Girl A - Abigail Dean

Thriller

Rating: 8/10

Lex 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 and exposed the crimes.

If you were to set your expectations about the trajectory of this story based solely on this short synopsis, no one could blame you for thinking this would be a chronicle of the horrific atrocities that parents can heap upon their children. That, however, is only the motif running in the background, the real story is about surviving the horror’s that follow those children into adulthood.

Finding herself the executor of her Mother’s will, Lex must reach out to her siblings in order to settle the estate.  The interactions and flashbacks build to a level of emotional complexity you aren’t likely to be expecting.

A gripping and searing tale of love, loss and survival that exposes the underbelly of humanity and how victims cope long after the headlines fade and the transition of the voyeuristic media moves on to the next harrowing tale.

Footnote: An excerpt that gives you a sense of the depth in this book.

“I have spent many nights combing through the memories, like a student in a library, wiping the dust from old volumes and checking each shelf, searching for the moment when I should have known it was time to act.  This book eludes me still.  It was checked out many years ago and never returned.”