This is one of those powerful books that will stay with you. It's jumps from the past and the present. Although it's a book about abuse it tells of the time before things got really bad. It focuses a lot on after Lex escaped and got help. The damage it had all caused to the individual child. It is told mainly from Lex's point of view. She needs to sort the house out after their mothers death. She vists each of the siblings and we find out how they each lived their lives afterwards. It's very powerful reading and quite emotional but you need to keep reading. I couldn't put it down.

I listened to the book via audiobook. The author really brought the story to life and I was totally engrossed in it.

My thanks to HarperCollins U.K. Audio for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘Girl A’ by Abigail Dean. It narrated by Holliday Grainger.

Alexandra (Lex) Gracie has distanced herself from her identity as ‘Girl A’: the girl who escaped from her parents’ House of Horrors where she and her six siblings were imprisoned. 

Lex is now a lawyer based in New York. When her mother dies in prison Lex returns to the U.K.. She finds that she has been named executor of her mother’s estate and that she and her siblings have been left the family home as well as some money.

Together with her sister, Evie, Lex wants to turn the former House of Horrors into a force for good. Yet to move forward with these plans she must come to terms with her six siblings and with the traumas of their shared childhood.

Lex is the narrator of the novel and there are flashbacks to past events that fills in details of the collective past of the family.

It was clearly inspired by a number of true crime cases, especially the Turpin family of California, whose parents, like the fictional Gracie family, had starved and shackled their children. Their situation came to light in 2018 when one daughter escaped and raised the alarm.

I had assumed before reading that ‘Girl A’ was going to be a thriller but found it to be a literary novel that sensitively addressed the long term effects of childhood trauma. I felt that it was well written and a compelling read. 

While it is intense and dark there is much more than sensation to the narrative. I have read other novels about surviving troubled childhoods that seem more like fictional misery memoirs. However, I felt that Abigail Dean was more restrained focusing on the bonds of love, hope, and humanity rather than overly dwelling on explicit details of the abuses.

Certainly an important novel that I feel will be of interest to reading groups for its themes and possibilities for discussion. 

With respect to the audiobook edition, I find that novels with a first person narrator work especially well as audiobooks. Holliday Grainger is a well known British stage and screen actor and as a result her confirmation as narrator for ‘Girl A’ made headlines in various publications. 

I have followed Holliday Grainger’s career for years and felt that she was an excellent choice to narrate Lex’s moving story. She was a joy to listen to.

I gave this to 52% before I couldn't take listening to it any more. 
This was so dull. At first I was intrigued, wanted to know what had happened during their childhood and what the parents had done, but as the story droned on and on <i> and on and on</i> I quickly lost interest. I didn't form a connection with any of the characters and found that the narrator even seemed bored while reading it. 

I don't really understand why the chapters had to be so excruciatingly long and I couldn't keep up with the constant timeline switches. It wasn't obvious when listening to the audiobook when the narrator had switched to the past or back to the present, so I was constantly thrown into confusion. 

Massively disappointed considering all the praise and hype this book has been getting recently.

There has been so much excitement around Girl A by Abigail Dean, and I knew I had to bump it right to the top of my to be read pile, I was gripped from the offset and I finished it in a few days! 

We firstly meet Lexie, named 'Girl A' by the press following her escape from her childhood home or 'house of horrors', when she was young. Now a lawyer living in New York, she has to come back to the UK following her mother's death, who has died in prison and has left the house they grew up in, to her and her siblings in her will. And now Lexie has to face her traumatic past once again. 

It’s been reviewed in places as ‘dark and disturbing’ and yes, there are some parts that are very difficult to read and imagine, but the horror & abuse the characters suffered as children is implied rather than graphically detailed which is just as impactful, if not more, so don't let this put you off this incredible novel. 

Something that stood out to me is that every single character is written beautifully and described starting with Girl A who does come across as quite cold, with the narrative switching back between their childhoods spent in the ‘house of horrors’ to the present day, but it doesn't get confusing. The book really focuses on the after effects of trauma - how does each sibling move on from what they experienced? Girl A is far more than a whodunnit as it focuses on the survivors of a terrible crime and how they cope, or fail to, with their freedom. It’s how they’ve all found their own ways to deal with what happened to them. And Lex finding the courage to confront their horrific past and learn the true power of forgiveness and moving on.

4/5 stars for me, will definitely read anything else from this author - great things to come!

*Review also available on Amazon*

I received a copy of Girl A by Abigail Dean from Netgalley in audio format. I had expected to enjoy the story, albeit in the knowledge that it was about children escaping from an abusive family situation. I was unprepared for the awful sadness and brutality described. 

