Reviews

Girl A by Abigail Dean

Only show reviews with written explanations

annija_koffein's review

1.0

Curse the day I learned how to read.
This godawful book frustrates me so much I don't even know what to say. It's like stale sandwich but more disappointing. Fuck this to infinity.

Girl A is not a thriller, it's not even really a suspenseful psychological novel. It's a story about survival, family, sibling connection, child abuse, and not repeating the past. Do not go in expecting twists and turns and thriller-esque story lines you will be disappointed like the many reviews I read on this. People were upset it wasn't more scary... like did you want to read even more about child abuse than what was in here?? Are you ok?

CW: child abuse, justifying abuse using religion

With that said I did really enjoy this book. We follow Lex (Girl A- the one who escaped) after her mother dies in prison (serving time for child abuse). She has to go to each of her surviving siblings and get their approval for what to do with their family house. The "House of Horrors" where they grew up is tough to read about, they were found chained to their beds, starved, and filthy. Their father thought it was all God's will. This is not a light read but a powerful read.

One this I didn't enjoy about this book was how confused I was the entire time reading it. Each paragraph would skip timelines with no warning and it got old real quick. We moved between present day, right after the escape, and during the abuse piecing Lex's childhood and story of survival together. Things were also incredibly vague and I personally get frustrated when things aren't explained that should be.

Each chapter is about one of the siblings, kind of where they are now but it was still centered around Lex. I liked learning more about each sibling and seeing their journey through survival. I will warn you, there were a lot of info dumps in this- random characters got pages of stories and then they leave the book for good and I was left wondering why I read that.

While the story-telling and writing style may not be for everyone I still think this was a really good story that should be told. Maybe just a little more organized and less vague next time!

jerzgrl626's review

Go to review page

3.0

I had higher expectations for this book based on the reviews I read. While it did have similarities to books like Room (which I loved despite the subject material), this book fell short a bit. The storylines for each of the characters felt a bit stilted and the flashbacks from the present felt a bit disjointed.

alexandraloyd's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

honestly, this book was really boring. I didn’t want to finish it, but forced myself, so I got stuck in a reading slump. the characters and plot were both really dull, and while it’s advertised as a thriller, it definitely is not. I picked up this book because it sounded like it would be a glimpse into the house of horrors: 7 children were held captive in their house, chained in their rooms, starving to death. but really, it was one of the children, now an adult, several years later, recounting memories and figuring out what to do with the house now that their parents have passed. the plot jumps around in time a lot with no warning, making it hard to follow along. overall, i wouldn’t recommend this book.