Abigail Dean

"For readers of Room and Dear Edward, a propulsive and psychologically immersive novel about a young girl who escapes captivity--but not the secrets that shadow the rest of her life"--

A Novel

Girl A

*THE INSTANT NO. 2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND TOP TEN NEW YORK TIMES GLOBAL BESTSELLER* THE BOOK THAT WILL DEFINE A DECADE ‘Haunting, powerful, with a pitch-perfect ending’ THE NEW YORK TIMES ‘Sensational. Gripping, haunting, and beautifully written’ RICHARD OSMAN

sina (she/her) 

The driver behind us leaned on his horn. 'Can't he see', Evie said, 'that we're busy discussing the weather?'

If I had been kinder, I might have let her know that I didn't begrudge her that day in the corridor. People have done far worse things to survive being a teenager.

All of the nurses were tender, and sometimes, when they had left, I would cry in the clean, quiet room, the way that you cry when somebody is nice to you in the middle of a terrible day.

Charlote

*THE INSTANT TOP TEN SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER* THE BOOK THAT WILL DEFINE A DECADE 'Sensational. Gripping, haunting, and beautifully written' RICHARD OSMAN

kayla 

Now don’t get me wrong, the premise was amazing and I thought it could be really really interesting, however as the thriller this book is marketed as, it didn’t hit home.

The story was sad, disturbing, and there were parts that really hit me in my heart. But there were also parts that didn’t matter, and the formatting made this book difficult to get into. So difficult in-fact, i read two chapters and then had to force myself to finish it 3 days later. The switching of timelines and POVS constantly with no indication before hand threw me off, and was very confusing. I also constantly found myself lost and not understanding what was happening and why. (not really spoilers ahead) but the entire time with Noah and Daniel made me extremely confused and lost, and even if that was the author’s intention it did the book a disservice. 

I appreciated how the characters were set up, not only in the past but in the present, and all of the kids really showed how what had happened affected them in different and interesting reads, but they didn’t compel me to keep reading. I only finished this book for Evie, I wasn’t really drawn to anyone but her. 

In short, it was a decent read, but i’m glad I checked it out of the library and didn’t purchase it for myself. 

Marleigh Toenyes

This book was… good.

Now don’t get me wrong, the premise was amazing and I thought it could be really really interesting, however as the thriller this book is marketed as, it didn’t hit home.

The story was sad, disturbing, and there were parts that really hit me in my heart. But there were also parts that didn’t matter, and the formatting made this book difficult to get into. So difficult in-fact, i read two chapters and then had to force myself to finish it 3 days later. The switching of timelines and POVS constantly with no indication before hand threw me off, and was very confusing. I also constantly found myself lost and not understanding what was happening and why. (not really spoilers ahead) but the entire time with Noah and Daniel made me extremely confused and lost, and even if that was the author’s intention it did the book a disservice. 

I appreciated how the characters were set up, not only in the past but in the present, and all of the kids really showed how what had happened affected them in different and interesting reads, but they didn’t compel me to keep reading. I only finished this book for Evie, I wasn’t really drawn to anyone but her. 

In short, it was a decent read, but i’m glad I checked it out of the library and didn’t purchase it for myself. 

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A stunning debut.” —Washington Post “Haunting [and] powerful.” —The New York Times “A modern-day classic.” —Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Collector “Fantastic, I loved it.” —Paula Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train She thought she had escaped her past. But there are some things you can’t outrun. Lex Gracie doesn't want to think about her family. She doesn't want to think about growing up in her parents' House of Horrors. And she doesn't want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It's been easy enough to avoid her parents--her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can't run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the home into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings--and with the childhood they shared. What begins as a propulsive tale of escape and survival becomes a gripping psychological family story about the shifting alliances and betrayals of sibling relationships--about the secrets our siblings keep, from themselves and each other. Who have each of these siblings become? How do their memories defy or galvanize Lex's own? As Lex pins each sibling down to agree to her family's final act, she discovers how potent the spell of their shared family mythology is, and who among them remains in its thrall and who has truly broken free. For readers of Room and Sharp Objects, an absorbing and psychologically immersive novel about a young girl who escapes captivity–but not the secrets that shadow the rest of her life.

