This book is a difficult read, in terms of subject. The storyline revolves around child abuses that happens in the house of horrors. There are 7 siblings in the story named after alphabets, with 7 chapters and everyone talks about being a victim of being treated worse by their parents. The book itself is very well written.

Didn’t finish. Will pick it up at a later date and maybe I’ll like it a little bit better. Don’t think I was in the right mindset for it.

Such a brilliant debut! I read all about this one online for the last year. It is such a brilliant and complex book with excellent characters and told from a really interesting perspective. I absolutely loved it

My first audiobook so maybe affected my overall enjoyment but it was an ok book.

It started well, it was interesting how the author slowly unraveled what happened to the children and the back story with the parents.

It just felt too slow going for me and lacked anything that really hooked me in to wanting to read more.

Added to which, despite the horrors they went through, I found it hard to like any of the characters.

Aside from the book review, I didn’t like the voice of the person reading the audio book.

I really enjoyed this one. Definitely recommend the audiobook it added a whole new atmosphere to the whole experience!

The will of body and soul to survive. But does the soul ever recover?

“You don’t know me but you’ll have seen my face” are the opening words said by Lex, known as Girl A of this extraordinary story of the children who escape from the house of horrors where their paranoid, God-fearing father had steadily over the years deprived them of all their human rights, first removing them from school, then only supplying the minimum food, clothing, hygiene and finally, chaining them to their beds. Lex, Girl A managed to escape from the bonds and find help.

Her father killed himself before he could face justice, her mother equally compliant in their torture, is jailed. We start to discover what happened to each of the seven children through Lex’s narrative. Like any story, the storyline needs to jump from the present, and then back to the past as Lex explains how she and her siblings try to heal, live “normal” lives and decide what to do with the house left to them following their mother’s death in prison.

I know that there have been newspaper stories of similar events suffered by children. I’ve read them and thought, “shocking. How could the parents behave like this?” but Abigail Dean and with huge
thanks to the brilliant narration by Holiday Granger the true horror and after-affects that children suffer in these cases has been captured. The ending left me in tears and wondering whether people who suffer this type of abuse ever really recover, regardless of how well they do in life.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the audible book to review.

I have still given this a good star rating as it was written well, but this book just wasn’t for me.

A harrowing story of a delicate subjext but keeps you listening. Very well narrated. A must listen to!

Wow! This book addresses many difficult topics that some readers might find upsetting. The narrator's tone is quite neutral throughout, which might help settle any nerves about this as a read, but by the end as you get to know the protagonist, you realise that the narration is perfectly pitched to deliver this harrowing tale.

The story switches from present day to reveal the terrible events in the life of Girl A. I haven't seen a printed version to see how it is laid out or the time switches are made apparent but as an audio book I did find myself getting a little lost at times and having to 'rewind'. I would have appreciated some sort of signpost to help with this: it didn't feel like Lexi fell into reminiscing about her past (thereby needing no explanation) but the narrative seemed to deliberately switch to reveal more events from the past. It perhaps works better as a printed book than an audio version. Having said that I did enjoy the story and it did take my breath away at times as revelations were made.

So many sad stories and events in this book. Readers should be aware that the parents are incredibly cruel to their children in this book which results in child death (filicide?). self-harm, addiction, suicide attempts.

This was a really good and very dark story. At times I was confused but I know this was crafted on purpose by the author so that you knew something did add up. Can not reveal more...
A story of absolute horror but also of love and the power it has.

Devastatingly good. Dark and painful and twisting. And the writing- God, I don’t think I’ve read a book as horrifying as Girl A that uses such beautiful prose . I can’t wait to see what Abigail Dean writes next. Read it.

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Abigail Dean for my advanced listening copy of Girl A. I listened to this book as an audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Out now

Girl A is an exceptional book and I have to say that the narrator of the audiobook was an exception narrator who pinned down the main character perfectly. Lex is a successful lawyer in New York living life as she's always wanted, rich, beautiful and successful. Then she gets a phone call telling her that her mother has died and she has to return to England.
Lex as it turns out hasn't always had such a bright and beautiful life. She is better known to the public as Girl A. Lex and her siblings were rescued as children from their overly religious parents who had left them in terrible conditions, abused them and neglected them. Though Lex got a second chance at life, she can never outrun the past.

This was a fascinating story from start to finish, told in the first person from Lex's point of view there were so many twists and turns and secrets and lies it made for an interesting if heartbreaking tale. Though the pace is not particularly fast the writing follows so beautifully and is so complimented by the narrator that you can't help but continue listening until the very end.

I don’t get the hype with this book, it just wasn’t for me. The premise really intrigued me, but the execution didn’t work for me. I think if I wasn’t listening to it as an audiobook I would have DNF’ed it but I preserved and I’m not really sure what I got from it. I felt there wasn’t really much of a storyline, it was like there was nothing happening. I did however really enjoy (if you can) the bits from her childhood and her ambitions to get out. I know so many people love this book though but it wasn’t for me.

