You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was incredible. Poignant, terribly sad, strangely hopeful, beautiful, shocking. Everything I want in a novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug abuse, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Some great potential here but it fails to stick the landing. The individual children could have had stronger, more distinct personalities and the 'twist' was definitely something I'd already considered as a possibility.
Chilling. Well written characters. Difficult to get through at times, but a very compelling read!
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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:
Yes
Abigail Dean has effectuated that rare achievement of writing a debut novel as powerful and essential as Harper Lee did with “To Kill a Mockingbird”. There has been lots of hype and positive early reviews of “Girl A” and I can safely say that it lives up to all expectations. Deeply unsettling, but beautifully written, everyone will be talking about this novel in 2021.
In a house on the edge of the moors, the Gracie children are subject to neglect and abuse at the hands of their extremely religious parents. When Lex manages to escape, the children are saved. Known as Girl A, Lex and the Gracie children’s story becomes infamous. After their mother dies in prison, Lex is forced to face her past as executor of her mother’s will. Through this process she will come to grips with her haunted past, reconnect with her siblings and face the future in a new light...
I had read so many positive reviews and author quotes about “Girl A” that I had really high expectations for Dean’s debut. With these high expectations, I also had a fear that it wouldn’t live up to them. I had no reason to worry at all, because this novel will define 2021 and many years to come. It is haunting, painful, shocking and nail-bitingly gripping. However, it is also beautiful, poetic, cathartic and affecting. Dean has managed to take a dark, unsettling and emotionally raw subject and create a novel that feels in part suspenseful thriller and in other ways a very human and moving drama about overcoming tragedy. I found the blend between present day events and the past horrors the Gracie children faced to be executed perfectly. Dean’s writing style is both poetic and shockingly punchy. There is clout in what she writes and she unfolds her narrative with a precision and skill that makes it seem like this is her tenth or twentieth book, rather than her debut. I particularly enjoyed the style of the novel, where each chapter is entitled after one of the Gracie siblings. The chapters are relatively long and I am normally a reader who enjoys short, snappy chapters that end with a cliffhanger, but this style really works here. Each chapter is written from Lex (Girl A’s) perspective, but they primarily focus on her present day interaction with and memories of the brother or sister that it is titled after. I found that this really helped to not only delve into the complexities of the past and the horrors each child suffered collectively and singularly, but also how life had unfolded after surviving such tragedy. There is a very authentic feel to the post-abuse years of each if the Gracie children - there is a mixture of pain, success, suffering, love and abuse of another kind. What is clear is that moving on from their past isn’t easy, but each sibling has tried to in their own way. As such, there is a blend of tragedy and empowerment in their adult lives, which makes this such an emotional and affecting read. I also found that the longer chapters helped to build slow-burning tension in a way that created genuine gasp out loud moments. The big twist in the narrative hit me like a sucker-punch and I never saw it coming. I have never been moved to tears by a book before and I am not ashamed to say as a fully-grown, 33 year old man, that as the revelations of this story’s crescendo came to light, I cried (and not just a little bit!). I cannot stress enough how powerful, shocking and immensely moving this novel and Dean’s storytelling is.
There are a number of other aspects that also made “Girl A” such an excellent read. One that I particularly loved was the almost otherworldly sense of place that Dean created around the town of Hollowfield and the house at 11 Moor Woods Road. In the historical scenes it is described by the media as a house of horrors and the degradation, rot and suffering are almost tangible whilst reading. In the present day scenes, the house retains an almost omnipresent, ghostly presence in all of the siblings’ lives. It is a place of pain and memories that are wished to be forgotten, but for Lex her and her siblings’ inheritance of the bricks and mortar of their abuse is an opportunity to turn a broken and tortured past into a positive and supportive future for others. As the narrative progresses the house moves from the shadows of its former horrors and into the light of a future worth remembering. In a way, this reflects Lex’s own journey throughout the narrative, where by confronting and facing up to the full extent of her past she is finally able to transcend the shackles of it and move to a future that won’t be defined by it.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what makes “Girl A” a must-read. I genuinely believe that everyone will be talking about this novel for many years to come. If there is one book you read in 2021, make sure it is Abigail Dean’s exceptional debut. I can’t wait to read her next novel already!
