charlottekaas's review against another edition
1.0
This may be the most overhyped and underwhelming book I have very read.
I am finding it very difficult to comprehend the popularity and high ratings of Girl A. It is a terrible, dull mess. Pure and simple. A thriller it is not. An attempt at some sort of psychological drama about surviving childhood trauma, perhaps. But it fails miserably, whatever it's trying to do. Unless it's trying to fail at those things, in which case it's succeeding... but then... never mind.
Girl A has survived the so-called House of Horrors and years of abuse by her religious and insane parents. There are siblings, too. The characters are all incredibly flat and clicheed. Dare I say cookie cutter? At no point did I start to actually feel like I was getting to know any of them and their relationships were described very clinically, but never felt or shown in any meaningful way. So it just felt very meh. You don't really know how they feel about each other, but you also very much struggle to care.
The House of Horrors never felt scary or even that horrible, because you just couldn't feel what the kids had been going through. The scary, cruel, insane father was barely a presence in the book at all. At no point did I start to feel like the kids had been put through anything THAT bad. A lot of that I suspect has to do with the author not having the guts to actually go into detail or the talent to convey emotion of any kind. Honestly, there are way waaaay scarier true crime books on similar topics out there, if you're interested in having any sort of reaction to stuff.
The story jumps erratically between multiple timelines - sometimes from one line to the next -
which is a technique that can work fine but just doesn't here. It simply highlights how much of a mess this book is and how lazy the editor is. There's a serious need for some hardcore editing here, honestly.
A classic example of all tell and no show.
I am finding it very difficult to comprehend the popularity and high ratings of Girl A. It is a terrible, dull mess. Pure and simple. A thriller it is not. An attempt at some sort of psychological drama about surviving childhood trauma, perhaps. But it fails miserably, whatever it's trying to do. Unless it's trying to fail at those things, in which case it's succeeding... but then... never mind.
Girl A has survived the so-called House of Horrors and years of abuse by her religious and insane parents. There are siblings, too. The characters are all incredibly flat and clicheed. Dare I say cookie cutter? At no point did I start to actually feel like I was getting to know any of them and their relationships were described very clinically, but never felt or shown in any meaningful way. So it just felt very meh. You don't really know how they feel about each other, but you also very much struggle to care.
The House of Horrors never felt scary or even that horrible, because you just couldn't feel what the kids had been going through. The scary, cruel, insane father was barely a presence in the book at all. At no point did I start to feel like the kids had been put through anything THAT bad. A lot of that I suspect has to do with the author not having the guts to actually go into detail or the talent to convey emotion of any kind. Honestly, there are way waaaay scarier true crime books on similar topics out there, if you're interested in having any sort of reaction to stuff.
The story jumps erratically between multiple timelines - sometimes from one line to the next -
which is a technique that can work fine but just doesn't here. It simply highlights how much of a mess this book is and how lazy the editor is. There's a serious need for some hardcore editing here, honestly.
A classic example of all tell and no show.
nikolebirtle5's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite. A good horror house story. A bit slow and boring. Switched to audio book half way through because I couldn’t bare to physically read it
kellycoburn37's review against another edition
4.0
I think it should be known that I am usually incapable of predicting twists in books. It very rarely happens that I figure out what’s going to happen before it does. Maybe that’s my stupid showing through but it’s true. This book, however, I actually saw the twist coming (even if it took me more than half of the book to make my prediction...but who’s keeping track?). Me seeing it coming however, didn’t diminish the book for me.
I love an unreliable narrator and from the beginning, you know that there is something beneath the surface. The main character has gone through some serious trauma and this book does a really good job at exploring that. Parts of it felt like a true crime podcast almost and I really liked (?) learning about the House of Horrors and the family’s dynamic bit by bit. This book really makes you feel for the characters and think about real children who are in situations similar to this one.
There were some things that bothered me about this book. I didn’t like the actual structure of a lot of her sentences which is weird because I very rarely ever notice things like that. I didn’t like how the dialogue was broken up and I couldn’t stop noticing it. I also wish that it had ended a little differently. I wanted more.
Overall, I would definitely read more books from Abigail Dean. I thought it was a good debut novel!
