The Girls in the Garden: A Novel

This section alternates between chapters that take place on July 5, the night of the party, and chapters that take place after Grace wakes up from her coma. The chapters during the party include the date, July 5th, and time, like the Prologue. They include the perspectives of Grace and Tyler, which collectively reveal the mystery of the July 5th assault. Jewell additionally switches to different points of view to explain Tyler’s motivation for drugging Grace. These points of view highlight the opinions of the main protagonists, Pip and Adele, who are suspicious of Leo. The narrative’s portrayal of Leo, the red herring, aligns with these characters’ opinions until Grace tells Pip that she knows “who it might have been. [She] know[s] who might have wanted to hurt [her]. But it’s not a man. It’s a girl” (378). The chapters from Grace’s perspective seem to include more than she tells Pip, but Pip learns the important details, such as Tyler seeing Grace perform oral sex on Dylan.

The reveal of Grace and Dylan’s sexual act is part of the text’s symbolic language of clothes. Clare’s gifts for Grace’s birthday include shorts, which Dylan appreciates. He says they are the “[b]est shorts ever” because they give him more access to Grace’s body (366). Dylan’s fingers “running up and down the backs of her thighs” inspire her to perform oral sex for the first time (366). The sexual act was initiated by Grace without Dylan asking. Before Grace regains consciousness, Clare fears that Grace was forced to perform a sex act, based on the nurse’s discovery of traces of semen in her mouth. Clare blames herself for buying the shorts, which she believes provoked a sexual assault.

Jewell develops the theme of Generational Trauma Within a Community through Tyler’s perspective and Adele’s perspective. When the narrative finally portrays a scene in which only Tyler and Cecelia are present, Cecelia encourages her daughter to harm Grace for stealing Dylan. Cecelia says, “Make her pay” (392). In this scene, Jewell puts the responsibility for the attack on the adult. To break the cycle of trauma in her family, Cecelia would have needed to offer different advice and be more present in Tyler’s life. In this section, Adele figures out Tyler is behind the attack without talking to Grace. She gathers several clues, like Tyler’s ponytail on CCTV and Tyler’s computer search history. These cause Adele to realize that Tyler was seeking revenge for Grace stealing Dylan and Leo. Adele also blames Cecelia’s poor parenting, not Tyler.

In this section, Jewell also develops the theme of The Dual Nature of Green Spaces. The park offers positive connections, such as feelings of kinship between Tyler and Adele’s daughters. She calls her three daughters and Tyler “Virginia Park sisters” (393). Tyler finds some emotional support and a sense of belonging when with the Howes family in the park. However, Grace notes that Catkin “is trapped here in this park” and unable to meet someone to date because she is homeschooled (380). This makes her jealous of Grace and Dylan. The park cannot offer everything. This, and the fact that it is a space where teens can act out inappropriately, are some of the negative qualities of the park. However, after the police question her and her family, Adele says to her daughters, “Why don’t you all go out into the park?” (390). Even after Grace’s recent attack, and Phoebe’s historical murder, Adele considers the green space of the park to be a positive place because that is her personal interpretation of the space.