The girls were told they had to play a part in the fight and take pride. They were told that even if they die on the battlefield, that their death as a believer was the sweetest thing. Nothing short of astonishing... Rarely does a novel offer up such unique plotting, such heart-stopping psychological drama, and such a rich portrayal of its inhabitants. A modern-day classic." - Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Goodbye Man and The Bone Collector And of course we also learn more about Lex and her siblings. How they dealt with ‘life’ with Mother and Father and how they thrived – or otherwise – after they were freed. There’s something really interesting about the way each of the siblings handle what’s happened to them and who they’ve become as a result. Altro aspetto per me non riuscito è il continuo salto, all’interno dello stesso periodo, dal tempo passato al tempo presente, una consecutio dissennata: elemento che ha rallentato la lettura senza renderla più avvincente. Un artificio che mi è parso abbastanza inutile e fuori contesto.

There’s something about dark narratives about dysfunctional families that pulls readers in. It probably stems from a sense of empathy mixed with familiarity. However, some stories take dysfunction into places so dark and dangerous that readers aren’t pulled in; they’re brutally dragged. Abigail Dean’s Girl A belongs to this second group. A crushing tale that delves into the horrors of a devastating past and explores its impact on the present, this novel explores the very unique and complicated world of siblings coping with shared trauma. From those cases and a few others,” says Dean, “I saw the power of teenage girls to escape and be incredibly strong. That was something I wanted to think about in terms of Lex, her resilience and intelligence in the face of a devastating experience.” But Dean ultimately wanted the book to be “about hope rather than, ‘Will they or will they not get out of the house?’ So you have the reassurance at the start that Lex is OK, then it’s a case of the years that follow – what then? Once the headlines have been recycled, what happens to the people who have been at the heart of these things? How do you live in the aftermath of that?” This novel inhabits two different times. The first is the present, when Lex is forced to deal with the realities of being names her mother’s executor after her death in prison. She’s an adult woman who has done her best to move forward, but the scars of her childhood are still visible in her thoughts and demeanor, especially in the way she remembers her mother. Whenever the narrative is in this contemporary space, the prose is tense and dialogue carries a lot of the action, but it clear that the past is always present in some way. However, when the narrative inhabits the past—which makes it the present—the fear, isolation, and confusion are almost palpable. Lex is forced to deal with a horrendous reality in which everyday occurrences and minor problems are exacerbated by her situation. When this happens, Dean’s sharp, first person prose gets to the core of things unflinchingly, and that makes many passages memorable: So I can define this book as a family drama/ a psychological, realistic fiction, a brave survival and complex settlement with the traumatic past story with well crafted, deeply layered characterization.

Girl A

He sat on the stool next to me, saying there was something I must know. Human nature had turned diabolical. The country as I had left it was no more, houses torched while people slept inside them, farmers no longer able to till their land, people fleeing from one hungry wasteland to another, devastation. A woman pouring her own faeces on her head and her children's heads each morning, to deceive the Dogs, to delude them into believing they were all mad. This book is not so much about the horrors but about how the kids survived their experiences. Spoiler alert – some did better than others. Aggiungo anche che il racconto spesso parte per derive laterali che con la storia principale poco hanno a che fare: sembrano più che altro aggiungere folklore, colore pittoresco. Ma non sostanza.

For much of this book I wasn’t sure if I was reading about a cult, or about kidnapped children. Dean keeps it pretty vague for a while and readers are on edge, recognising that we don’t have the full story. Waiting for more. And then she does something magical: make us twin with the stunned and traumatized Maryam as she reverts to sheer animalistic survival, trying to see her way to the light. There is a certain mixed-up and frenetic quality to this book as Maryam switches from reality to a dreamlike stance, from past to present. Throughout her ordeal, which includes a harrowing account of a woman stoned alive and a gang rape, we—the readers—are forced to bear witness helplessly. Qui, Maryam e le altre 274 ragazze vennero schiavizzate, costrette ad appagare militari arrapati, a cucinare, a pulire, a pregare un dio sconosciuto, a subire botte, umiliazioni, stupri di gruppo, e matrimoni combinati. Girl A, Lex, has come to England, where she was "raised," as she's been appointed the executor of tbeir mother's estate following her death in prison. As Lex goes to see each sibling--Ethan, Delilah, Gabriel, Noah, and Evie--readers slowly come to realize that all of them are still suffering from what they lived through, but each of their relationships with Lex and among each other are either close in various unhealthy ways, and/or that as they were growing up, some of them suffered at the hands of each other and not just their parents..Whilst I enjoyed (in so much as one can, reading about such atrocities) this book, I feel a little uncomfortable about a white Irish woman having written it and to be the one to give voice to their ordeal. However, I assume Ms. O'Brien obtained the young women's permission before writing this book. Also, I hope the author intends to give at least part of the proceeds of this book to the survivors, as they struggle to build new lives for themselves and overcome the atrocities they endured. I cannot imagine going through the things they did and some still are, and no one should profit in any way from their pain.

