Tag: Reviews

My Week in Books – 28th November 2021

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MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of historical true crime novel, The Dublin Railway Murder by Thomas Morris as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – I shared my review of thriller, No Way To Die by Tony Kent.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to have a good nose around what others are reading. Plus, I published my review of dual-time historical novel, The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable as part of the blog tour.  

Thursday – I gave an update on my progress with the NetGalley November reading challenge. 

Friday – As part of NetGalley November, I published my review of Violets by Alex Hyde. 

Saturday – I published my review of psychological thriller, Girl A by Abigail Dean.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media.

New arrivals

The Cornish CaptiveThe Cornish Captive by Nicola Pryce (ARC, Corvus via Readers First)

Cornwall, 1800. Imprisoned on false pretences, Madeleine Pelligrew, former mistress of Pendenning Hall, has spent the last 14 years shuttled between increasingly destitute and decrepit mad houses. When a strange man appears out of the blue to release her, she can’t quite believe that her freedom comes without a price. Hiding her identity, Madeleine determines to discover the truth about what happened all those years ago.

Unsure who to trust and alone in the world, Madeleine strikes a tentative friendship with a French prisoner on parole, Captain Pierre de la Croix. But as she learns more about the reasons behind her imprisonment, and about those who schemed to hide her away for so long, she starts to wonder if Pierre is in fact the man he says he is. As Madeleine’s past collides with her present, can she find the strength to follow her heart, no matter the personal cost? 

The Porcelain DollThe Porcelain Doll by Kristen Loesch (ARC, Allison & Busby)

In a faraway kingdom, in a long-ago land…

Rosie lived peacefully in Moscow and her mother told fairy tales at bedtime. Then one summer night, all that came abruptly to an end when her father and sister were gunned down. Now Rosie’s only inheritance from her reclusive mother is a book of Russian fairy tales, but there is another story lurking between the lines.

Currently a doctoral student at Oxford, Rosie has a fiancé who knows nothing of her former life and an ailing, alcoholic mother lost to a notebook full of eerie, handwritten little stories. Desperate for answers to the questions that have tormented her, Rosie returns to her homeland and uncovers a devastating family history which spans the 1917 Revolution, the siege of Leningrad, Stalin’s purges and beyond. At the heart of those answers stands a young noblewoman, Tonya, as pretty as a porcelain doll, whose actions reverberate across the century…

Bad RelationsBad Relations by Cressida Connolly (eARC, Viking via NetGalley)

On the battlefields of the Crimea, William Gale cradles the still-warm body of his brother. William’s experience of war is to bring about a change in him that will reverberate through his family over the next two centuries.

In the 1970s, William’s English descendants invite Stephen, a distant Australian cousin, to stay in their bohemian house in Cornwall – but their golden summer entanglements will end in a dramatic fall from grace.

Half a century later, a confrontation between the surviving members of the family culminates in a terrible reckoning.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: The Doll Factory by Elizabeth MacNeal
  • Book Review: A Three Dog Problem by S. J. Bennett 
  • Book Review: Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray
  • #6Degrees of Separation: From Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton to…

#BookReview Girl A by Abigail Dean

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Girl AAbout the Book

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.

Format: Paperback (336 pages)              Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication date: 30th September 2021 Genre: Thriller

Find Girl A on Goodreads

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My Review

Girl A was this month’s choice for the book club run by my local Waterstones. (It was also their Thriller of the Month.) I’m not completely sure I would categorise it as a thriller, although it does contain a sort of ‘twist’ that might give you a different perspective on earlier parts of the book.  For me, Girl A is more an exploration of the psychological impact of trauma.

Told mostly from the perspective of Lex, the narrative moves back and forth in time between the terrible experiences of Lex and her siblings during their time in the ‘House of Horrors’, the period following their escape, and years later after the death of their birth mother.  Since the changes in time period often occurred without any clear indication, I did find myself confused at times. Also I wasn’t sure what some of the sub-plots added to the book, such as the details of Lex’s latest work assignment, although I appreciate this does show she was able to forge a successful career as a lawyer despite her earlier experiences.

Their experiences have affected each sibling in different ways. Some have to some extent moved on from their experiences, forging new lives and relationships.  Others remain damaged, often leaving them open to manipulation. Lex herself, despite therapy and the fact it was she who ensured their escape, seems to retain a sense of guilt that she was unable to prevent the terrible things that happened to her siblings. Her response is to block out certain facts and to deny any connection between what she endured and her continuing inclination towards risky behaviour.

Most interesting for me was what, bit by bit, we learn about the dynamics between the siblings during their imprisonment; what behaviours they were forced to adopt to avoid or deflect the physical and mental abuse of their father.  The reason for their mother’s complicity is never spelled out. Was she the victim of coercive control, so consumed by love for her husband that she was prepared to tolerate his treatment of the children, or blinded by the same religious fervour that he used as justification?

Judging by other reviews, Girl A is something of a ‘Marmite’ book: some readers have loved it whilst others disliked it, or even gave up on it.  I think I’m in between in that there were elements of it I found interesting but overall it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I found parts of it uncomfortable to read to the extent it felt almost voyeuristic. Prompted by a comment from another reader, I was also surprised to find out just how much the details of the events in the ‘House of Horror’ mirror those in the real-life case of the Turpin family.

In three words: Unsettling, dark, intense

Try something similar: Educated by Tara Westover

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Abigail Final ImagesAbout the Author

Abigail Dean was born in Manchester, and grew up in the Peak District. She graduated from Cambridge with a Double First in English. Formerly a Waterstones bookseller, she spent five years as a lawyer in London, and took summer 2018 off to work on her debut novel, Girl A, ahead of her thirtieth birthday. Abigail works as a lawyer for Google, and is currently writing her second novel, The Conspiracies. She has always loved reading, writing, and talking about books. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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