In a house on the edge of the moors, the Gracie children are subject to neglect and abuse at the hands of their extremely religious parents. When Lex manages to escape, the children are saved. Known as Girl A, Lex and the Gracie children’s story becomes infamous. After their mother dies in prison, Lex is forced to face her past as executor of her mother’s will. Through this process she will come to grips with her haunted past, reconnect with her siblings and face the future in a new light...
I had read so many positive reviews and author quotes about “Girl A” that I had really high expectations for Dean’s debut. With these high expectations, I also had a fear that it wouldn’t live up to them. I had no reason to worry at all, because this novel will define 2021 and many years to come. It is haunting, painful, shocking and nail-bitingly gripping. However, it is also beautiful, poetic, cathartic and affecting. Dean has managed to take a dark, unsettling and emotionally raw subject and create a novel that feels in part suspenseful thriller and in other ways a very human and moving drama about overcoming tragedy. I found the blend between present day events and the past horrors the Gracie children faced to be executed perfectly. Dean’s writing style is both poetic and shockingly punchy. There is clout in what she writes and she unfolds her narrative with a precision and skill that makes it seem like this is her tenth or twentieth book, rather than her debut. I particularly enjoyed the style of the novel, where each chapter is entitled after one of the Gracie siblings. The chapters are relatively long and I am normally a reader who enjoys short, snappy chapters that end with a cliffhanger, but this style really works here. Each chapter is written from Lex (Girl A’s) perspective, but they primarily focus on her present day interaction with and memories of the brother or sister that it is titled after. I found that this really helped to not only delve into the complexities of the past and the horrors each child suffered collectively and singularly, but also how life had unfolded after surviving such tragedy. There is a very authentic feel to the post-abuse years of each if the Gracie children - there is a mixture of pain, success, suffering, love and abuse of another kind. What is clear is that moving on from their past isn’t easy, but each sibling has tried to in their own way. As such, there is a blend of tragedy and empowerment in their adult lives, which makes this such an emotional and affecting read. I also found that the longer chapters helped to build slow-burning tension in a way that created genuine gasp out loud moments. The big twist in the narrative hit me like a sucker-punch and I never saw it coming. I have never been moved to tears by a book before and I am not ashamed to say as a fully-grown, 33 year old man, that as the revelations of this story’s crescendo came to light, I cried (and not just a little bit!). I cannot stress enough how powerful, shocking and immensely moving this novel and Dean’s storytelling is.
There are a number of other aspects that also made “Girl A” such an excellent read. One that I particularly loved was the almost otherworldly sense of place that Dean created around the town of Hollowfield and the house at 11 Moor Woods Road. In the historical scenes it is described by the media as a house of horrors and the degradation, rot and suffering are almost tangible whilst reading. In the present day scenes, the house retains an almost omnipresent, ghostly presence in all of the siblings’ lives. It is a place of pain and memories that are wished to be forgotten, but for Lex her and her siblings’ inheritance of the bricks and mortar of their abuse is an opportunity to turn a broken and tortured past into a positive and supportive future for others. As the narrative progresses the house moves from the shadows of its former horrors and into the light of a future worth remembering. In a way, this reflects Lex’s own journey throughout the narrative, where by confronting and facing up to the full extent of her past she is finally able to transcend the shackles of it and move to a future that won’t be defined by it.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what makes “Girl A” a must-read. I genuinely believe that everyone will be talking about this novel for many years to come. If there is one book you read in 2021, make sure it is Abigail Dean’s exceptional debut. I can’t wait to read her next novel already!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! In my opinion, if you are looking for a gripping thriller with twists and turns, this is probably not a book you will enjoy. To me, this was a slow-burning psychological thriller. It goes through the horrendous, traumatic, abuse Girl A (Lex) and her siblings went through with Mother and Father. Lex has to visit each sibling to get documents signed for their parents' estate, the house where the abuse took place. Throughout the story, there are many flashbacks to when they were kids and the trauma they experienced. The writing was interesting and the timelines jumped A LOT with no dates or anything. I was worried I would get confused and not be able to keep up, but to my surprise I followed along just fine! This book didn't seem to get as many high reviews as I thought it would and it seems quite a few people have even DNF'd it. That being said, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but it was 4/4.5 stars for me!
This book surprised me with narrating more of redemption and a story of healing rather than a thriller like I had expected. I also am usually not one to enjoy timeline jumps but this one kept me on my toes. I would have liked to dive more into the psychology of “why” things happened the way they did in this plot, but overall it was a great read and extremely unique in its delivery.
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes