Book Review: Girl A

Book Summary:

The place card name “A” was given to Lex, who escaped from her abusive family home as a teenager. The lived in squalor, with a father who had grown increasingly psychotic with his religious views.

Her mother simply had babies, one right after the other. Because that seemed to be what Father wanted.

There came a time when he wouldn’t allow the children to attend school. And a gradual gradation to how far things went. They were chained in dirty rooms and not allowed to leave them. They were basically starved, while Father ate quite well.

And then Lex escaped one day and ran in front of the first car she saw driving down the road. She had the despairing look of someone who had been betrayed by the very people who should have loved and cared for her.

The children were all adopted to different couples. Lex, being the oldest, ended up with an older family. She had a good life and people who loved her. She got therapy and became an attorney.

The bringing together of some of the siblings comes about when their mother dies in prison and leaves them the ramshackle house they once lived in.

About The Author:

This is Abigail Dean’s first novel, a debut that has catapulted her to fame.

She is an attorney in her early thirties who has surprised even herself with the notoriety this book has given her.

My Thoughts:

I read this book in a couple of days. Like someone caught staring at a car pile up on the interstate, it was hard to look away from the contents of this book. Although of course it was fiction.

To think of someone willfully starving and chaining his children due to whatever demonic cult-like beliefs he held is reprehensible of course.

I imagine it was hard to write this sort of book. To sit in the character’s head to write her story. Even a work of fiction can be profoundly troubling.