Abigail Dean - Girl A (would love a chat with spoilers!)

I read this book over the weekend and was searching what other people thought happened at the end. Initially, I assumed the person on the beach was Mother but then read again and thought perhaps it was Evie? Mother because Lex had never given time of day to her mum given everything that happened but then gained insights from her siblings and the lawyer in the week she returned to the UK. She was also dressed as she had been when she turned up to Lex's school. But then it could be Evie as she would have wanted to see her, happy, alive and walking...

Ethan was a complex character and complicit in Gabriel's abuse, which I assumed was sexual. Gabriel's life was just tragic and the most haunting of all.

I read this (or listened to it) over a weekend and it was sooooo gripping. I also wondered what happened to her stomach, like can she not have children? Such a brilliant debut.

I listened to it on audiobook - it was really well narrated by Holliday Grainger. I didn't pick up on the Evie storyline and that really floored me! I had to turn it off temporarily as I was driving and I was crying so much! Think I'd like to read or listen to it again with the benefit of hindsight.

I had it out of the library so annoyingly don't have it here in front of me but I picked up on Evie straight away, although she kept you guessing. Notice that characters other than Lex refer to Daniel and Evie together - I think the lawyer in the prison is the first one to do this, certainly it's very early in the book. Does he say something like "She would write to you, even Evie and Daniel"?

I’ve just finished it and really “enjoyed” it. I didn’t see Evie’s death at all and wax really floored by that. I thought it was pretty accurate in terms of how they turned out as adults. Incredibly sad. I think I wanted Lex to have been able to have a relationship with the youngest brother, Noah but know that would have been impossible.

This was a harrowing read but I couldn't put it down. I think Ethan was a victim and it was a survival instinct on his part. I found the Delilah story interesting especially about her visiting the mother in prison.
Would a family really never have been inspected by social care or similar though ? And surely the teacher would have raised a safeguarding concern after visiting the home? I imagined it was set with the escape being about fifteen years earlier so the teacher would have been there in the last twenty years when safeguarding was a high priority in education and there would have been red flags all over the family ?
Also I couldn't help thinking that sadly it would be more likely that the five survivors would be more like Gabriel in later life - it seems less likely that four of the five would lead relatively successful adult lives.

I assumed Gabriel was waterboarded? Or something similar, the description of the gurgling sound and him needing to be held down.

As for Lex not being able to have children, I thought it was a result of her dad striking her on the stomach when he finds the book, she described being split open at that point I think.

I have just finished reading it.So sad about Evie .Ethans character was difficult to like because of his involvement. I wished the Dad had lived so he could pay for his crimes.
Not sure about why Child A wouldn’t have children with PJ was it because she couldn’t physically have children because of the abuse or mentally she wouldn’t have them.

I also thought it was just okay. I didn’t feel compelled to pick it up, and it definitely isn’t the best book I have read this year.

I know these may seem macabre, but I am actually very interested to know what interpretation others have of the scenes involving Gabriel in childhood - I’ve found the descriptions really staying with me and the ambiguity of exactly what abuse he suffered is somehow keeping this top of mind for me.

What a desperately, desperately sad book.

I thought it was only ok tbh. I found the boys a lot more interesting than the girls. Gabriel in particular really stayed with me.

I thought she did the childhood scenes very well, I was worried it would be graphic or excessively gratuitous but it wasn’t at all.

The adult scenes left a lot to be desired.

I finished it a week or so ago and it's stayed with me. So desperately sad. I guessed relatively early on about Evie, but I still cried when she says that she never regained consciousness so never knew they'd got out. The parts about Daniel were very very hard to read.

I felt so conflicted about the older brother too, getting away with his part in it and profiting from it in his professional life, but also having to recognise that he was a victim too.

It's one of those books that you can't say you enjoyed, but I'm glad I read it.

I have! And I had mixed feelings