Girl A by Abagail Dean (2021) Most important warning we can impart to anyone about this book......pay no attention whatsoever to any reviews (from professional critics or avid readers) that categorize "Girl A" as a thriller........
No, it's not one of those books that tries to straddle the borderline between serious literary fiction and a thrills 'n chills suspense-mystery.
It's been inaccurately labeled that way because in fact it does deal with a despicable, horrendous crime - the brutal childhood abuse and enslavement of six brothers and sisters by their religious fanatic father and their mother, compliant in the madness and torture.
The oldest of the children, Lex and Ethan manage to escape and after their other siblings are rescued and their 'house of horrors' exposed to the world, the children are placed in separate foster homes. Some thrive.....some merely survive, the psychological scars too deep and permanent.
As now grown adults, each of them has achieved different measures of success and failure in coping with the terrible memories of their past that torment them. After their mother dies in prison, Lex is tasked with getting her brothers and sisters to approve a plan to turn that crumbling childhood home of suffering and misery into a community center.
Lex's quest to make that happen becomes a journey of both heartbreak and glimmers of hope, along with flashbacks that chronicle their father's descent into unspeakable cruelty that leads to the destruction of the family.
It's gut wrenching stuff all the way through and some readers may find it hard to take in.
True enough, the book does pull off a thriller-worthy twist near the end, but it's not so much a twist as it is an almost inevitable result of the terrible damage done to Lex and her brothers and sisters.
Both overwhelmingly sad and compelling as any suspense tale, "Girl A" will stay in memory as a 4 star (****) book and one of the best reads of the year.
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