Girl A

Read on a recommendation and it did not disappoint. This book is less mystery and more psychological thriller. The story has a deliberate and consistent pace which could turn readers off if they are looking for cliffhangers and jump scares.

The story spends time unpacking and exploring trauma that a family experienced at the hands of their parents and goes in to dark and abusive areas.

'Are you still at the top?'

I glanced up. She was turned away, picking at baking paper. 'I don't know,' I said. 'Probably.'

'Make sure of it.'

The parents are not good people, the Father more so. I found the little glimmers of redemption in the Mother to be interesting. There were small moments where some humanity was visible but it's not enough to erase a lifetime of neglect and mistreatment.

As for how the book was executed I didn't mind how the timeline jumped erratically but one paragraph to the next was a bit of a challenge. This was more noticeable when I would read for shorter intervals while longer sessions I could get in too a flow and notice the character and environment changing more easily.

In the end it was an entertaining, albeit horrifying, book and glad it crossed my path.

As promised I’m adding a star for Japanese Knotweed! No seriously the book showed a lot of promise. There were several lines throughout i found elegant, poignant, and meaningful. I’m also very happy with the way it is structured, focusing on the siblings as survivors more than victims. We meet each one individually as Lex, Girl A, meets with them is her role as executor of their mothers will, the events of their childhood are sprinkled through the stories of their struggle to live life afterward, preventing any one chapter from being bogged down in trigger inducing descriptions. And yet I don’t think I can say I liked the book that much. One reveal later in the book felt entirely unnecessary, at least two others were teased but didn’t meet the expectations I had, and a few aspects of the main characters life never felt fully developed or used as well as they could have been. So the book was fine. Better than I expected. But I’m a bit disappointed by it.