Lex Gracie does not like thinking about her family. She does not like thinking about her past and she especially does not like thinking about her title of Girl A: the one who escaped and freed her siblings from the House of Horrors.
Life has continued for Lex and she has done a decent job avoiding her past including her parents, which is easy enough when one is dead and the other is imprisoned but when her mother dies and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, Lex is forced to face her past.
She is determined to turn the Horrors into something good but to start she must find her siblings. Who have they become? And what did the House of Horrors do to them all?
| Why Girl A Is Worth Your Time
To preface, this is my longest review out and no, I do not understand why. Girl A by Abigail Dean is a light read despite revolving around child abuse, death, and mutilation. The Gracie children, three girls and four boys of varying ages, have grown up in a household with an increasingly abusive and insane Father. Girl A as the title suggests is the girl you follow in the story and this is a novel about a survivors journey afterward, not the horrors they faced. I think you will enjoy this novel if you want something directed towards post-recovery of abuse that is creepy but not that creepy within the context of the thriller genre.
This novel almost was a hit or miss because the premise is quite foreboding and suggests to the reader a much more dramatic and gut-wrenching story is in store but no, there is little cruelty and instead more introspective scenes. I determined this is actually a hit and worth your time because I find value in journey based stories and think others do too. This is a journey based thriller, not an insanity based thriller and in all is worth your time if you want a novel with a lighter thriller based concept whilst still remaining in that genre.
| Plot Progression
Girl A, aka Lex, is the protagonist of the novel. She is the eldest female and second oldest sibling who escaped and called the authorities. The plot is told with three types of narratives: Lex's general viewpoint, her interaction with her siblings which although told in present day still has a different writing style to it and flashbacks of her childhood and how it slowly decayed.
The plot has flaws, they are easy to spot if you read this. It lacks certain punch where needed and for a thriller, is a bit lacklustre with how nail biting it should have been. Maybe this is intentional and the dismissal or downplay of the torture the siblings faced is a coping mechanism for the protagonist or the plot may have benefitted from going a bit more deeply into how the past shaped the characters.
The plot based on how you see the above dilemma is either enjoyable or not. I found it enjoyable as the story really is more about Lex's journey after than the before. I found this plot to be solid and overall worth your time.
| Characters
The seven siblings are the focus of the novel with Lex leading the narrative. Lex is intelligent and a strong-willed individual who was classified Girl A the day of their rescue. There is Delilah - Girl B. Evie - Girl C. Ethan - Boy A and the oldest sibling. Gabriel - Boy B, Daniel - Boy C, and lastly Noah - Boy D. Seven siblings all with vastly different personality and growth after the rescue. I think how the siblings were written encapsulates multiple roads recovery can lead to and was understandable based on who the siblings were instead of just being a symbol of a path that could be taken. What I valued in the characters is that who they are shaped their future, not just their imprisonment.
Now, don't forget the parents. Father and Mother as they are called and you will have to make your own judgment call on them.
Outside of the Gracie family, there are also Lex's friends, psychiatrist, and employers. They are solid but not at the forefront of the story. In all, decent characters, well developed. I liked them and in the spoiler section will talk quite in depth about them and what I thought because I do have lots to say.
| Ending
Main Genre | Thriller
Year Published | 2021
Rating | 6.5 / 10
Worth Your Time? Yes.
| My Thoughts
WARNING: Skip My Thoughts for a spoiler free review.
I grew to hate and then appreciate Girl A. This is because I hated the ending and what happened to Evie and then I grew to recognise the complexity of the ending and what happened to Evie. I do not mind the ending as to me it demonstrates trauma is always a part of you and some days are better than others and some are worse. I liked the ambiguity of the ending and I liked who Lex the character was.
Can we quickly talk about Ethan? I have mixed feelings for this characters. Did he have Stockholm syndrome? Was he too terrified to go to the authorities because he had been compliant for too long? Or did he secretly like it? He had much more freedom than the other siblings, he held down one of his siblings during a beating and leads me to wonder who Ethan is at the core. I am not sure about Ethan morally but I do feel that the Mother had Stockholm syndrome and/or is a victim of domestic abuse leading her to not be able to call for help. She, I sympathised with but Ethan, I am not sure what to think. What do you think about Ethan?
Lastly, Evie. That in a twisted way was my favourite part of the novel because I did not expect it to happen. It added more complexity to Lex as a character, it demonstrated to me that Lex has being carrying Evie with her her whole life and I hope that the ending was Lex letting her finally be at peace and accepting the death instead of the alternative. The ending could have been representative of Evie saying goodbye or Evie beckoning Lex to join her. Quite interesting and ambiguous, really allows you as a reader to decide what happens.
That is why I put Girl A as a hit. I liked all of the questions that arose when I read this because it helped push a narrative regarding growth and allowed me as a reader to choose what I thought that narrative was. If you have read Girl A, let me know and we can discuss it in the comments below!
| Your Thoughts
Did you decide that Girl A is worth a read? If so, let me know what you thought of the novel below! And check out My Thoughts once finished for guess what, my thoughts on this literary adventure!
