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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
2.5* Intriguing but meandering. Plot wise - Left me feeling unfulfilled - no real conclusions or actual ending. Point was that it is unfinished (because her journey always will be) but thatâs not very satisfying as a reader. Didnât feel like justice was served in any sense with Ethan. Didnât understand the impact of the community centre on her. Was well-written though - great character development and realistic relationships, and kept me reading.
Girl A is blander than toast without butter, made from the driest bread that just kind of sits in your mouth in an unwavering, sad paste, impossible to swallow. The blurb sounds interesting enough, a girl revisiting her childhood, where she and her siblings were subjected to torture from her parents, after the death of her mother. That’s not really the story we are given though, any mentions of their time in the house are brief, and honestly anything described of the past doesn’t seem all that harrowing (with the exception of one scene in the beginning). I’m not saying I wanted the book filled with child torture, but I wanted some understanding as to why the kids were so traumatized from their experiences, without any semblance of details, it makes the whole story melodramatic and pointless.
And then there is the narrative, which is completely jumbled between so many timelines that I couldn’t even begin to remember even half of them. The book would have benefited so much from a Now/Then plot device, but instead is a mixed bag where you have no idea where in the timeline you are, with many characters barely introduced and seemingly no importance to the overarching storyline. It’s a complete mess.
I’ve read other books with similar issues, but the writing itself can keep me interested, but the writing itself (while not overtly bad) is just as bland as the story winds up being. It’s just a whole jumbled pot of meh soup. I hate to admit, but I stopped reading halfway though and then kind of skimmed the last chapter to see if it picked up. (It didn’t).
And then there is the narrative, which is completely jumbled between so many timelines that I couldn’t even begin to remember even half of them. The book would have benefited so much from a Now/Then plot device, but instead is a mixed bag where you have no idea where in the timeline you are, with many characters barely introduced and seemingly no importance to the overarching storyline. It’s a complete mess.
I’ve read other books with similar issues, but the writing itself can keep me interested, but the writing itself (while not overtly bad) is just as bland as the story winds up being. It’s just a whole jumbled pot of meh soup. I hate to admit, but I stopped reading halfway though and then kind of skimmed the last chapter to see if it picked up. (It didn’t).
dark
emotional
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's pretty ironic that Lex makes a point about wanting privacy when this is a very blatant theft of Jordan Turpin's story. I found the entire thing incredibly predictable and dull with entirely the wrong focus--by which I mean I actually would've enjoyed this if it were about healing, but it's not, it's about shock value and the shock is a mix of overdone misogyny (nooo a woman who feels broken because she's infertile, let's definitely not examine that, it's enough just to mention it), crudeness (omg it says "cunt" and she has a humiliation kink and, um, was that a passing reference to her fellating her brother?), and a literal retelling of the Turpin case.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse
Minor: Incest
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
I’m conflicted in my feelings about this book, and this review is a little difficult because I can’t tell if the story was genuinely underwhelming, or if I’m desensitized to dark content. Girl A follows Lex, the first of her family to escape the ‘house of horrors’, their family home that their parents had imprisoned them in. It jumps to adulthood, right after her mother died. She had been left the house and their parents' remaining money, and needed permission from all the children to turn it into a community center.
In order to do this, Lex travels around and reunites with her siblings. The story goes back and forth between their time in the house of horrors, and where they ended up. A vast majority of the backstory focuses on the time before it got bad, and how it was a gradual decline into, essentially, hell. There was a good plot twist, right at the end that redeemed this book for me, but I think I was expecting just a little more. I’m not sure what that says about me - whoops!
In order to do this, Lex travels around and reunites with her siblings. The story goes back and forth between their time in the house of horrors, and where they ended up. A vast majority of the backstory focuses on the time before it got bad, and how it was a gradual decline into, essentially, hell. There was a good plot twist, right at the end that redeemed this book for me, but I think I was expecting just a little more. I’m not sure what that says about me - whoops!
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I purchased this one on a whim and when I first started listening to it, I regretted it, because I thought it was run-of-the-mill horrific crime fiction about child molestation.
But as it turned out, it was much better than that. The subject matter is "the usual": terrible father terrorizes and tortures his large family for years and nobody "notices". But the story is about Girl A, the oldest girl, and we get to know her and her trauma throughout the book while also learning what happened to the other children. It is sad, but not gory and very well told.
Abigail Dean has a fine command of language and the narrator Holliday Grainger does a great job reading it.
But as it turned out, it was much better than that. The subject matter is "the usual": terrible father terrorizes and tortures his large family for years and nobody "notices". But the story is about Girl A, the oldest girl, and we get to know her and her trauma throughout the book while also learning what happened to the other children. It is sad, but not gory and very well told.
Abigail Dean has a fine command of language and the narrator Holliday Grainger does a great job reading it.
It feels weird to say I enjoyed a book like Girl A, but I did. It gave me just enough glimpses into a what happened to the Gracey children without going into too much detail.
This book is the last wave if slightly depressing titles that I've read over the last two months, I'll read a good romcom after this to lighten my holiday mood.
This book is the last wave if slightly depressing titles that I've read over the last two months, I'll read a good romcom after this to lighten my holiday mood.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I DNF at 54% and found it was preventing me from getting to my next book. It just didn’t pull me in, I felt disconnected when I read it. I wanted to like it but it just wasn’t for me.