An excellent read that I presume takes its inspiration from a recent case that became newsworthy in the US but I'm glad to say the author has rung the changes not least by placing the events in the UK.

With the story set from the perspective from the girl that escaped the author shows how the incremental changes that led to the horrifying discovery of her siblings tied to a bed may, or may not have happened in the inspiration too. It also doesn't end the story with the discovery but begins to explore the difficult aftermath of life on the outside!

This is one dark story that had me hooked.

This is a dark & disturbing story, but it is handled so well. There is no gratuitous action, it isn't needed, it's all implied or weaved subtly into the narrative.
As you read you start question everyone & their role in the family's descent into the horror & how it comes to happen.
It is sad, but also strangely uplifting. Lex is a wonderful character, obviously deeply disturbed but a fighter.
Girl A is written in such a manner that you could really see the misery, the degradation, the distress as the children face abuse & disgusting conditions.
I loved that it explored each child's relationship with Lex & I changed my mind back & forth about how I felt about them all except Lex who, flaws & all, remained one of the most powerful characters I have read.

Lex Gracie is the girl who finally managed to escape her family’s house of horrors, raise the alarm and end the torture for her siblings. The story unfolds through Lex’s eyes, as she returns to London, from New York, to deal with her now dead mother’s estate and all the old wounds that particular issue re-opens.
This is an interesting premise for a book; however, it really left me feeling cold.


I didn’t connect with Lex on any level; I just couldn’t warm to her, and even found it hard to have any degree of sympathy. Which, given the subject matter, is quite an unusual statement to make. The same is true of her siblings, who just didn’t ever become real to me for some reason. Everything felt really detached.

For me, I think the problem was that in an attempt to be sympathetic of the various potential triggers within the book (and there are many), the author has overlooked a lot of the emotion. At times this felt more like a character study, a psychologist’s ramblings, rather than a work of entertaining/gripping fiction.

I appreciate the opportunity to have an advanced copy of this work; however, I think the need for further editing had an increased impact on my enjoyment. There are many occasions where Lex is talking about the past, and seamlessly, in the next sentence, slips in to the present. It takes a couple of minutes, and some re-reading of previous lines, to work out where the shift changes, and re-orientate yourself in the story. This was exceptionally frustrating, and I hope the team resolve these issues before it is published.

The Stars
I was going to give this a three star initially; however, I’m going to have to go with a two. For whatever reason, this just didn’t work for me. I wasn’t remotely interested in the characters, and read on out of blind commitment than any real interest.

For me, I’m left wondering what the point was. I don’t know where the real crux of the story was – the past, or the present? What challenges were really overcome? It just felt like a long ramble in to nothingness and I was ultimately left quite disappointed. As many others seem to love it, I’m clearly just missing something.

Alexandra, Lex for short, Jameson has been appointed executor of her mother, Deborah’s, will. This is not a task that she wants to do as the last time she saw her mother was on the day that she escaped, aged 15, from a family life that was literally killing her and her siblings. Now Deborah has died in prison while serving a 25 year sentence. None of the letters that she wrote to her children were ever answered and Lex tells the warden that she won’t be claiming the body. Instead it will be buried in an unmarked grave within the prison grounds.
There is £20,000 from their father who killed himself on the night that she escaped and the family home in Hollowfield. It’s all to be divided between Lex and the surviving siblings: Evie, Delilah, Ethan, Gabriel and Noah.
The locals in Hollowfield would like the house to be demolished as it’s a constant reminder of what went on in there when it was the home of the Gracies, the children’s birth name. The notoriety of the House of Horrors is something that the townspeople have had to live with for over 15 years. But Lex would like it to become a community centre, something of use to the local community. But she has to convince the others.
After Lex’s escape and the subsequent police and social services involvement. The children became known by letters of the alphabet hence the title of the book. They were each adopted by different families and became anonymous. Lex and Ethan are high fliers and successful, Delilah is manipulative, Gabriel is in a psychiatric hospital and Noah, who was just a baby, may not remember any of it. But Lex has always had Evie to support her as they both began to make lives of their own.
But the past has a way of tripping you up and memories constantly resurface as Lex visits her siblings to sort out the fate of the derelict and abandoned family home. Lex remembers only too well what went on in the House of Horrors behind the closed front door. It was their father’s desire to create his own little kingdom and cut the family off from the outside world. Both of their parents had thwarted ambitions and they seek to control their children by bullying, abuse, starvation and cruelty.
Finally, just as Lex revisits the family home for the first time in 15 years, Evie goes missing. When she finds out where she is Lex’s carefully constructed world crashes down. Did any of them really get away? And will they have children of their own?
This is powerful and moving book with a skilful blend of the present and the past told in flashback as Lex’s family story is told. But it’s never sentimental or gratuitously shocking. However, the contrast between Lex’s high-flying world and the grim reality of 11 Moor Wood Road is shocking. We see the childrens world shrinking more and more as each freedom is removed by their father. Home schooling, windows covered to supposedly stop the authorities from looking in, restraints, being denied food and even being able to wash. The parents seem to live within their own folie a deux delusion while producing more children.. The outside world is the enemy and the author depicts very well the gradual drawing into themselves of the family. The novel begins with a family photo of the six of them lined up in height order, their white blonde hair marking them out, outside the 11 Moor Woods Road. A happy family photo behind the front door lay a world of cruelty and abuse. Soon after it was taken, divisions will happen and the children have to fend for themselves while trying to look out for each other.

