2024 the best novels of the 21st century review

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(as of Nov 21, 2024 10:20:08 UTC - Details)

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
“Pitch-perfect... Dean tells this story with such nuance and humanity, you’re desperate to step into its pages." —The New York Times

“Heart-stopping psychological drama… A modern-day classic." —Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author

“A gripping story about family dynamics and the nature of human psychology.” —Good Housekeeping

She thought she had escaped her past. But there are some things you can’t outrun.

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 home into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings--and with the childhood they shared.

What begins as a propulsive tale of escape and survival becomes a gripping psychological family story about the shifting alliances and betrayals of sibling relationships--about the secrets our siblings keep, from themselves and each other. Who have each of these siblings become? How do their memories defy or galvanize Lex's own? As Lex pins each sibling down to agree to her family's final act, she discovers how potent the spell of their shared family mythology is, and who among them remains in its thrall and who has truly broken free.

For readers of Room and Sharp Objects, an absorbing and psychologically immersive novel about a young girl who escapes captivity–but not the secrets that shadow the rest of her life.

From the Publisher

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08H18WHX5
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (February 2, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 2, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4793 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
Reviewer: Kathy Vikre
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Dealing with Horror
Review: How does one deal with horror: fight back, learn to live with it, give up and die, or bury it far in the back of your mind? None of the characters in Girl A: A Novel deal with it in exactly the same way. People are complicated, right and wrong are not black and white. The story is a tragedy of spousal and child abuse. It unfolds over a period of time covering the years before, during, and after the abuse. Our voice through the journey is that of Lexi, the oldest girl (Girl A). Through her voice, we see madness developing, we feel the hurt, we are damaged, and we attempt to recover. This book is so well written it engaged me from the start. It is compelling and ultimately heart-wrenching; we are left with room to heal and an overwhelming sadness. We have dealt with horror.

Reviewer: Mike 27
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A very good story!
Review: Had I known the story before hand I would have been very hesitant to read it; but it was told/unfolded in such an interesting way that I was compelled to read on. The story is disturbing but the narrator perseveres and keeps you engaged through the whole thing. She endures hardships but keeps on going and you have this undercurrent throughout that there must be a reckoning coming. Heartbreaking and yet uplifting at the same time I really enjoyed this book.This was one of Amazon Primes first reads books and I am very happy that I chose this book.You run the gamut of emotions but never feel manipulated. Solid story with richly developed characters and worth every bit of time it takes to read this book! Highly recommend!

Reviewer: mz johansen
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: just couldn’t finish it
Review: I almost could give this book a 3.5 stars if I were able to do so. The writing itself is good.I through 58% of the book often hemming and hawing whether to continue or not. Fact is I just wasn’t that involved with the plot,or,the characters and made the choice to move on to something else.This is, ostensibly, a book about child abuse and how it affected 7 children of a family - although what had actually happened remains largely unspoken. Perhaps that is a hood thing in this sort of book? In a family of 7 children, a preacher father and a mother who seems to have perhaps become unhinged at some point (though I am not sure about that either) only one child takes the chance to run when an opportunity presented itself. She essentially causes the rescue of the other children. Each child is affected by their abuse - each in a different way. That is also,seemingly, a large part of what drives the plot.The writing in this book is decidedly good. Ms. Dean seems to be a fine author. I kept waiting for something to grab me, for some indication as to what had transpired. I kind of wanted to see what happens in the end, but in all honesty, I just did not have the patience to stick with it….usually my opinions are in the minority but I did read some similar reviews.Some readers will undoubtedly love this book. Perhaps I just wasn’t is the mood for a somewhat depressing story right now. Maybe in the future I will pick it up again and read to the end…..