Alexa M

"'How do you feel about [God]?' She asked.
'It wasn't exactly his fault,' I said. 'Was it?' 
'That might depend whom you ask.'
'No. It wouldn't.'"

okay wow. i randomly picked this up at Barnes & Noble last week and am obsessed. i LOVED the way this story was told. i've seen many complaints about the almost constant jumping of timelines but i thought that made the book only that much more engaging. each time i picked this up, i had to force myself to put it down. such an interesting and complex family !! while i was obviously enthralled by the past timeline, the present timeline was very interesting to me as well. i really liked Lex and how strong she was. one of my favorite parts about her was the way she despised both of her parents. i feel like some novels of this same vein tend to skew in the other direction, and whilst i can definitely understand that, i sooo appreciated this take on it. i wish this was longer... i could read so much more about the early timeline in the House of Horrors, i feel like so much went unsaid!! overall, amazing and would definitely recommend.

"Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped. When her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her six siblings - and with the childhood they shared."--Publisher.

Shawna Delellis

I gave this book 5 stars because I’ve never read anything like it. A heart wrenching story about trauma

Kristen Claiborn

I gleefully joined Book of the Month and received my first box in February of 2021. I opted to add this debut novel to my box because the description was pretty interesting; it was reminiscent of a recent news story of a group of siblings that was rescued because one of the daughters got away. This was a similar story. 
 I base my rating of a book on the feels. I read a lot of books that make little to no difference of my "feels" meter. This one gave me many feels. I was angry at so many of the characters. The parents! Other family members who made no effort to dig a little deeper. Teachers who had to have noticed strangeness. Even some of the siblings made me angry. I was so sad for those kids. I was elated when the kids were "saved", then disappointed to discover not all of them made it into better situations. There was so much to this book. I'm so happy I was able to get it

Cheri McElroy

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lex Gracie is a fighter. She escaped from her family’s House of Horrors and helped save her siblings from horrific abuse.

Pros:
 Well-written
 Telling the story from one sibling’s perspective, so we really know her
 Insight into trauma
 Not overly and gratuitously graphic 

Cons:
 Billed as a thriller, when it is literary fiction 
 Ambiguous ending (although I kind of like those)

I really enjoyed reading this book.

Turtle lover

** spoiler alert **
           everything is so sad and tragic and all the things they had experience. what a twist. I had been bored a lot of times since i did not know where the story was going or what the story wants to reveal but then after reading and seeing all what people think and going back, this is a great book. a very disturbing story. they all deserve to be happy and not experience those things. I hope ethan goes to jail. he carried that abuse and became that monster, which maybe he really was.

Celeste Richardson

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I was fascinated by the synopsis of this book when its release was first announced last year. By the time I actually received my copy, I had forgotten everything but the broadest of outlines and the fact that I really wanted to read it. I should have refreshed my memory because man, is this book dark. I wasn’t ready for it.

Girl A is the story of Lex, one of the surviving children from a house of horrors where she was imprisoned and tortured alongside her siblings by their parents. Lex is the girl who escaped, who ensured the release of her siblings. The narrative opens with Lex going to her mother’s prison for the first time, after said mother has died and left Lex as the executor of her estate. We follow Lex as she reconnects with her siblings and confronts parts of her past that still haunt her every day. She gives us their stories in bits and pieces over the course of the novel, and each new revelation is more devastating than the first. 

This novel is very much about the long-enduring effects of childhood trauma. Is it something you can ever truly, totally overcome? I think that our scars contribute hugely to shaping who we are, but wounds have to heal in order to become scars. What if the wounds from our past never close? What if they’re constantly being picked at, or become horribly infected but are never treated for it? Does your life become consumed by the wound, or do you try to live life as if you aren’t bleeding out in every moment? We see a varied array or responses to these questions over the course of the novel, but I found there to be very little hope. Perhaps I’m naive, considering the subject matter of this book, but I was desperately seeking hope somewhere in the story. There was a hint on the very last page, but it felt too late to make a difference in the narrative, and could even be interpreted as something less than hopeful depending on how you read it.

Girl A was incredibly well written, and I found it to be a very impressive debut novel. Just go into it with open eyes and guarded heart.

Gem Koeman

** spoiler alert **
           This book came out at a 3.5 star for me.

The subject matter in the book is quite daunting and as someone with a semi-similar background it wasn't the easiest read. I did feel that I connected with the main character in ways which is what kept me reading. 