This is, without a doubt, one of my all time favourite books that I have reviewed on NetGalley. The story is hauntingly beautiful and I was gripped from start to finish. The twist was superbly written and I was genuinely bereft when I finished this book, the characters come alive and you feel what they feel. There is talk of this book being made into a film, if it is true, I will be first in the queue at the cinema to make sure that the film does the book justice. 5 stars is not enough for this book

This is not a book to sit down with on a rainy day looking for something to lift your mood but it is a well told, powerful story of survival and endurance that packs a powerful emotional punch.

Alexandra ‘Lex’ Gracie is Girl A, a survivor of ‘The House of Horrors’, a family of children subjected to the most appalling physical and psychological abuse by their parents. The story unfolds in flashback, with Alexandra now a successful lawyer, living in America. She has flown back to the UK after the death of her biological mother in prison and has been asked to act as executor of her will.

Gradually, we learn the story of the Gracie family and of how Alexandra’s escape alerted the world to the plight of herself and her siblings.

The author has cleverly achieved a book with a main character who is broken, sympathetic and believable but without it being too depressing to read. We gradually learn how each of the siblings adapted within their childhood environment and how each plausibly became the adults that they did.

Once the press interest in cases like this passes on, it’s assumed all is then well but of course that isn’t ever true. Abigail Dean was brave to take on such a difficult and heartbreaking topic and I think that she’s done a great job in exploring the complex damage done to and survival mechanisms needed by, victims of domestic violence.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK audio for the audiobook ARC of this book, brilliantly narrated by Holiday Grainger

Lex Gracie is Girl A. The girl that survived the house of horrors. The girl that escaped and freed her siblings. Now in her 20s with a successful career, Lex is tasked with executing her mother’s will. She wants to turn her former home into a community centre. But to do so, she’ll need her siblings’ agreement and to confront her own past. This is far from an easy read, but it’s even harder to put down.

I usually struggle with audiobooks but this was a rare exception. The narrator is perfect. My only issue was that there was no way of telling straightaway whether a passage was 'now' or 'then', so it sometimes took a sentence or two to figure out. As it jumps back and forth so frequently, this did make it a bit disorientating at times. Minor issue though.

do like a book that stands out to me and this is very much one. Possibly a 5 star read that would be in my top 3 of 2021 so far.

So child cruelty isn't really something to write about and glorify but if people don't know, people can't change it for the better.

This is a story about fictional child cruelty, but cruelty all the same as you really feel and worry for each child in this family.

There are about 8 chapters in the book and 1 chapter is about each of the children and the last chapter is about them all. Each chapter though has Girl A (Alexandra) narrating and being involved in.

There are some harrowing scenes and you may think reading about them was bad enough. Try audio!! *shiver*

Already there are good recommendations to read this book and I will add to that.

Girl A, by Abigail Dean
Synopsis:
'Girl A,' she said. ‘The girl who escaped. If anyone was going to make it, it was going to be you.’

Lex Gracie doesn’t want to think about her family. She doesn’t want to think about growing up in her parents’ House of Horrors. And she doesn’t want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped. When her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can’t run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her six siblings – and with the childhood they shared.

Trigger Warnings:
Child Abuse, Psychological and Physical Abuse, Gas Lighting, Mental Health, Drug Dependency, Alcohol Dependency, Violence, and Blood.

‘They huddled together on the floor, bloody and naked, like the survivors of some terrible atrocity. Like the last people in the world, or else the first.’
Abigail Dean, Girl A

I was three years old when ‘A Child Called It,’ was published, so I don’t remember a time before it. It makes it difficult, when talking about Girl A, because that’s the first comparison I want to make- and whilst both books look at the trauma of child abuse, Girl A’s angry protagonists are modern, cold, and broken survivors. And it’s part of what makes this book such a unique read.

I could also make a comparison to ‘The Room,’ in that Girl A is an introspective narrative directed to the audience with the limited information that the protagonist has. Lex, or Girl A as she’s known in her file, offers us the truth as much as possible, which is a refreshing take on such a twisted story. This book was initially sold to me as a thriller/mystery. But for all of her flaws, and there are many, Lex tries to be an open-book to the audience, even in those moments when she can’t be with her family. This book doesn’t have the pent up suspense of a thriller. It’s the aftermath of a horror, a brutal, psychologically damaging existence that each of Lex’s siblings have fought in their own way to escape. It’s intense, and overwhelming, and even in those moments when you want to hate characters, incurably human.

‘Little white wraiths squirming in the shock of sunshine.’
Abigail Dean, Girl A

Because Lex is talking to us directly (from the opening page where she directs her conversation to ‘you’) it’s impossible to extricate yourself from her story. Dean has done a wonderfully-horrific job of tying the flash-backs together in a cohesive but fractured structure (which is, obviously, a great representation of the characters). None are wholly without empathy, even if Lex cannot bridge the gap to them, and each of their experiences are individual and dark.

