this book has some hard topics in, and really appreciated the trigger warnings at the beginning. This story follows maya and her friend as they both deal with hard struggles:domestic violence and self harm/mental illness. This touched a lot upon victim blaming when it comes to domestic violence, and how hard it is to get justice when you do speak out due to societys views. I also think it really depicted self harm and anxiety so well, and the use of it as a coping mechanism for life. I liked how it all tied up at the end with everyone getting help for there issues and it delved into why the victim is never the blame for domestic violence.

Alyssa B. Sheinmel takes four high school stereotypes--The Popular Girl, The Abused Girlfriend, The Pothead, and the Bulimic--and lets them tell you about a girl dating the school's "golden boy," beginning with the day she shows up at school with a black eye. But ... he didn't do it, right? He's perfect! If he didn't hit her, though, then she's lying.

By using the labels, Sheinmel lets you inhabit those characters. Each has a distinctive voice, and each faces a type of prejudice. Parts of this book will bring you to your knees, making you pray that teenagers don't suffer like this. Some scenes are viscerally painful, to the point where reading them becomes difficult. Yet it's a difficulty you need to experience because yes, teenagers really do suffer like this.

As the book builds to its climax, you begin to feel almost desperate to know the truth, even as you worry you may not. Each of your narrators has their own prism through which they view each other, fellow students, and the events that happened. Are they seeing reality, though, or are they seeing what they wish to be true?

This book feels necessary, particularly in a day of social media manipulations. I also think it makes a fantastic choice for a book club because there is so much to unpack.

Let me know what you think of this one, particularly the ending. I didn't love that part, although I can see why Sheinmel made the choices she did.

“Because no matter why he hit me, it wasn’t justified.
No matter why, it was wrong. And no matter why, he deserves to face the consequences.”

“What Kind Of Girl” by Alyssa Sheinmel is a complex, powerful story.

Mike Parker is the golden boy of North Bay Academy. Handsome, track team star, smart, funny, popular, and all-round nice guy. Maya knows she is lucky to have him as her boyfriend. But what only Maya knows is that Mike also hits her. Not enough to show. Not enough to be obvious to anyone else - until this changes and he gives her a black eye. Maya is lost. She can no longer hide what is happening. So she goes to the Principal for North Bay Academy and tells her what has been happening.

But no-one wants to believe that perfect Mike Parker could do this. They know it is wrong to blame the victim, but surely it was an accident? Surely she is mistaken? Surely if this was true she wouldn’t have stayed with him? Does she know what her accusations could do to Mike’s chances of a college scholarship? Does she know that she is ruining his life?

And so begins a in-depth examination into domestic abuse, the shame of being a victim, the disbelief of society, the reluctance to take action.

The story is told from the perspectives of “the popular girl”, “the girlfriend”, “the burnout”, “the bulimic”, “the anxious girl”,. “the activist”, “the cool girl”, “the best friend”, “Maya” and“Junie” and just who is who? As the story unfolds, it becomes clear just who is who. At first I found this storytelling device confusing, but I think that is the point. We all play different roles depending on who we are with. It is possible to be cool, and anxious, and a best friend and how you don’t always show all these aspects of your personality to everyone.

This is a challenging read, with many trigger points including cutting, bulimia, drug use, an abusive relationship and mental health. Not for younger readers, but a valuable read for older teens and adults.

This book was exactly what I was expecting when I picked it up. There’s always three sides to every story, each persons, and the truth. I feel like this book is a great example of this saying. I feel like this is such a great topic to be discussed in young adult books, since a lot of young adults deal with domestic violence or know someone who has.

The characters in this book were both likable and annoying in my opinion. I think that’s why I ended up connecting with them so much, they felt like real people to me. It’s so realistic when reading from the characters points of view how they question everything. There were just so many reasons I connected to them.

