The Girls

This book is about neighbours who all live overlooking the communal garden. Adele, who home-schools her three children, and her husband Leo; Clare and her daughters, Grace and Pip, who have just moved in; Rhea who has lived there for years; and Tyler who lives with her mother Cece The characters felt so real that I almost felt I knew them personally. Great back stories too - I couldn't put it down. Lisa Jewell is a great storyteller.

This is definitely a dark book. When I was thirteen I played with Barbies and spent time at a friend's house and outside, but we didn't even really know about alcohol or drugs and boyfriends and girlfriends were just basically holding someone's hand and going for a walk. This book truly brings out the darker side of children and teenagers and it definitely reminds me to really focus on my kids (if I have some) when they are that age. The plot is so good and I pretty much suspected all the adult characters but not many of the kids, but then the kids turned out to be not so nice. In the end, I was not surprised who the attacker was in the end, but I was really surprised with the ending. The characters are all very interesting and they all have secrets that come out one way or the other. It makes the book more interesting and gives the story the twists that make it so good. All in all, a very thrilling story. *ARC received from the publisher via NetGalley