I would recommend this book to those who enjoy dark mysteries, slow pacing and character-driven narratives. The slow pacing isn’t a detriment to this novel (though I usually prefer faster/more action-driven stories). It creates a cerebral quality needed for such dark/taboo topics, and it’s expertly crafted.

This is a taut psychological thriller – which I listened to in Audiobook, an Audiobook which is brilliantly narrated by the (unknown to me) actress Holly Grainger – who I think perfectly captures the defensive shield of cynicism that the first person narrator hides behind – a shield designed as much to fend off her inner demons as the outside world, but which is much more effective with the latter than the former.

The story is (or I think will be – this book is already topping various national bestseller charts) well known – appropriate for a book which is fundamentally about what it is like in the years after you are a victim of notoriety.

Lex Gracie was once better known as Girl A, and the “girl who escaped” from the “House of Horrors” – one of a group of siblings subject to an increasingly horrendous regime of deprivation and incarceration in their family home (a case modelled loosely on the real life case of David and Louise Turpin). Chained in her bedroom with her increasingly weak younger but beloved younger sister Evie, it was Lex who in desperation slipped her chains and dragged her battered and bruised body into the street to call for help. When the police raided the house – her father had committed suicide leaving her mother to face trial and she and her siblings months of medical assistance, on-going psychological help and eventual placement with foster families (Lex as the oldest girl being the last to find a place – eventually adopted by a childless policeman who worked closely with her psychologist on her case).

But all of this is story background – and the basics of the past set up and the children’s ultimate escape is deliberately established early on – this is very much a book about “what happened afterwards”.

Now, years later Lex, a successful and driven US technology M&A lawyer based in New York – is called back to her mother’s prison to told she is executor of her will – some small savings and the derelict house of horrors itself. With her sister Evie (the only one with which she had and still has good relations) they decide to propose to the local council that it is turned into a community centre with activities that would have been the antithesis of their parents’ regime.

But she needs her siblings permission – and the lengthy chapters of the book are each named and loosely structured around one of the siblings, each of whom has been affected by and has dealt with their ordeal and identity in different ways, each with their own memory of what happened, and each of which of course we only see filtered through Lex and her own version of the past.

Delilah - beautiful and manipulative – still in some ways loyal to her parents religious aims for the family, if not their methods.

Gabriel – close to Delilah as a child, his adoptive parents encouraged him to use his trauma for TV appearances and celebrity meetings. He suffered from murderous rages and at secondary school realises he can use these rages as part of a gang (starting with disrupting an unwelcome exam) – later he falls in with a theatrical agent (at his parents suggestion) who is a participant into his descent into addiction-seeking behaviour.

Noah – only a baby at the time of escape and unaware to this day of his true identity.

Ethan – whose role in the family imprisonment – was at best ambiguous. Now a successful headmaster he has made a career of article writing and lecture giving on how education can overcome childhood trauma (with himself as Exhibit A).

Evie – the closest to Lex, still trying to work out how her life story should play out.

I was impressed with the style of the book.

It jumps around between time periods (the time in the house, the present day and episodes in the middle) and between points of view. At least on the audio-narration I had the impression of rather abrupt switches: this is a book that requires some attention and is all the better for it. I also felt that the accounts of other characters – the siblings, her birth parents, her adopted parents - being told by Lex in her first party narration as part of stories she had gathered about them over time (rather than truly written from their viewpoint) – but I would be interested to see if the book gives the same idea.

I was also, as I listened, impressed with the author’s use of language – particularly similes and metaphors and the way in which she captured both the spoken and unspoken parts of conversations.

Normally when reading a book and struck by some writing I would pause and highlight it (on a Kindle) or take a photo (of a print book) – but because I was listening this while walking my dog I was not able to do so (it was more paws than pause), so I cannot easily give examples but I would say that the writing I admired applied more to odd phrases and sentences than whole paragraphs (as the book is deliberately in Lex’s rather world-weary style).

If I had an issue with the book it is I think the question of why write about such a topic, or perhaps more accurately, why invent a set up like this (which can hardly be seen as a common occurrence that needs artistic exploration) and then proceed to write about it – a book about how to live in the aftermath of family trauma and what amount of hope and ultimate redemption is possible is an important one but could have been written without picking such an extreme form.

But overall I can understand the hype and can recommend the audiobook.

My thanks to Harper Collins Audio for an Audiobook ARC via NetGalley

I coincidentally read this right after The Discomfort of Evening, another book which features an abusive/neglectful childhood in a restrictive religious household. However this is told from the point of view of an adult survivor, so you have small consolation that at least for the most part, her ordeal is over. The book flips back and forth from the narrator's childhood days where her father's mania escalates, to her present day interactions with her siblings. The storytelling was absolutely gripping and, as clichéd as it sounds, I couldn't put it down. Heart-stopping and desperately sad, but also resonant with the triumph of the human spirit.