You can use your St. Louis County Library card to borrow titles from these partner libraries:
1 of 1 copy available
“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.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
February 2, 2021 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593295854
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593295854
- File size: 1996 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
December 21, 2020
Alexandra “Lex” Gracie, the protagonist of Dean’s harrowing debut, grew up in an abusive home in Hollowfield, England, from which she escaped 15 years earlier and freed her older brother and four younger siblings. Her father committed suicide the day of her escape; her mother, Deborah, later went to prison; and she and her brothers and sisters were placed in foster homes. Now a 30-something lawyer in New York City, Lex returns to England after she learns Deborah has died of cancer. Deborah has made Lex the executor of her estate, which includes the Hollowfield house. Lex wants to turn the “house of horrors” into a community center, but she needs approval from each of her siblings to do so. Meanwhile, her identity as Girl A, as she was identified in the press at the time of her escape, resurfaces, forcing her to recollect the abuse and negligence they all endured from their parents. The frequent and ambiguous narrative shifts from past to present can be hard to follow, but the author skillfully brings the complicated relationships among the siblings as well as the secrets they share into dramatic relief. This assured psychological thriller marks Dean as a writer to watch. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. -
Starred review from December 1, 2020
They were a cause c�l�bre, the six Gracie children, when the police discovered them in chains, filthy, malnourished, and in critical condition. Their father committed suicide before the police arrived; their mother survived to be sentenced to 25 years in prison. As this remarkable novel begins, 15 years have passed, and the mother has died, naming as the executor her oldest daughter, Alexandra, known to the family as Lex and to the authorities as Girl A. The estate consists of 20,000 pounds (the novel is set in England). Lex quickly decides that the family home, known locally as the House of Horrors, should be transformed into a community center, but to do that she will have to get her siblings to sign off on the idea. Will she succeed? Told in Lex's arresting first-person voice, the novel moves back and forth in time, revealing the siblings' ghastly childhood and their current condition. In the process, Dean does a brilliant job of character development, starting with Lex herself, who is now a successful attorney--thanks partially to the years of therapy necessary to deal with her memories and with her monstrous father. Lex is a fascinating study in abnormal psychology, and the novel is, altogether, a tour de force, beautifully written, richly imagined, and compulsively readable. Add to this its grave, sometimes ominous tone, and the result is unforgettable.COPYRIGHT(2020) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-