This book was a hotly anticipated read. I have both a hard copy and ebook version(thanks Netgalley)

The book follows the main protagonist - Lex (Girl A) as she deals with the aftermath of living in the “house of horrors”.

I’ve seen lots of reviews commenting on the narrative and this being deemed hard to follow. I think this is the point of the book however. It is meant to be fragmented, much like the main character and her ability to recall certain aspects of what happened to her.

I would have liked to have read more about one of the siblings, and his story perhaps. However, I thought the levels of dysfunction dealt with in this book, particularly regarding the siblings and dynamics etc was very clever.

I really liked the premise of this book and flew threw it. I think it’s one I’ll revisit again later in the year and absorb more detail.

Overall a great book and Abigail Dean is an author to watch!

I have no idea how to begin to unpack how I feel about this book; so many different emotions and reactions. But wow, what an outstanding debut! It is brutal, heart breaking, so very, very dark but with an over-riding sense of survival, guts and strength. Characters I loved, many I hated but with a sense of understanding much to my annoyance at times that brought about so many conflicting feelings. I've trully loved every page of this. A wonderfully written book that I'll be questioning, thinking about and dissecting for a long, long time to come.

I'm not a huge thriller fan generally, but I really enjoyed this book. It hooked me in and I couldn't put it down.

Well written, but a bit of a disappointment in terms of what I was expecting: I was hoping for a thriller, something like Sharp Objects from Gillian Flynn (the comparison made by the publisher), but this was more of a dramatic family story with very little suspense. It was very captivating and had some interesting characters, but I was hoping for something a little more thrilling.

I absolutely loved this book, once I started i couldn't put it down, brilliantly written would recommend this author and book

This book has been incredibly hyped and I can see why. I really liked the writing style and the premise of this book however I just don't think I'm in the right mental headspace for this one.

Ive attempted to read this a few times but It is just a bit too heavy for me. Sorry!!! I may pick it up when I feel like I'm in a better headspace.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of the book!

Not at all for me unfortunately!! Very slow paced and just that bit too messed up for my liking. When I reached the hotel scene I knew this was just not my kind of book.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Girl A is a dark, harrowing story about Girl A who escaped from her parents house of horrors and her life then and now.
This story is not for the faint hearted and is heartbreaking and crawls under your skin. The abuse and neglect of these six children in their childhood is devestating and will haunt me. The book goes back and forth between the children's childhood and the present and each chapter is based on a different child's part of the story through Girl A's ( Lex )eyes.
After their mother dies in prison, Lex is made benefactor of her parents house of horrors and a sum of twenty thousand pounds. Lex decided to make something positive out of the House of horrors and turn it into something others will benefit from. Lex goes back and faces her demons but has to get all her other siblings to agree and sign off on this project first.
This book is a gripping psychological thriller which makes you question the human race and your faith in others.

What an intense and powerful read! First, it begins like a traditional family trauma - well, traditional if you spent your childhood in chains, completely cut cut off from the outside world.

But you soon get to know each sibling, although always through the eyes of the main character - Girl A, the one who escaped. You learn more about their dreams, their past, their personality and their deepest shames. You discover how they interact with one another - and why. You become one of them, for better or worse. And let's face it: it's often for worse.

Often, but not always. Because this novel is also a tale of survival, of redemption, maybe even of forgiveness - you'll have to read it to find out. It's a novel full of light, with hopes sometimes heavy to carry during the most miserable times but always here in some form or another.

It's a novel we all need to read even if we don't want to - especially if we don't want to. We owe it to the persons who are living it.

Similar to: We need to talk about Kevin.

Girl A is a very intense read. It's gritty and difficult, with a lot of sensitive subject matter yet somehow it manages to be rather entertaining. It might be because it's so compelling and mesmerising but whatever it is, this book has lived up to the hype.

A grim but compelling story of one person's descent into madness and the horrific consequences for everyone around them.
The narrative centres arounds a group of siblings who spent their formative years incarcerated in a deeply abusive household, and the different directions in which their adult lives develop. Despite the possibly triggering subject matter, the book is a sensitive and thoughtful one.
A rewarding and emotional read.

Girl A, the girl who escaped. This was a disturbing storyline but I was Intrigued to find out what happened to Lexie and her siblings and what happened to them after. it was hard to read details about the children’s lives and the ‘house of horrors’ and we learn through Lexie how it had affected each of them differently.

This was a very dark read with a thought provoking plot,. It was so well written that I was left feeling like this fictional story may really have been true.

A well written read book with an unexpected ending..

What an excellent debut. I was fascinated by the premise and loved getting to know the different children in the house - second-guessing where the plot was heading and enjoying the drip-drip of information. Lex was a great central character and her dispassionate account made her even more compelling. Loved it.

Really quite something! Compelling, horrific, but also refreshingly compassionate. And I did not see the heartbreaking twist at the end coming!

This book isn't badly written, but it was just too sad and hard to read for me. Also a bit overly long and didn't really hold my attention.

Perfect for fans of True Crime looking to make their fictional jump.

Lex leaps off the page to tell us the story of her morbid, traumatic past with just enough delicate details of unflinching trauma.

A recommendation for sure.

Girl A is as shocking as it is heart-breaking. The story of seven siblings who have gone through various horrors at the hands of their parents, must come together again after their mother's death.

From the outset this book was thrilling, it was fast-paced and gripping. You were drawn to Lex in both the past and present, from the horrors of her past to the scars they've left in the present. As we slowly uncover the truth of the past, and who her siblings are in the present, as a reader there was such a mix of emotions. Immediately you know something it off about Ethan - he is obviously an arse, but Delilah and Gabe brought me sorrow, for how they've come through the trauma.

I did find that in the second half I wanted a little more development of Daniel, and more detail on the binding and chained years as this seemed to rush it's way to the end. The 'twist' was also a little too obvious early on. It didn't detract from the story, but I would have loved to delve further into the characters in the last half of the novel, there was more room for growth here.

Overall I feel it certainly deserves to be one of the books of the year. It offers multiple emotions and layers, but I did have to drop a star for that second half.

My thanks to the Author publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
I found this book slightly disappointing and it's not the Author's fault, but thanks to all the hype surrounding this book, whereby I was expecting a book right up there with some of the best I have ever read, and it wasn't, don't get me wrong I had no problem finishing the book. It was a clever well written character driven story and the Girl A of the title was brilliant. The difficult subject matter was subtly left to the reader's imagination and therefore not as graphic as I feared. Dark but at times funny with a surprising twist, but a thriller i am not really sure about that.
Slightly disappointed.

I wasn’t really sure about this book going in, and it did take me a while to get into it but it was well worth persevering with. It deals with a subject matter that is pretty dark and echoes both real life and fictitious stories of incarceration and abuse. The story does go back and forth between the childhood of ‘Girl A’ and her efforts to deal with the legacy of the ‘House of Horrors’ from her childhood. It shows the slow descent into madness of Girl A’s father and the awful consequences it has on his family. I think the story works so well because of the way the reader is slowly exposed to the horrors of Lexie’s upbringing and her feelings growing up in this toxic family environment. I am not sure about how other people felt but the ‘reveal’ near the end of the book felt like a punch in the gut but made perfect sense when looking back at how the children were talked about in the novel.
I enjoyed reading this tough psychological poignant survival story.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I think I’m in the minority here when I say that I wasn’t a big fan of this book. It was so hyped up as being amazing, and I just found it really disappointing. I thought the writing was excellent, but I found the story lacking. In fact there wasn’t really much story at all. It felt more of a character study than the crime thriller it was labelled as and I just didn’t enjoy it.