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.

Jewell explores the concept of home and the need for relocation through the Wild family and the Howes family. Some characters, such as the Wild family at the beginning of the novel, find themselves in Virginia Park to start over and escape their previous home, destroyed by Chris. Others are pushed away from familial groups or their sense of home in the form of rejection, such as Chris being unable to reconnect with his family during the novel and Grace being effectively pushed out of her community by Tyler’s violence. These characters all grapple with the definition of “home” and how Virginia Park, or their familial and social groups, fit into their lives. Relocation to or from “home,” as a means of escape or the result of societal exile, causes the characters to undergo an emotional transformation.

The Wild family begins the novel seeking an escape from their original family home. Chris, during a schizophrenic episode, “set fire to his children’s home without even knowing if they were in it or not” (71). After this event, but before the first chapter and the prologue, Chris is admitted to a psychiatric hospital.