Girl A: A Novel

Abigail Dean

Feb 2021 · Sold by Penguin

About this eBook

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
“Pitch-perfect... Dean tells this story with such nuance and humanity, you’re desperate to step into its pages." —The New York Times

“Heart-stopping psychological drama… A modern-day classic." —Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author

“A gripping story about family dynamics and the nature of human psychology.” —Good Housekeeping

She thought she had escaped her past. But there are some things you can’t outrun.

Lex Gracie doesn't want to think about her family. She doesn't want to think about growing up in her parents' House of Horrors. And she doesn't want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It's been easy enough to avoid her parents--her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can't run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the home into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings--and with the childhood they shared.

What begins as a propulsive tale of escape and survival becomes a gripping psychological family story about the shifting alliances and betrayals of sibling relationships--about the secrets our siblings keep, from themselves and each other. Who have each of these siblings become? How do their memories defy or galvanize Lex's own? As Lex pins each sibling down to agree to her family's final act, she discovers how potent the spell of their shared family mythology is, and who among them remains in its thrall and who has truly broken free.

For readers of Room and Sharp Objects, an absorbing and psychologically immersive novel about a young girl who escapes captivity–but not the secrets that shadow the rest of her life.

Ratings and reviews

Abigail Dean provides an unflinching glimpse of the enduring wreckage caused by child abuse in her novel, Girl A. The title refers to Alex, one of seven siblings rescued from a “House of Horrors,” where they suffered years of horrific abuse and neglect. Girl A is the name assigned to Alex, the oldest girl and the one who escaped her bindings, exposed their circumstances, and enabled their rescue. As the novel opens, Alex is now a successful lawyer with a new family and strong friendships. She has been informed that her birth mother has died in prison and she has been named executrix of her will. She needs to obtain signatures from her far-flung and estranged siblings to be convert the ramshackle house into a community center. She hopes that such a gesture would overwrite the story and serve as a type of repentance. The community is not exactly welcoming of a renewed association with their family name, and Alex has not spoken with some siblings since those days of captivity. As Alex deals with the estate, the novel jumps back and forth in time, slowly revealing the sordid story of the family’s descent into madness. Alex recalls new details the closer she gets to the house, and she comes to grips with some difficult memories that she had been repressing. Dean uses Alex’s investigations to explore the viewpoints of the surviving children-both during those years and following their emancipation. The medical and psychological scars, bad blood, shame and blame all work against Alex’s efforts but provide evidence of trauma’s lasting effects. Girl A might be a bit too graphic for more sensitive readers, but the author does an admirable job exploring themes of loyalty, created families, re-invention and self-deceit. Thanks to the author, Viking, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

About the author

Abigail Dean works as a lawyer for Google, and before that was a bookseller. She lives in London, and is working on her second novel.