I’m wondering if I found it so unpleasant and painful because I was listening to the narration and this somehow made it more real. However, I  failed to finish it and couldn’t recommend it. 

I must say that the narrator, Holiday Granger was very easy to listen to and  I’d definitely like to try an audio book read by her again. Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for an opportunity to listen to this story..

Girl A is one of the most talked about novels of January 2021 and I was really looking forward to listening to the audiobook, having very much enjoyed a sampler previously. Very well narrated by the modulated, calm tones of Holly Grainger, Girl A is the story of Alexandra Gracie, told by her of living in the ‘House of Horrors’ with her six siblings and their mother and father.

As the book opens, we are in the present day. Lexie’s mother has just died in prison and Lexie is the executor of her will and the one who has to decide what to do with the house and the small legacy of £20,000 that is left. Now living in New York, she has to stay in England to negotiate the will with each of her brothers and sisters.

The narrative switches time frames quite often without signalling so it can be quite interesting at times to keep up with whether we are in the past or present. Girl A is rather beautifully and evocatively written and has none of the exploitative horror that you might have expected. The matter of fact-ness of the narrative is one of the things that makes the book chilling.

Yet, you can’t help be a little disassociated from Lexie. She’s a character whose life has been very difficult, but who you never warm to – perhaps because she has never had a good relationship herself.  That has its drawbacks, however, as you never really emotionally engage with Lexie and though her upbringing was indeed pretty horrible and abusive, that experience never quite sears its way into your consciousness in the way you might expect.

Girl A is a detailed exploration of trauma and the after effects; it is an in depth character study of how Lexie has handled her upbringing and how she copes with what she has experienced.

Through Lexie’s narration we understand the various characters, her siblings and their parents and everything we understand is from her perspective. We also get a fascinating perspective on the role of the media in such cases and it isn’t pretty.

There are moments when the silence in this narration prevails and that really makes a point in a way that words would not and Dean’s writing style is quietly tough and sometimes devastating.

Verdict: Well-written, nicely plotted and not sensationalised, this is an interesting story with some compelling moments and a plot moment that was easily anticipated, but was nonetheless impactful. In the end, I think I expected something stronger and more emotionally engaging, but maybe that says more about me than the story? Still very much worth a listen/read,  even if not wholly for me.

It was so good, and then it wasn’t. I’m not sure what happened. The beginning was suspenseful and intriguing. The story unfolded at an engaging pace, then around 60% of the way through I got bored and the characters became boring and lacklustre. Also for some reason the audiobook missed out sections of the text which I was reading along. A little odd. Anyway, thank you to net galley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

There is so much hype right now about Girl A and I was really hoping to be approved for it to get stuck in. It’s a very well written book and Holliday Grainger does a superb job narrating it. It’s a harrowing storyline for sure but it doesn’t stand out from other books of a similar nature therefore I really don’t get the hype around this book. I did like how each Gracie sibling got there own chapter to explain past and present. I found the storyline just going through the motions and not much going on so not sure why it’s being described as a thriller as for me there was no suspense. The switching from past to present without warning was somewhat confusing. I was left with some unanswered questions which I think are important to the storyline and actually kept me listening but I didn’t get my explanation. I really wanted to love this but it just wasn’t the case unfortunately and it fell a little short for me. 

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK Audio for the opportunity to listen and review this ARC that was published on the 21st of Jan.

Girl A is heart wrenching, heart stopping and a read that makes you believe in hope despite the darkest of circumstances. It's a stunning debut by Abigail Dean. Holiday Grainger is the perfect voice for this audiobook she tells the story of Lex and her siblings so well, has you utterly gripped from the first word she utters. She manages to tap in to your emotions and at times send shivers down your spine.
This is an audiobook you will not forget listening to and one you will likely tell all your friends to listen to.

DNF @ 36%. I'm just not following it at all, it doesn't make sense to me and the time jumps seem to happen constantly and with no pause or anything, it's unnerving.

When Lex Gracie's mother dies in prison after making her the executor of her will, she must approach each of her siblings to get their permission to turn their old house (branded the House of Horrors by the press)  into a community center. 

I loved that each chapter focused on a different Gracie sibling, detailing how they coped with their childhood trauma and how it has led them all down very different paths. While it deals with tough subject matter, it was such a compelling read that I read in one sitting. 

I alternated between reading and listening to this and I can recommend both options. Holliday Grainger was a great choice of narrator.

This is sure to be one of the biggest debut novels of 2021 and it deserves to be a massive success. 

Thank you to Harper Collins and #NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Girl A by Abigail Dean was featured in National Book Tokens/Caboodle's '21 books to look out for in 2021'.