Overall I highly recommend this book, but warn you to read the trigger warnings first, because there are a lot. It’s a raw, tough read at times, but I found it worth every second. I am a huge fan of this author and how they put together the whole story and how it all played out. I’m excited to read more by them.

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel is a book that I read a while ago, but I've felt unable to review it or really comment on it for some time now. It was a hard book to read, and it was one that I really needed to sit with for a bit before putting pen to paper to express any kind of thoughts.

If I'm being honest with myself, I expected a book that deals with eating disorders, physical abuse, self-harm, and drugs to be difficult to read. What I wasn't prepared for was my own reaction to what I read. At times I was in tears, enraged, physically ill, and dismayed. I don't think I've come across a book in a very long time, or ever really, that put me through such a ringer from beginning to end.

What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel was a good book; a difficult book to read for sure, but an important one all the same.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Ms. Sheinmel's book is disjointed and odd. Sure to be a hit amongst the proto-feminists. The writing is disjointed and odd. The author switches between calling characters by name or by the "type" of girl that character is. So poor to the point of being unreadable.

1 out of 5 stars. Do not recommend.

This book touches on a lot of different difficult subjects such as domestic violence, mental illness, etc.

I think the author did a brilliant jib covering these touchy subjects. I did get tripped up a little here and there but overall I liked this book. It was full of emotion and definitely makes you think of your own personal morals. I feel like this book will definitely deeply impact people.

⭐⭐⭐

I applaud the author for taking on so many hardcore, emotional and triggering issues. And there are a lot of them. For those that need them: emotional abuse, physical abuse, bulimia, cutting, anxiety, panic attacks, divorce. Thankfully, I have never been through most of these heavy things in my life (minus anxiety) so reading this book was not as hard, in that aspect. If any of these are hard to read about for you, I would steer clear.

"What Kind of Girl" is the story about a high school girl that approaches her principal after her boyfriend (a popular boy) has hit her.We follow the emotions she goes through. The love she has, even though he's hurt her. The fears. The courage. Being scared. Being conflicted and confused.

The beginning of the story is told in such a way that confused me for a bit- and it's one of the reasons I had to chop off some stars. It made it extremely hard for me to connect to the characters because I didn't know their names. Instead- I knew them as "the popular girl" or the "bulimic" or "anxiety girl". While a creative way to tell a story, I wasn't sure who was who for awhile and it made my connections hard.

I also didn't like the ending. I am perfectly find with open ended endings in some books, but I felt a little angry that this one was. I wanted to see justice.

While I have never been through what these girls have, I still felt it was a good book for me to read. I feel it's a good book for anyone to read (providing you can) that discuss really important topics.

* I was given this ARC in exchange for honest review. Thanks NetGalley

For those of you who haven’t yet seen this book making the rounds, its one of those novels that people seem to either get or they don’t. It’s a novel about so much more than domestic violence like the blurb implies. First off, it’s a deep dive into the mentality of the stereotypical teenage girl. She wants to be popular; she wants good grades; she wants to look like she has it all. But honestly, which of us had our shit together when we were teens?

The story takes place from two different POV’s. The first 25 % is told from the viewpoint of Maya, the girl whose boyfriend Mike has hit her. It starts out with her reporting the abuse to her principal and quickly morphs into a he said/she said while the adults in the mix kind of just sit and stare, contemplating action but never really making any moves to sort out the whole issue. During this initial section, there’s chapters labelled ‘the bulimic’ and ‘the popular girl’ which to start had me confused but after around 50 pages. I realised they were all about Maya’s experience.

Next up comes Juniper and her mental health issues relating to OCD, anxiety and her cutting herself. She is having her own issues while also trying to keep it together for her best friend Maya. Once again there is around a quarter of the novel which centres solely around Junie and her experiences in the week following the report of Maya’s abuse. On top of her walking a tightrope with her inner self, she is also dealing with the breakup of her and her girlfriend. At around the half way point (part 3 of the novel) the narrative is then told from alternating POV’s but from here onwards the narrator is always identified.

