The Girls in the Garden: A Novel

Content Warning: The source text includes the assault of a minor, the death of a minor, suicide, substance overdose, and depictions of a schizophrenic episode.

Adele is the main adult protagonist, indicated by many chapters being from her point of view, including the last chapter. Pip notes that Adele is “one of the most beautiful mums she’d ever seen” (74). Adele has long brown hair, earrings, and a nose ring. She worked as an “education coordinator at an arts center” before leaving to homeschool her daughters (28). Adele’s alternative lifestyle also includes homeopathic medications, avoiding name-brand items made in sweatshops, eating healthy, and giving her daughters freedom and confidence. She “had wanted to raise her girls to feel unassailable, the equal of anyone they encountered. She herself had been raised to be a good girl, to blend in, to put people at their ease” (261). Adele hopes to break the cycle of raising women to be people-pleasers and raise her daughters to be independent.

Adele’s family, and Leo’s family, often disagree with her alternative lifestyle choices. This makes Adele somewhat self-conscious about her choices, especially when a stranger comes into her home. These choices include being with Leo; she questions her decision to marry him when she learns more about his past.