I have one major issue with the book and it's simply the layout, I'm not sure if this is only in the Kindle edition but I found it terribly difficult to fall into the book because of the time jumps. One moment our MC is in the office speaking to her boss, next thing she's at home as a child in conversation with a teacher. This happened all the way through the book and it just didn't gel with me. 

I wonder if the author wrote this way on purpose to give the reader an inkling that the MC was having PTSD flashbacks, in which case I think it was quite an accurate portrayal in that it just seemed to fall in line with the last paragraph and not be a big deal in the MC's current life. Regardless, I took some points away from this because it did impact my overall enjoyment of the book.

Shirley Jones 

A brilliant book, very well written, really sad that this is still happening in our society but really glad they were convicted.

Maria Davis 

okay and interesting. Good range of characters and settings. Didn’t feel like there was a solid plot. Lots of context and characters introduced well but was no real point to the book. Twist at the end did help the rating slightly, but wouldn’t be worth reading again

Nadine 

Lauren Attaway

The first time I tried to read this I put it down and the second time I couldn’t put this book down. So dark, gripping and reminded me of all the things I enjoy about Gillian Flynn books.

Whitney Leno

This was my BOTM club pick and I'm very exited to have gotten. I have already passed it along to someone else. Fair warning there are some descriptions of abuse that could be hard for people to read. I very much enjoyed the writing style. I also liked how the author created the stories and histories of the siblings. I also loved the heartbreaking reveal at the end. Highly recommend.

Luna

** spoiler alert **
           am i supposed to believe that victims of abuse just decided to reward their abuser in the end and let him hurt more people ,,, wtf. the last 50 pages seriously ended what could’ve actually been good and meaningful but no we had to destroy the entire story AND let an abuser get married AND celebrate it ???? how 

also i hated the writing and how SA was “handled”
also also this has major incest vibes but i don’t think (??? see the last 50 changes could have changed that but idk what’s real anymore) it has any

gareth  

I normally read Sci fi or sword and sorcery, this was on the till at Waterstones and I impulse bought it.

This was easy to read although I bawled my eyes out at a couple of points.

I finished it in one sitting. It was compelling, traumatic and human.

Waiting with baited breath for Abigail Dean's next book.


Amanda J 

Enjoy is a hard word to use with this book. The life-situation of these children are horrific and you know that atrocities such as the one in this book happen in real life. 
That said I found the story captivating. Dean writes with such authenticity you forget its fiction. There is really no overarching plot of the book. The book is told in dual timelines through a series of vignettes. It took a while to get used to the style but after 50pgs or so, it was no trouble. I guessed the "twist" fairly early on, but it was nice for the confirmation. 
The only thing to me is that the last few chapters lose steam. Its almost that after the twist the story was an addendum.

Adrianna Giunta

I was really excited to read this but it turned out to be a major disappointment. The time jumps were confusing, especially the later ones. This is marketed as a thriller but honestly it's not. The concept had potential but the execution was not for me. I didn't connect to any of the characters, all of the present day sequences were so boring and filled with unnecessary information. I really wanted to like this but I just didn't.

Lewis John Fisher

A great exploration of how inter-generational trauma shapes and continues to shapes people, even many years after.

Emily C Peterson

Casie Blevins

This book was hard to follow. So hard to follow that I DNF'ed it at pg 71. The choice of words was odd, more than this being from an English author. Ex: Sweat shifted? What? And the back and forth through time was jarring and not at all artfully done. 
Also, some stupid booktuber ruined the ending for me. 
So, on to the next one for me.

Devin Mainville

Girl A is billed as a suspense novel, but there’s not much suspenseful about it. That said, I still devoured it as if it were the most suspenseful suspense novel I’ve ever read.

More of a dark family drama, the titular Girl A is Lex Gracie who escaped from an incredibly abusive home, saving herself and her siblings from more unspeakable horrors. The book catches up with Lex 15 years later, after her mother has died in prison and she is tasked with executing her will. As Lex meets up with her far-flung siblings for them to sign off on turning their House of Horrors into a community center, we get a glimpse into what happened in that house and how they’ve all coped.

This is a stunning debut novel. I loved the writing style and the way the author used non-linear storytelling to dole out bits of narrative as she saw fit. I easily saw where it was going, but, like I said, it’s not really a suspense novel. I wasn’t in it to be surprised or to solve a mystery. I was fully invested in each character and in the story.

My one nitpick, and the only reason it’s not a full five star read, is that the vagueness of some aspects left me wanting a little more.

Girl A A Novel

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