Now this book is both moving but also a kind of memoir of sorts which was confronting but also made me think about my high school experience and just how much of a shit show teenage me was. I mean, I wasn’t the worst off, but I was also that kid who hid in the library so as the assholes couldn’t find me and make my life worse. At points throughout, I found myself having to take breaks in order to process the whole thing as What Kind of Girl is the heaviest contemporary, I have read since I binged C H Armstrong’s Roam in a single sitting.

This is going to be a short one because honestly, it is a thing of beauty. It features empowerment from friends and a guy who is all around goals (except for THAT punch) when it comes to just being a friend who is a dude. But it also contains some ridiculously mature issues within its 400 odd pages. So here is where I want to give you a trigger warning just in case. There's discussion of drug use, domestic abuse, binge eating and associated eating disorders. There’s also themes based around anxiety, panic attacks, self-harm/mutilation, parental absence, and some pretty nasty bullying. Now if I am a grown ass adult and it has affected me so profoundly, I would definitely say it may cause some feelings in your children that may lead to discussions you may not expect.

So, here's a TLDR for those who cant be bothered. There are some extremely heavy themes discussed within this novel relating to personal identity and concepts of mental health. It is a novel that will hopefully leave you swayed in some way that if you are a teen having these issues or you have children of your own it will open up a forum for valuable discussions within the home. The narrative, while taking place over a week flows fairly smoothly and involves characters who both feel real and relatable. My advice is even if you had the best damn childhood and were that untouchable kid in high school, read this book because it will give your insight you may never have realised you needed.

I like to say I read a lot of "hard hitting" contemporary. But there aren't many that I've read that are this hard hitting. This book put me on a roller coaster of emotions and I never knew which one was coming next.

Everything about this book was perfect. It was hard to read at times but I'm so glad I did. One of my favorite books this year.

Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Fire for the complimentary copy of this book for my honest review.

The last Alyssa Sheinmel book I read, A Danger to Herself and Others, I also DNFed so this wasn’t too much of a surprise for me that I couldn’t read this either.

I commend the author for writing about all of the hard topics that teenagers go through and while I can appreciate a hard hitting contemporary, this was way too problematic for me. I didn’t agree with a lot of what was said and as a girl that suffered from physical and sexual abuse, I don’t feel that it was written the write way. Parts of this book made me actually scoff at how it was written and how certain things were portrayed.

I’m sure this is a great book for a lot of people but this was not for me.

I love that this book was daring enough to take on as many topics as it did. It showed how multifaceted we are as people, even high schoolers are complex - something they are not normally allowed. The first part was really good. The use of different perspectives but having them turn out to be the same person was done really well. Unfortunately, the pattern became less exciting and intriguing the next times it did it. I get the point of it, but I think it lost its effectiveness.

Because of that, and a lack of active plot, the story started to seriously drag in the middle. Even if I wanted to know the resolution, I felt like it was a struggle to get to it. In the end, it lessened the impact of the overall story, which is really unfortunate. Still, I love that this book decided to take on such a complex situation and give it a lot of thought and care.

*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are mine.*

TW: abuse, self harm, eating disorders

Within the first five minutes of reading this book, I was PISSED OFF. Based on the back cover of the book, you know that a high school girl has suffered abuse at the hands of her boyfriend, and that she reports it. This information has caused a divide in the student body, because her boyfriend is essentially Mr. Perfect-- and no one saw it coming. As a matter of fact, no one would believe her if it weren't for the bruise on her face.

What Kind of Girl gives the perspective of different girls: the burnout, the cutter, etc. Each of them has their own opinion on what happened to the victim and how much of it was her fault. Upon reading, you realize that there are actually only two girls telling the story: the victim and her best friend. The different perspectives are different aspects of their personalities. It was hard enough reading the first part where the "popular girl" says that she doesn't believe the victim because "what kind of girl doesn't report it when it starts" and "what kind of girl stays when her boyfriend hits her" so "it must have been her fault" but it was even more heartbreaking to realize that the "popular girl" was the victim herself, and she was questioning herself.