I love an unreliable narrator and from the beginning, you know that there is something beneath the surface. The main character has gone through some serious trauma and this book does a really good job at exploring that. Parts of it felt like a true crime podcast almost and I really liked (?) learning about the House of Horrors and the family’s dynamic bit by bit. This book really makes you feel for the characters and think about real children who are in situations similar to this one.
There were some things that bothered me about this book. I didn’t like the actual structure of a lot of her sentences which is weird because I very rarely ever notice things like that. I didn’t like how the dialogue was broken up and I couldn’t stop noticing it. I also wish that it had ended a little differently. I wanted more.
Overall, I would definitely read more books from Abigail Dean. I thought it was a good debut novel!
czytatnik's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars
I was super exited to read this book. From the description on the cover it seemed to be a perfect read for me. Well, it was not.
It's not that this book isn't good. It probably is. I just couldn't get myself into this story. Didn't feel connected to the main character, Girl A. Lex was to me a distant cousin of which I hear something from time to time but it never really interests me. And with all the pain and horrors involved in this story I should feel much much more for her then I actually did.
One thing I found particularly interesting in this book was how different were the siblings despite going through the same trauma as kids. Even taking into consideration that they were at different age when got out of the House of Horrors, so had different memories and suffered more or less than the others. It is fascinating to see how human brain is working, how it is adjusting to such a tough upbringing. And of course it was not only the physical pain, but also psychological.
For me "Girl A" was definitely interesting book to read about trauma and how different people are getting better (or not) after suffering so much. But that would be about it in terms of what I found to be good in this book. Would definitely like to hear more stories from other kids rather than have only one point of view. Plus there is so much wasted potential to the Girl A as a character herself that I almost would like her to be 'remade' in a way so I could connect with her on some deeper level.
I was super exited to read this book. From the description on the cover it seemed to be a perfect read for me. Well, it was not.
It's not that this book isn't good. It probably is. I just couldn't get myself into this story. Didn't feel connected to the main character, Girl A. Lex was to me a distant cousin of which I hear something from time to time but it never really interests me. And with all the pain and horrors involved in this story I should feel much much more for her then I actually did.
One thing I found particularly interesting in this book was how different were the siblings despite going through the same trauma as kids. Even taking into consideration that they were at different age when got out of the House of Horrors, so had different memories and suffered more or less than the others. It is fascinating to see how human brain is working, how it is adjusting to such a tough upbringing. And of course it was not only the physical pain, but also psychological.
For me "Girl A" was definitely interesting book to read about trauma and how different people are getting better (or not) after suffering so much. But that would be about it in terms of what I found to be good in this book. Would definitely like to hear more stories from other kids rather than have only one point of view. Plus there is so much wasted potential to the Girl A as a character herself that I almost would like her to be 'remade' in a way so I could connect with her on some deeper level.
caitlinking's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
melc's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this was a great book focusing on the psychological healing from an abusive, traumatic childhood. I loved the way it examines the different wounds that emerged from each of the siblings from their experiences, and how they struggled to reconcile those as they grew to adulthood. Above all of the difficulties and painful experiences there was a sense of hope and I felt that the writer handled this beautifully - not watering down their hurt, but equally allowing the sense that they are all striving to rise above their past and live new lives in the future. I found this was an intelligently written book and a real page-turner.
stuck_in_a_leabhar's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
📖⭐️ BOOK REVIEW ⭐️📖
Book: Girl A
Author: Abigail Dean
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Child Death, Physical, Emotional and Domestic Abuse, Confinement, Torture
After reading Girl A I found it hard to rate it! I was leaning more towards the four stars mark at first because the book definitely had me wanting to keep turning pages but the more thought I put into it, the more I leaned towards 3.5 stars. I wanted a lot more and thought we were left with too many loose ends that weren’t tied up at the end.
This is a difficult story about a terrible family tragedy but to me it was too jumpy and too randomly depicted that I found myself losing that pace and interest that I had developed in the beginning. The story is told from the perspective of Girl A, Alexandra Gracie, and follows the now grown-up Gracie siblings as they try to get through adulthood after a childhood filled with absolute horror and abuse.
The book definitely had a lot of potential as I thought the story was extremely interesting but unfortunately it fell short as I thought it was just too jumpy and the chapters were way too long which didn’t help keeping you sucked in!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
teacupandsaucer's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0