Girl A

By: Abigail Dean

Narrated by: Holliday Grainger

Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Longlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year

Chosen as a best book of 2021 by The Times, the FT, the Guardian, the Independent, Stylist and more!

‘Girl A,’ she said. ‘The girl who escaped. If anyone was going to make it, it was going to be you.’

I am Lex Gracie: but they call me Girl A.

I grew up with my family on the moors.

I escaped when I was 15 years old.

Now something is pulling me back....

Rights sold in 36 territories

Soon to be a TV show directed by Johan Renck (Chernobyl)

One of Marie Claire, Waterstones and Grazia’s best books for 2021

A Sunday Times number two best seller for w/e 6/2/21

A New York Times best seller

©2020 Abigail Dean (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

"Sensational. Gripping, haunting, and beautifully written." (Richard Osman)  

"An astonishing achievement." (Jessie Burton) 

"A masterpiece." (Louise O’Neill)

Great book

I’m not sure if ‘great’ is the right word for such a sad story, but this is a harrowing story beautifully told. Includes vivid descriptions of poverty, child neglect and abuse (so trigger warning). The stories are carefully peeled back with layers of now and memory flashbacks, and give a very convincing picture of a fictional troubled family (at least I think it’s fictional - it all seems very real). Realistic, in-depth characterisation, and the audible reading was very well done too. Five stars

Boring!

It was uneventful and long. Not worth a listen. Nothing really happens. Nothing exiting is told and it can NOT be categorized as a psychological thriller!

Characters are so well developed

Great story and great narration - really clever inclusion of all characters! The flashbacks are really excellently portrayed

Beware any book described as "literary"

If I had known before I lost the hours it took to endure this pile of self regarding ordure, I would have driven a screwdriver through my ear drums. Yet another callow indulgence penned by some dreary young woman who thinks its insightful and "LITERARY" to be dull. It isn't.
Spoiler alert: A family is ruined by a religious nut and Child A, a troubled young survivor describes pretty much everything you might expect. No surprises. No insights. Dull, dull, dull. And certainly not a thriller, literary or otherwise. Avoid.

Terrible, a real struggle to listen to it all!

The main character was not as all likeable. She was very difficult to engage with. The story rambled and was a real struggle to listen to. The narration sounded very condescending and the narration of the male characters was very irritating.

Horrifying, beautiful, haunting and uplifting.

Girl A is Lex, a survivor from a house of horrors where she and her six siblings (girls a,b and c and boys a,b,c and d) have been tortured, abused, starved and mistreated by her stark raving father and peculiarly detached mother.
The story starts years after the Gracie children are away from the house when their mother’s death forces them to revisit the past.

The story is heartbreaking, and horrifying in turns, although it rarely goes into details or is explicit.
It does a great job of picking up what happens after the cameras stop, the newspaper headlines end, and the circus dies down.
I don’t want to give any spoilers, but the characters are rarely exactly as they first appear but still feel very true.
Ms Hollidays performance was great.
9/10

Uninteresting

I have listened to over 5 hours of this book and apart from the beginning nothing is happening to want me to continue listening.
There's no mystery etc; just boring waffle to fill a gap between the beginning and the end of the story. I really don't understand (actually really amazed) how some people have rated this book so highly. I will continue listening and if the story improves I will change my review.

Badly written and badly read

Takes details from prominent media stories and turns them into fictional misery lit. The characters are badly drawn and it's hard to see why the situation would take place. Some details, like the matching shirts, are shoehorned into the story without good reason for their occurrence. The stories Lex tells about her parents attempt to include information that couldn't realistically have been described by them or remembered by her. I wanted to get to the end just to see what else it included but I really struggled.

Heartbreakingly brilliant

Wow.... what a powerful book. It was read beautifully and broke my heart many times but just so beautifully written, there is no way I could stop listening to it. nothing I can say wrong about this book just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant

Amazing

Brilliant book, I finished it in two days. I hope she writes another one soon.

Kept me listening

I enjoyed this listen, I think a lot of that was down to the narrator who I thought was great (as she is on Strike series). Details are revealed slowly and some aspects are left for you to draw your own conclusions, which makes it both intriguing and a little frustrating. Would still recommend it though.

Dazzling

A sensational debut novel. Worthy of all the buzz and more. Read beautifully here. Highly recommended.

What an achievement

Such a beautifully written debut novel. As the story slowly unfolds you find yourself gripped by the tragic, then optimistic, then tragic reality. I’m eagerly awaiting Abigail Deans next publication.