Trauma Narratives and Survivor Stories, my review of Girl A by Abigail Dean

Mar 11, 2021
5 min read

I have always had some sort of quiet fascination for true crime; not one that drove me to look for stories or actively google ‘true crime news’, but rather one that captured my attention whenever I an article landed on my timeline, or a new documentary was released. When I heard about Abigail Dean’s debut novel, Girl A, somewhat inspired by a true story, I was immediately interested.

“You don’t know me, but you’ll have seen my face.”

Girl A tells the story of Alexandra Gracie (Lex), or Girl A, who escaped her parents’ House of Horrors in Northern England when she was a teenager. Several years later, when her mother dies in prison, Lex is appointed as executor of her mother’s will, and must figure out what to do as she inherits the very house she was abused in. Throughout the novel, she meets with her siblings, scattered across England, discussing their options, which lead her to reminisce on their trauma.

Each chapter is named after one of the Gracie siblings, from Ethan, the eldest, a successful academic, to Noah, who was a baby when they were found, and who escaped the trauma his older siblings lived through. Through Lex’s eyes – and narrative voice – we follow the Gracie’s life, both as children when their parents fell into a world of religion, cult and abuse.

Trauma narratives

“That was the problem with coming home: you also had to come to the self which resided there.”

When I first heard about this novel, I expected it to be a typical thriller, in which, even if we knew that the children had survived and escaped, we would find some tension, wondering what would happen to them. However, there is not that many descriptions of the abuse. Rather, the novel focuses on different responses to trauma, and people’s interest for gruesome true crime stories. If you are looking for graphic depiction of abuse, this is not the right book. And in a way, I think that this make this book even better, as it does not rely on the shock value like many thriller novels do.

The novel explores how each sibling has responded to the abuse they lived through, and Abigail Dean offers a sort of character study of how trauma affects everyone differently. Ethan, the eldest, uses his trauma in a controlled manner, telling parts of his story which allow him to find balance between being interesting and being normal. From Lex’s description of him, while he is very successful and has found stability, he seems to have a need to control every aspect of his life. Delilah – girl B – appears to have made peace with her past, and refuses to acknowledge any resentment towards her abuse. Gabriel, the one who stayed in the spotlight the longest, using his past for money, struggles still with mental health and stability…

This novel was not what I expected, but that does not mean that I was disappointed. I absolutely loved that we got to see how each child dealt with the past, and the different trauma narratives that were shown, proving that everyone has a different response to trauma. However, because the entire novel is told through Lex’s perspective, I often found it difficult to get an accurate representation of each character. I think that I would have enjoyed it more if each chapter let us hear from each sibling rather than just Lex’s impression of them.

Nevertheless, this was such an interesting take on trauma narratives and survivor stories, and I would love to read more stories like this one in the future.

Sibling dynamics

“In each family, you have your allies.”

Girl A also majorly focuses on sibling dynamics, which I thought was a really interesting take. Instead of showing a family brought together by their shared trauma, the author created siblings who, like in any other family, have their affinities and their issues. The Gracie family had 7 children, and it becomes clear very early on that there are different groups, and that not all of them are close. Lex and Evie make up a pair, having shared a room when they lived at their parents, and Lex playing the part of a carer for Evie. Similarly, Delilah and Gabriel seem to be the closest, as we learn that Delilah has helped her brother and has been supporting him as he goes to hospital. However, Lex’s relationship with Ethan and Delilah is strained, and we are shown that even if they all lived under the same roof, and survived the same trauma, it does not mean that they share a special bond.

Abigail Dean does a great job at showing realistic sibling dynamics. While each of them have one sibling that they get along with, they are not all part of each other’s lives. Their relationship with one another is what you would expect from a family who had to go through any kind of trauma, and who were separated as teenagers. I believe that it is one of the strongest points of the novel – and something I would have like to see more of.

I think that my main issue with this novel was that it was really difficult to connect with the characters, part of which is, I think, because it is told from only one character’s perspective. As Lex visits her brothers, or tries to connect with her sisters, it feels as if we, as readers, are also struggling to understand the others. I think that this novel could have had a bigger impact if we had been able to see how each character dealt with their lives as abuse survivors.

It was also sometimes very difficult to follow the time jumps, as it went back and forth throughout the chapters. While it was easy to differentiate flashbacks from their childhood to the present, whenever Lex mentioned something that happened to her in the past but while she was already an adult, it took me a few moments to understand what she was talking about. It would have been useful to have a clearer idea of the time line.

Nevertheless, this was a good book, and I really enjoyed reading it (I ended up giving it 3.5/5). If you are interested in trauma narratives, I would recommend reading My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. It is more graphic and if you are triggered by sexual assault it may not be the book for you. If you want a review of My Dark Vanessa, you can check out my Favourite Books of 2020, where it features.

If you have read Girl A, or want to read it, I would love to know! As usual, it would mean a lot to me if you shared this review with people around you, and if you want more updates, you can follow my Instagram, where I post short reviews and nice books pictures.