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accordingtoemma 's review for:
Girl A
by Abigail Dean
This is a fictionalized retelling of the Turpin Family's House Of Horrors that made headlines a few years ago. There are many blatant and shocking details that are exactly the same in this work and in the information uncovered by police and investigators when it happened in real life.
Girl A, Alexandra, was the one who escaped her chains and lead the authorities to her other bound, filthy, starved, malnourished, and broken brothers and sisters. As she and her siblings are recovered and adopted out separately, this novel focuses on the psychological damage that heavy abuse leaves on an individual and how to cope with it even as an adult. There is family disconnect and drama, but not much insight into the house itself or what happened in it.
I was extremely disappointed in this book! As a true crime lover, I was excited to delve into the mind of a man who can so easily hurt his family with no remorse. Morbid? Absolutely. Interesting? Absolutely! Unfortunately, our unreliable narrator didn't provide any insight or detailing into what went on with her father, the relationship between her parents, and how her siblings dealt with the abuse they were also victims of. I would have really loved to see more of the dynamics between the mother and father. There was obvious abuse going on there, but I found the mother's character to be so incredibly interesting. I couldn't help but feel the author's missed opportunity to have more POVs and add so much more meat to the story. There was so much written about Alexandra's boring travels and boring work, and not enough written about what she went through. The only likeable characters featured here were the people who adopted Girl A. AND MOST OF ALL, the crazy alternating time periods in every other paragraph! It was difficult to understanding where and when we were in the narrative, all the time. I can appreciate the author's artistic choice here in hoping to further drive home the mental headspace abuse can put it's victims in, but it did not work for me. Again, I think hearing from different POVs would have made this so much more enjoyable for me as well. There are many closed doors that we never get to see behind, and it was frustrating.
Overall, I think the subject matter was interesting. I like the details we did get from the time spent in the house. I think the author just really missed the mark in certain places, and took too much time to write about things I didn't care about.
Girl A, Alexandra, was the one who escaped her chains and lead the authorities to her other bound, filthy, starved, malnourished, and broken brothers and sisters. As she and her siblings are recovered and adopted out separately, this novel focuses on the psychological damage that heavy abuse leaves on an individual and how to cope with it even as an adult. There is family disconnect and drama, but not much insight into the house itself or what happened in it.
I was extremely disappointed in this book! As a true crime lover, I was excited to delve into the mind of a man who can so easily hurt his family with no remorse. Morbid? Absolutely. Interesting? Absolutely! Unfortunately, our unreliable narrator didn't provide any insight or detailing into what went on with her father, the relationship between her parents, and how her siblings dealt with the abuse they were also victims of. I would have really loved to see more of the dynamics between the mother and father. There was obvious abuse going on there, but I found the mother's character to be so incredibly interesting. I couldn't help but feel the author's missed opportunity to have more POVs and add so much more meat to the story. There was so much written about Alexandra's boring travels and boring work, and not enough written about what she went through. The only likeable characters featured here were the people who adopted Girl A. AND MOST OF ALL, the crazy alternating time periods in every other paragraph! It was difficult to understanding where and when we were in the narrative, all the time. I can appreciate the author's artistic choice here in hoping to further drive home the mental headspace abuse can put it's victims in, but it did not work for me. Again, I think hearing from different POVs would have made this so much more enjoyable for me as well. There are many closed doors that we never get to see behind, and it was frustrating.
Overall, I think the subject matter was interesting. I like the details we did get from the time spent in the house. I think the author just really missed the mark in certain places, and took too much time to write about things I didn't care about.