In June 2019, she sent the book out to agents and it ended up in a nine-way auction in the UK, where it sold for a “major” six-figure sum. North American rights went for seven figures, and more than 20 other territories have acquired the book, with screen rights going to Sony. Dean was on a work trip for Google in India, in a taxi in a rural area with no reception, when her agent started trying to get in touch to tell her the news. The experience, she says, was “just as crazy and surreal as you might imagine”. 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 six siblings – and with the childhood they shared. If there is a criticism which I think is valid it is around the language. In her LA Review of Books review of “Little Red Chairs”, Claire Wills said the language seemed very dated and that “O’Brien appears to believe that interiority is timeless, that the emotional inner world, the sensations of consciousness, remain the same even while the world changes around them. But the difficulty is that even if we accept that such desires may be primordial (which is debatable), the language in which desire is expressed, and arguably in which it is felt, is surely not.” The trouble with this novel is that although its intentions are admirable it doesn’t quite manage to make the protagonist come alive as a fully-fledged character. It was always going to be difficult for O’Brien to get inside the thoughts and emotions of a traumatised Nigerian teenager, and up to a point she does a good job, but for much of the book Maryam sounds too much like a western girl whose vocabulary is English (tittle-tattle) and too advanced for her age (morass). The book is clearly well-researched, based on the two trips O’Brien made to Nigeria and the many interviews she had there. The authenticity of the story doesn’t seem to be in doubt. It is narrated by Maryam whom we follow throughout her abduction by Boko Haram and her return to her community. It’s a harrowing tale, particularly after her return when her rejection by her family is heart-breaking. The violence is not overplayed, and in fact is largely depicted in quite a measured and dispassionate way. But Maryam seems too much of an amalgam to really relate to and I never became fully immersed in her world. It sometimes felt that O’Brien felt compelled to put in every bit of her research to the detriment of the novel’s focus. The narrative switches constantly between past and present tense, sometimes in the same sentence, and I found this irritating – although I note that some readers find this device disorientating and thus reflecting Maryam’s mental state. Perhaps so.

Taken from school in Northeast Nigeria, this is the story of a teenage girl through her abduction, captivity, escape, survival throughout, and return to society. It is a tale of being a victim of rape, starvation, degradation, and humiliation. It is about the resilience of women. Chiaro il parallelo con le sue ragazze di campagna (e col suo eterno impegno per la sacrosanta causa a favore dei diritti delle donne) particolarmente sottolineato dal titolo: Maryam e Buki rimandano in qualche modo a Cait e Baba. E dalla provincia irlandese siamo passati a un respiro generale, a una vetrina internazionale. Loved 'Gone Girl'? This New Psychological Thriller Is Tipped To Be 2021's Hottest Read". Marie Claire. 2 February 2021 . Retrieved 10 February 2021.

Girl A,” she said. “The girl who escaped. If anybody was going to make it, it was going to be you.”The book opens with the story, fifteen years in the past, of how then-15-year-old Lex Gracie dramatically escaped from her home—later dubbed the House of Horrors—where she and her siblings were kept in literal chains by their parents. In the present, Lex’s mother has just passed away in prison, and left the family home to the children. Determined to turn their old house into something positive, a Community Center, Lex must reach out to each of her surviving siblings. I was a girl once, but not any more. I smell. Blood dried and crusted all over me, and my wrapper in shreds.” review by Prerna brought up the problems of this kind of writing generally). Though I haven’t read O’Brien’s Irish writing, I know that it is generally possessed of a great rage against the treatment of women, and this fits in well with that theme despite the different setting. They don't. They can't.' She was trembling so badly she had to hold on to a pillar. She refuses a drink of water. In the city an American woman, who ran a charity organisation, took her in and helped her to rebuild. She encouraged her to read and to write out the words she did not understand. She was given a series of English stories that concerned the dippy adventures of a dog, and though it was a nice story it was not for her, it did not touch her heart.

mostly and unexpectedly) unemotional perspective of abductee Maryam. It is a harrowing and difficult read, chronicling the devastating story of Maryam from abduction and thereon in. Stars: Tori Griffith, Tomoki Kimura, Derek Mears, Damian Toofeek Raven, Joey Iwanaga, Matt Standley, Shelby Lee Parks, Stefanie Estes | Written and Directed by Kurando Mitsutake What we then get is a really interesting story about what happens to people who have had an experience like this in their childhood. Each child reacts differently, remembers what happened in an individual way and are doing what they can as adults to thrive or just survive. Because of omnipresent media access, news of the seizure of the Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram spread globally, and briefly occupied our collective consciousness. Girl is an important read for humanity; we are becoming so world-weary and disentranced. Hundreds of young girls and boys were taken, continue to be taken, for work slaves, sex slaves, for trading, and coercion into military. I applaud O'Brien for her research and what must have been a grueling period of putting this story to paper. As she notes, the story has not ended. Trauma works into your being and will forever be a heartless and opportunistic enemy, many of the girls are *branded* as "wives of the bush," seen as property still belonging to a threatening Boko Haram, the children are often unwelcomed and considered more as extensions of BH than babies, the percentage of girls that contracted AIDS is unreleased but speculated high. I've seen some comparisons of Girl A to Room but Girl A is much darker and less sentimental about family as Girl A dives deep into what it would be like to be an abused sibling from a house full of other abused siblings.