Girl A
After the death of her mother in prison, a woman must face the horrific abuse that she and her siblings endured as children.
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My Review
Lex’s mother has just died–in prison–and Lex has returned to England to handle the estate with her siblings. Included is the family home, known as the “House of Horrors,” where the six siblings were chained and starved until Lex was able to escape and find help. Her plans to do something good with the home force her reckon with the horrific past she left behind–and decide what it means for her future.
This is an extremely dark novel; because of the subject matter, it was difficult to read and took me a while to get through. The story is loosely based on a similar “house of horrors” in California, which an older sister escaped. It is intense and (thankfully) not overly graphic, but incredibly heartbreaking. Mostly well-written, but confusing and frequent switches between past and present knocked this down for me.
Publisher’s Description
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 House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings – and with the childhood they shared.
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