The author also describes the voyeuristic fascination that some people have with true crime. The children’s Aunt Peggy writes a book about them in which she claims to have tried to save them and their ex landlord sells photos of the house after their escape to recoup his cleaning costs. Gabriel is paraded at true crime conventions and is preyed on by the unscrupulous. He is one of the most abused children and as a result begins to suffer from The Rages or fits. Lex’s parents become appropriated as Halloween bogeymen; something to laugh about while ignoring the true horror and the childrens’ personal tragedy. There’s also the way in which people, like Lex’s teacher, who sense that something’s wrong but don’t know what to do about it and feel powerless.
Lex is a strong character, who narrates in the first person, and is the one that decides to escape as she can see no other way out. However, more secrets tumble out at Ethan’s wedding especially about Gabriel who was the scapegoat.
A very assured, haunting and, at times, harrowing first novel from Abigail Dean. I look forward to reading her next one. A writer to watch.

My thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for an ARC.

A book that manages to be both a gripping thriler and a moving contemplation of trauma and grief, from the subtle and gradual building of the story, through its well-constructed characters, to the heart-wrenching twist at the finale.

This was a deviation from my normal read and I am so pleased to have read it. Absolute belter of a read.

Lex arrives at a prison where her mother has died to find she has been made executor of her will. Her and her siblings have been left the family home, known as ‘The House of Horrors’ on Moor Woods Road. Lex has spent a long time putting the past behind her but this makes her contact her siblings to agree on what to do with the house which has been empty since Lex known as Girl A, escaped.

One of the best features was the way the story alternated between present day and the gruesome flashbacks which I found compelling reading. The way the family gradually deteriorated was cleverly portrayed.

This was a gripping read, dark and, at times, horrifying. The ending was clever and well thought out.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK, and Abigail Dean for the ARC of ‘Girl A’ in return for my honest review.

Excellent read and highly recommended.

This a beautiful, difficult and intense read of girl A or Lex as she will later be known who survives living with her fanatical parents in what is to be know as “ the house of horrors” with her six siblings and it’s a read that is totally shocking.
It’s narrated by Lex who is now a New York lawyer and flits from past to present as we gradually learn what life was like living in such horrific circumstances where cruelty and starvation was the norm. This is a read that really gripped me and I did struggle at times as the description were so real it was painful and my heart ached for these children who through no fault of their own had been shown no sympathy, love or mercy. But the book also had hope and all praise to the wonderful writing of Abigail Dean because although as I said it was a difficult read it also was full of some intense emotions that just made me gasp , it really is one of the most powerful books I have read and one I shall not forget, many,many thanks to Abigail Dean for that.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Girl A
Where to start. I've heard the hype and didn't know what to think. I've also never read Room, Flowers in the Attic or any other book in that ilk - I'm far too much of a coward for that.
But this I think is different. Not written to scare more to explain, through the eyes of various family members what can happen and the far reaching shock waves that follow.
I read in a couple of sittings. Amazed that this is a debut. Very well crafted indeed. An easy 5 stars.

Lex Gracie has a good reason as to why she hasn’t any desire to think about her family. Not the parents who have supported her, but the House of Horrors in which she grew up with her siblings. Lex is Girl A, the eldest daughter of parents who did untold damage to her and her brothers and sisters in their home. Later split up, Lex went on to have a life that you’d expect a young woman to experience… until her biological mother dies in prison and leaves the home to her children. Lex, understandably, wants to turn this time of her life into something positive for others, but will her siblings agree? Does everyone share the same feelings and experiences with Lex? How have their lives been since that fateful day? It’s a dark, dense read and one that you cannot tear your eyes away from. At times terrifying, at times desperately sad, you hang on every word until the end.

Girl A, Lex, is one of several siblings brought up in increasingly distressing circumstances, by their religious fanatic father and mother.

The story jumps about from the present day to Lex's childhood. Each chapter focuses on the experiences of a different sibling, told from Lex's point of view, as she catches up with them in the present and recalls their childhood together.

