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A Novel
by Abigail Dean
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.
"A tour de force, beautifully written, richly imagined, and compulsively readable. Add to this its grave sometimes ominous tone, and the result is unforgettable." - Booklist (Starred Review)
"[Dean] skillfully brings the complicated relationships among the siblings as well as the secrets they share into dramatic relief. This assured psychological thriller marks Dean as a writer to watch." - Publishers Weekly
"Abigail Dean wastes no time diving into the wreckage of the Gracie clan... [Girl A] often reads more like a slow-burn character study, though it's richer for it." - Entertainment Weekly
"The height of a pandemic might not be the ideal time to read a novel about six English children held captive at home and abused by their deranged parents. But put your fears aside or you'll miss out on a stunning debut...compelling."- Washington Post
"A riveting page-turner, full of hope in the face of despair." - The Guardian (UK)
"A novel that's psychologically astute and written with flair. In the traditional new year battle between much touted first thrillers it's the clear winner." - Sunday Times (UK)
"The biggest mystery thriller since Gone Girl." - Elle (UK)
"This gripping story about family dynamics and the nature of human psychology will hold you tight all the way through." - Good Housekeeping
"Nothing short of astonishing... Rarely does a novel offer up such unique plotting, such heart-stopping psychological drama, and such a rich portrayal of its inhabitants. A modern-day classic." - Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Goodbye Man and The Bone Collector
"Fantastic, I loved it." - Paula Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train
"It is rare for a novel to be so deft yet devastating. A story of terrible control but also irresistible humanity, Girl A is a portrait of survival, intelligence and love, and it will stay with me for a long time. A book of deep feeling, and an astonishing achievement." - Jessie Burton, author of the New York Times bestseller The Miniaturist
"Girl A is truly my idea of the perfect book: gripping and beautifully written, with complex (and often chilling) characters that are fully realised, and hard to forget. I'll be thinking about this for a long, long time, so… Believe the hype – it really is that good." - Katie Lowe, author of The Furies
"A searing, gripping tale of love, loss and survival that exposes the bare bones of humanity and explores how victims cope long after the headlines stop rolling. One of the most compelling novels I've read in a long time." - Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars and The Foundling
"Terrifyingly gripping." - Susie Steiner, author of Missing, Presumed and Persons Unknown
"Emotionally complex and beautifully written, with shades of Gillian Flynn and Ali Land, the dark secrets of Girl A unfold with such cool confidence that I kept having to remind myself that this was a debut. Incredibly impressive." - Catherine Ryan Howard, author of The Nothing Man
This information about Girl A was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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.
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