.

***

Very sad, bleak almost. But the writing was lyrical and lovely

It looks like many others really enjoyed this but I found it to be a very sad and depressing book! Coupled with the struggle I had with the long rambling sentences and the switching from one character to another I found myself frustrated and disappointed. I kept thinking there was going to be light at the end of tunnel - I saw a few flickers but then the light went out and I was left with nothing but darkness. The hope of redemption for these characters never really materialized.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.