The descriptions of violence and abuse in this book are harrowing and at times, graphic, but this is cleverly delivered in small chunks, so that it doesn't become too overwhelming. Returning to and from the present day reminds you that there were survivors of this horrific treatment.

I thought this was a fascinating book and I will keep an eye out for the author's future work.

With strong and specific parallels to a notorious true-life case, this is the story of several siblings who lived with their neglectful mother and abusive and religiously zealous father until one of the sisters managed to escape..
The novel poses two main questions: how did the family descend into such squalor; and how has each sibling come to terms with their traumatic past?
There are flashbacks within flashbacks, and backstories within backstories so this book is suitable for readers who like to concentrate on detail.
Some nice literary turns of phrase.
It will do well.

Girl A is a truly extraordinary novel, and one I enjoyed immensely, despite its subject matter. It's the story of Lex Gracie, the Girl A of the title, who suffered horrendous abuse as a child in a notorious House of Horrors. Recounting her life, years later as a successful adult, the reader is taken back on a journey into the past that is both harrowing but also redemptive, and above all very moving. The novel raises all sorts of questions about trauma, and memories, abuse, our toxic media, and some people's insatiable, bloodthirsty lust to witness other's sufferings. This novel will stay with me for a very long time.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me.. I found most of it confusing and struggled to follow the many characters and changing timeline. I enjoyed the past story but the future one was a bit harder to follow and felt rushed in parts.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a honest review.

Bring on 21st Jan when people can get their hands on this book!! Because wow, I have a feeling it will do VERY well!!

At quite a long read, not a word of this book is wasted, and every word has meaning and is needed. The characters are created in a beautiful complex way, allowing you to read and see them as real, and I felt myself pulled in within the beginning of the book that I just needed to know what the ending for these characters would be.

All in all, this book isa beautiful yet harrowing coming of age story tinged with dark and haunting themes. I would highly recommend and I'm excited to see this one plastered allover bookstagram and rightly so!

Massive thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC!!

It’s hard to believe Girl A is a first novel, the beautifully constructed plot flows like the writing of a much more experienced author. Lexie is Girl A, the notorious one that got away. The one who forced her hands through the chains her father used to tie his children to their beds, jumped from a first floor window and ran into the path of a car to save both herself and her brothers and sisters before they starved to death. The story of Lexie and her siblings is told in flashbacks as she tracks down each one after the death of their mother in prison to put their inheritance to good use. It should be the kind of story you want to read with your hands over your eyes but somehow in Lexie’s compelling, slightly distant narration, it never feels as if this is something you shouldn’t be reading. Instead I savoured every word. The only thing I didn’t like about it was Lexie’ asking her boyfriends to hurt her, which seems to be becoming a common theme in both fiction and the law courts and needs to be handled carefully to help save the lives of young women.

This book will stay with me for a long time and one that I will be gifting to a lot of people. Thank you HarperCollins and Netgalley for giving me access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Harper Fiction for the arc of Girl A by Abigail Dean.

5 star read for me- This is a great read, a quick one for me, I loved this so much, very gripping read, recommend to all, such a great read for me, i enjoyed it very much you won't be disappointed.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was so excited when I read this book and boy it live up to everything I wanted and more and will be checking out the authors other work.

Girl A started well and I couldn't put it down but nearly half way through I started to lose interest and found myself skipping past paragraphs. The story is a good character study and the abuse is hard to read about. I just didn't seem to absorb it like many other reviewers!

TRIGGER WARNING abuse, neglect, captivity

Wow. I had this book for a few weeks before I jumped into it, and finished it in 4 sittings. It was not what I was expecting, I knew it was going to be hard to read, but it was a very deeply sad story. It ends completely different to what I expected. It moves between now, which is quite a while since their childhood, and the past.

The whole story is told from Lex’s point of view, and each chapter focuses on her speaking to or visiting one of her siblings. There is a big difference between all the siblings and how they are living their lives. They are all grown up now and have moved on, living with different families, separated from each other in different ways. But I liked getting to see where they all were, what and how they were doing.

The past was hard at times to read, sad and dark a lot of the time. But there were times where it shows you love, and protection, which gives you hope. The end had me in tears and I thought about it for a long time after. I finished this book about 4 days ago now and it’s still in my head.

It’s out January 21st 2021 and it’s definitely one to watch!

Tissues are a must with this read, I literally felt heartbroken to discover what these poor children had gone through. I like how the book is written, before and now, it gives a really good background in what happened before and how Lex is now. It is a very powerful read of love and horror that I will never be able to forget, you never know if a child right now is suffering like these children had to. You can never imagine what they went through, and you probably wouldn't want to but seeing the woman Lex is today makes me proud of her and what she has gone through. The fact that this book is a debut is incredible, I cannot wait for Abigail the author's next book. A book has never hot me so hard and it will stay with me for a long time.