Meet The Garnett Girls …
Three sisters living in the shadow of their parents' glorious but devastating love affair.
Rachel, desperate to return to London, but held hostage by the beloved, crumbling house they grew up in on the Isle of Wight.
Imogen, with a devoted fiancé and a fledgling writing career, feeling a dangerous connection to a beautiful stranger.
And wild, passionate Sasha, trapped between her sisters and her controlling husband, hiding a secret that could shake their family to the core…
I'm delighted to be hosting the blog tour for The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore today. Many thanks to HQ and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for sending me a copy of the novel.
It's been a few years since I visited the Isle of Wight but Georgina Moore's evocative descriptions of the island transported me back there effortlessly. However, despite its many charms, the Garnett Girls – Rachel, Imogen and Sasha – have a complicated, emotional relationship with the place where they grew up, and it mirrors the complex family dynamics which are explored so immersively in Georgina Moore's accomplished debut novel.
The narrative is shared between the three sisters and their mother, the brilliant, capricious Margo, who is both an interfering matriarch and a damaged, lonely woman who has never truly moved on from her passionate yet ultimately doomed marriage to Richard, the girls' father. Despite never appearing in the book, Richard's presence – or to be more precise, his absence – looms over them all. Margo and Richard's relationship was once an all-consuming, great love affair but this was no fairytale romance and his alcoholism cast a shadow on the sisters' early years, before he left their lives completely, throwing them into more disarray.
Alcohol plays a large part in the proceedings here, with Margo often drinking heavily, as does her youngest daughter, Sasha. It's no surprise, therefore, that their riotous family parties often result in huge rows. With so many secrets and grievances being kept, tempers are inevitably frayed and the results are explosive. Sasha is perhaps the most volatile and a wedge has arisen between her and her family; driven in part by the secret she is keeping but also by her self-esteem, which is at rock-bottom. Married to the critical, controlling Phil, and tormented by her guilt about her parents' split, she lashes out with harsh, hurtful words.
Meanwhile, Rachel, as the current owner of Sandcove, the house they grew up in, is becoming increasingly resentful, trapped in a life she once tried to escape from. Her husband, Gabriel is a loving, giving man who understands and gets on well with Margo but even their marriage is weighed down by their failure to communicate with one another. Imogen also struggles to voice her needs and at the start of the book, has drifted into an engagement with the kind and patient William because it's what is expected of her – until her world is overturned by an illicit, passionate love affair. Eventually, she reaches a crossroads and has to decide on which route to take and her conflicted feelings are depicted superbly.
Sandcove is enmeshed with their memories, both good and terrible, and is simultaneously both an oppressive feature in their lives and a place of refuge for these four women, whose bonds may stretch but are never completely unbreakable. Although most of the storyline is set in the present day, there are a few scenes which take place in the past, where Georgina Moore gives us a deeper insight into how their lives were shaped and what drove them to make some of their decisions. It all culminates in an heady, emotionally-charged novel, in which Georgina Moore's character-driven narrative empathetically reflects the many flaws of the Garnett women, without ever losing sight of their vulnerability. Even at their worst, it's impossible not to sympathise with them; despite their apparently privileged lifestyles, they appear trapped by the past and all they endured back then. It takes a cataclysmic revelation to change everything and the intensity of the resulting fallout makes for compelling reading.
Georgina Moore's authentic, compassionate portrayal of this family, the secrets and shortcomings that almost tear them apart, and the strength of the bonds which connect them to each other and to their community, is engrossing throughout. It's a warm-hearted, humorous and moving read, and one I highly recommend.
The Garnett Girls is published by HQ, purchasing links can be found here.
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Thanks for the blog tour support x
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