Reviewer: Katherine Y
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Chilling novel about abused siblings has a twist ending
Review: The idea for this novel could have been taken from a recent case involving extreme child abuse. What the author has done is to give voices to seven siblings subjected to torture and to spotlight the enduring psychological damage. The novel reflects on each of the experiences of the children in the family, but the main focus is on the oldest daughter, Lex, who managed to escape and obtain help for the others.Lex and her siblings were chained to beds by their parents, not allowed to bathe, and denied food. They were slowly starving to death. After years of mistreatment, Lex finally escapes and gets help, bringing the police to their suburban prison. The father commits suicide before the police arrive, and the mother is sent to prison for life. Lex and her younger siblings are sent to separate foster homes. Adopted by a policeman working on her case, Lex goes to college and becomes a successful woman. When her mother dies in prison, she learns she has been named executor of the estate, including the house of their torment. She, one of her brothers, and a sister concoct a plan to turn the house into a community center.It requires all the sibling’s approvals to execute the plan for the house, so Lex searches for her other brothers and sisters, some of whom she has not seen for years. The only relationships she has maintained are with Evie, her sister who has been her closest confidante, and Ethan, a successful author who escaped the worst of their parents’ sadistic behavior. In the case of her youngest brother, Lex has to comb through records to find who adopted him. He is the luckiest; because he was a toddler, he remembers nothing of his past. One brother is in a mental institution because of his rages. All of them are affected. Although Lex is outwardly composed, she may have the most severe problem of them all.The horrors recounted by Lex and her siblings may repulse many readers. This novel is not for those who are sensitive to brutal descriptions of child abuse. What kept me reading were the psychological depth the author gives to her characters and the feeling the author was holding back on the whole story. Mystery readers will like a particular reveal involving one of Lex’s relationships that will have them thumbing back pages to see how the author set it up. I recommend this novel for readers who like psychological suspense.

Reviewer: Jilly of the Valley
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Keeps you guessing
Review: I gave it 4 stars because I can’t give it 4.5 and it’s a little too depressing for 5. That said, it is a pretty good tale, no doubt inspired by the story of that crazy couple in California who had a bunch of kids and kept them locked up in a big house until one of the girls got out and ran for help. This story is probably even worse than that case, although it’s hard to see how that’s possible. It’s well written but occasionally does get confusing the way it jumps ack and forth in time. Lots of TWs, mostly child abuse and neglect.

Reviewer: Christina Vidosh
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book
Review: I was in a reading slump and so I got this book review on booktalk and so I bought the book even though I was in a bad slump of not finding anything good to read in this book was great. It is a page turner.

Reviewer: spam-8567
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a beautifully written book and very sad at the same time. Abigail is a great writer and has been rightfully acknowledged

Reviewer: pablo JP
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Te atrapa desde el principio, me va a resultar imposible de olvidar.

Reviewer: Jilla Lonsdale
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A very compelling story that grabs you from the onset and keeps you interested right up until the end.Amazing flow and character development and an intriguing premise. Grab a coffee or tea (or glass of wine) and dive into this book -- it's a one of a kind read!

Reviewer: James Craft
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Mitreissend von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite. Ihr erstes Werk. Nur zu hoffen das bald ein zweites Buch folgt, und noch viele. Und von Amazon pünktlich geliefert. Vielen Dank!

Reviewer: Angie67
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a book you either love or hate. I’m afraid I’m pending toward the latter at the moment.First of all let me point out that this book is listed as a literary thriller but is nothing of the sort! It’s a drama about dysfunctional and abusive parents and the psychological strain their children endure because of it!I can’t even begin to tell you how many problems I had with this book! The first and biggest problem was the writing! I felt I was in the author’s head trying to interpret her jumbled thoughts. The sentences were clipped and scarse jumping from one subject to another.Each paragraph started in a different timeline (there are only 5 or 6 chapters in the whole book, each of them referring to one of the abused siblings) so that I often found myself rereading whole sentences because I thought I was in the past instead of the present and viceversa!Her writing was just all over the place!Another thing that bothered me was that there was no climax or mid-point in the book, just the nightmarish retelling of what these children endured and how the past followed them into adulthood! There was one minor revelation near the end, but by then I had completely lost interest in all the characters.I’m not saying it’s awful, someone else will probably find some hidden meaning and find her writing style innovative and fresh! The author certainly was brave to face such a heavy topic for her debut novel. But I need to enjoy a book, be it a heavy topic or not and that didn’t happen with this book!All in all a very depressing and discouraging tale that failed to convey some much deserving optimism for the future.Not for me I’m afraid!