Are you looking for something else? Check out these thriller novels instead!
Was this worth an hour of your time? Because it was worth an hour of mine.
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Comments
I thought Girl A was very well-done. As someone who works in child welfare and has some background in trauma specifically, the disconnection from emotion is a very common aspect of survivors. The brain simply can’t process all of that trauma, which is why the children each have their own fiction that they believe.
I think that just as Lex’s fiction is that Evie survived, Ethan’s fiction is that he did everything he could to get them out of the situation. There is an alternate interpretation that he was enjoying what was happening, and it’s hard to know from the outside. But I believe he could have blocked the memory of holding down Gabriel. The bursts of anger are extremely consistent with someone whose brain is being confronted with the discrepancies in a story it’s already rewritten.
What a solid comment to receive. I like your comment about the multiple alternatives to Ethan’s response to the situation, there is no guarantee what he perceived happening versus what Lex perceives as we never hear his viewpoint.
To me this book was memorable and has stayed with me. A few of my thoughts about some of the more ambiguous portions–I personally interpreted the ending to mean not that Lex was about to commit suicide, but that Evie would always be a part of her, no matter the state of Lex’s recovery. The father’s suicide–my thought was that he knew he had lost control, and probably in spite of his insanity felt a sense of guilt. One question I had was after the book of Greek myths was discovered–Lex ‘s father hit her in the stomach, but did he also sexually assault her as part of her punishment? I re-read that section and wondered if that may have been what happened, which perhaps would account for her preference to be hurt by her lovers, and possibly a lack of ability to have children.
hi, i recently finished this book and i scoured the depths of the internet looking for a comment like yours.
because throughout the whole book i kept thinking that Noah was Lex’s son. i was lent a copy so i cant look it up, but i don’t remember that the mother was pregnant again after Daniel.
also, there is some recurrent “the body remembers” narrative and the way Lex is nearly obsessed and also soft regarding Noah, Noah’s mum so protective…
i do think, if that would be the case, that Ethan sexually assaulted her; hence the choking at his house, the hate that Dr. K has for him, and the tensions regarding the wedding.
finally, it ties together with the idea of Lex not being able to have children if she suffered from a botched at home birth with awful consecuences.
am i crazy? maybe.
still! i had that deep conviction and i wanted to share.
I found the book highly overrated and very difficult to read. Call it realism or bleak topic or the natural consequence of what transpired. Whatever the reason, the characters are all utterly unlikable, including the protagonist. Lex had every reason to hate her mother, but before you even understand why, you learn that she couldn’t care less if her mother is dead. It rubbed me the wrong way in the opening chapter. There’s almost no emotion throughout the narration. The only exception is Evie’s story, whose character and relationship with Lex saves the book in my opinion. But that’s some 3/4th into the novel when I felt the first twinge of emotion and sorrow. The ending is very anticlimactic and falls flat. Nothing happens at the wedding, no reckoning with Ethan. The last paragraphs are too ambiguous for my taste. It clearly circles back to Evie, but what happens is anyone’s guess.
I agree with your point regarding the book being tough to read. I recall when reading that I found the separation between past and present confusing and it took a while for me to figure out the flow between before and after. And yes, many characters are highly unlikeable *coughs* Ethan *coughs* but, I overall found Lex to be a complex character and enjoyed the ambiguous ending. A good thriller that does complex emotion well that you may enjoy is We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker or if you want something a bit more in your face suspenseful with familial bonds as a key component of the novel, House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland is a great option. It is a bit more fantasy based but such a good book that I am going to recommend it anyway and overall hope one of those reads are more enjoyable for you than Girl A.
I just finished this book, too. I agree with all your thoughts. I liked the ending, and I guess that’s because of the ambiguity. Lex is an excellent character, and in fact all the characters are very complex and well developed. Of course, the grim description of the abuse did make me wonder about my own sanity that I would read this book of fiction. I do like thriller and psychological suspense, and this has definite elements of surprise, so it was true to the genre in that way, but other than the revelation about Daniel and evie’s deaths, there were not too many shocks. In fact, I kept anticipating some worse revelation about sexual abuse, which I’m glad never came. One of the flaws is that father seemed quite delusional and perhaps psychotic, and it is hard to imagine that he was organized enough to plan for discovery and had a lethal poison available at all times for himself. It is the one thing that doesn’t seem to make sense. I can’t imagine with his delusions, religious fanaticism and ego thinking that he should commit suicide, and I can’t imagine him being able to plan ahead at all. He wasn’t very functional by the end. Death by cop, in some hostage / blockade situation would make more sense to me. I would have also believed a murder/suicide attempt more than his own lethal poison ingestion.
What an insightful comment, I agree with your thoughts on the Father. I feel his demise would have made more sense if it was by someone else as the novel never indicated him to be one that planned ahead. Great points, glad you enjoyed the book regardless!