Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

Girl A by Abigail Dean

60 reviews

stuck_in_a_leabhar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

📖⭐️    BOOK REVIEW    ⭐️📖

Book: Girl A

Author: Abigail Dean

Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Child Death, Physical, Emotional and Domestic Abuse, Confinement, Torture

After reading Girl A I found it hard to rate it! I was leaning more towards the four stars mark at first because the book definitely had me wanting to keep turning pages but the more thought I put into it, the more I leaned towards 3.5 stars.  I wanted a lot more and thought we were left with too many loose ends that weren’t tied up at the end. 

This is a difficult story about a terrible family tragedy but to me it was too jumpy and too randomly depicted that I found myself losing that pace and interest that I had developed in the beginning. The story is told from the perspective of Girl A, Alexandra Gracie, and follows the now grown-up Gracie siblings as they try to get through adulthood after a childhood filled with absolute horror and abuse.

The book definitely had a lot of potential as I thought the story was extremely interesting but unfortunately it fell short as I thought it was just too jumpy and the chapters were way too long which didn’t help keeping you sucked in! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

taliatalksbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

 Girl A by Abigail Dean was good, but I wish it focused more on the actual events than the legal aftermath. I am absolutely fascinated by cult behavior, and found the aspects of this novel that explained her parents unraveling into religious cult mentality fascinating. I think this novel fell short, however, since the scenes where she is interacting with her siblings as an adult are drawn out and overflowing with what feels like filler information. I think the transitions are a bit hard to follow, but overall I did enjoy the story and the information it pulls from the Turpin family case brings this work of fiction so much closer to reality. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child death, Torture, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Death, and Domestic abuse

carobllt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Kidnapping, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, and Child abuse

katywhyte's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

the_escapist's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, Drug use, Physical abuse, Vomit, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

helloits_sam's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual content

ktakeeley's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Confinement

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Physical abuse

Minor: Death and Suicide

goatsrsexy's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a very heavy book. I read a lot of stories about trauma that don't really bother me on an emotional level, but this one definitely got me more than others, so I would read with caution. It was well written and interesting, but I found myself wanting a bit more from it than what I got.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Child death

cchedest's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A heavy and emotional non-linear story about dark and twisted child abuse/extreme neglect motivated by religion and untreated mental health issues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

annabulkowski's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Miscarriage, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Vomit, Child death, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Stalking, and Sexual violence