mikabirb 's review for:

Girl A by Abigail Dean

1.0

challenging dark reflective sad 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

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I honestly have to say this is probably one of the worst books I've ever read.

• First issue is that this isn't a thriller. It's a character study of survivors of childhood abuse. The entire book is mislabelled and you won't get what you're expecting if you want a thriller.
• Secondly, this is so boring. The scenes from the present feel so irrelevant. I had to read about some chromosome testing business for way too long and it wasn't relevant to the story at all. But even so many of the scenes between the siblings in the present and even of the trauma story are so boring. There's no coherent plot linking these scenes. It's like a weird biography of a fictional character. The thing most like a plot is Lex trying to get her siblings to sign the contract to transform the house and that is such a boring plotline.
• Thirdly, this reads as if a true crime fangirl heard about the Turpin case and thought "hey, this is a cashcow I can milk to finally publish the book I always wanted". I find most of this books very distasteful to actual trauma survivors and many of the past scenes about the abuse and trauma the kids suffered seems a lot like trauma porn. It's very voyeuristic and as if Dean tried to come up with the worst things imaginable just so readers could go "oh no, this is so horrible" and then breathe a sigh of relief that their lives are different and can pat themselves on the back for that and then read on with a salacious appetite for more true crime horror. Maybe I sound bitter but I think there's stories that an only-child who didn't go through anything akin to this can't write in a respectful manner
• Also the entire Lex and Evie thing is so unrealistic.
  You're really telling me that Dr K released Lex from therapy and acted as if she was healed when she knew Lex was convinced Evie was alive? Also I'm supposed to believe that Lex hallucinated Evie for 15 years or so and despite having extensive therapy and people telling her constantly that Evie is dead that stuck? That's not how trauma and repressed memories work, especially not in the context of therapy like that. Also why is Lex treated as if she has no free will or choice in whether she wants to do more therapy with Dr K in the end as if she isn't a grown adult? That was weird as hell.
  Also this twist came out of nowhere with zero foreshadowing and that is just bad writing, imo.
• Also somehow everyone is glorifying Lex as if she's the most special ever because she was the one to escape and get help as if that makes her somehow more predestined to heal and everyone else was a bad survivor and it was a) again very disrespectful and b) got old very fast
• The whole religion bit was so drastically underdeveloped that as a survivor of that kind of religious trauma it made me want to rip my hairs out. It seemed shoehorned in because of course this fictional case needed the parents to be religious nutjobs but the author had no idea how these groups actually operate, so it all stays surface level and that leads to more boring scenes and also inconsistencies like to what degree the kids actually believed and the author creating the impression that all the "smart" Gracie kids disbelieved from an early age and just went along with it because of their abusive father. Which isn't how this kind of situation works when you grow up in a restrictive religious environment like that.
• What I'll give the book is that the roles of the mother and father seemed pretty realistic as did some of the sibling dynamics. But again, most of this seemed either underdeveloped or very cliche and making Lex seem like the "good survivor" and it all left a sour taste in my mouth

Overall, my recommendation is: don't waste time on this book and try to get through it like I did. It's just going to make you irrationally mad.