The best friend offers a different perspective, because she feels like she should have known what was going on, and blames herself for what happened. She is a feminist and wants to rally the girls together to get Mike Parker expelled from school, but she also has her own doubts-- especially when her own friend doesn't know if she wants him expelled.

There is talk of self harm, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and obviously domestic abuse. This was NOT an easy read, especially from someone who has suffered through all of these things. However, I think it's something that needs to be talked about. We need to start commending those girls who come forward, and stop letting them think that it was their fault. No one should have to take responsibility for someone else laying a hand on them. I had to pause a few times and remind myself that things do get better, so I can see how this book would be triggering for some people. I also liked the ending. There isn't a happy ever after, things don't automatically get better-- but that's life. It's not a black and white situation, and even though there is hope for our main character, the author lets us know that she still has a tough road ahead of her, sadly, just like most victims do.

ARC kindly provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this.

this is told between two different girl’s perspectives, one who came to school with a black eye and tells the principal that her boyfriend, beloved high school track star slapped her and has repeatedly done so for a few months, everyone is up in the air whether to believe her or not.

our other perspective is from her friend who has some issues of her own, these two girls have fallen apart since she started dating this new guy and once these accusations come to light, they begin to bond again and try and help each other out as best as they can.

i recommend this to anyone who can handle the topics of domestic abuse, drug abuse, bulimia...etc. please look up a more comprehensive list of triggers if you think something in this novel could trigger you.

4 stars ⭐


As soon as I heard about this book, I wanted to get my hands on it. It sounded like my favourite type of contemporary novels: those with a heart-wrenching and often difficult story to read, but nonetheless extremely powerful and important.

What Kind of Girl is not just about domestic violence. Although that is one of this story's main themes, it is so much more than that. It touches on topics such as eating disorders and self-harm and does so flawlessly.

At first, I had problems getting into this book due to its unusual narrative style which is something I believe might deter some readers; however, when I did, I was gripped to the story and these characters until the very end. I can definitely see how many people could resonate with this novel because I was also able to see some parts of myself in it. This can be majorly atributted to how well the protagonists were written and their complexity.

One of my favourite aspects of this story is that it highlights the idea that we never truly know what the people around us are going through. This is visible in the main characters relationship: it shows that even one of the closest people in our lives might be hiding their pain and suffering without us even realising it. For this reason, I loved the scene in which the protagonists finally open up to each other and share their struggles.


"That's good love. The kind of love that's there even when you're a mess, even when you're so disappointed in yourself that you can't imagine you're worth loving."


On the other hand, I really wish Mike's character, the abuser, had been more fleshed out. I think it would have added more impact and realism to the story had we had more scenes with him.

In conclusion, I believe What Kind of Girl will undoubtedly strike a chord with many readers. In my opinion, it is a 2020 release you should not miss, especially if it sounds like something up your alley!


Trigger warnings: domestic violence; self-harm; eating disorders (bulimia); drugs.

3.5 star. This is a book for young adults and I think it’s an important one. Young women deal with a lot of pressures that they feel like they have to keep to themselves. I read this and was reminded of myself. You don’t usually think of relationship violence when you think of high schoolers but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Speaking from experience, I wish there had been a book like this in high school. As it so aptly mentions, we are brought up being told not to be a tattle tale. So what happens when you’re approaching your adult years and someone starts abusing you? What happens to women who come forward? Often, nothing good comes of you. You’ll get questioned, you’ll go through heartache trying recall the details of your abuse, why it happened, what was your fault or theirs. The book also addresses bulimia and self harm, a lot of things that young women deal with silently. Knocked some stars down because there were parts that I skimmed through because it floundered a bit instead of adding to the story. I think this would easily be a 5 star read for a lot of young adults though, very easy to read and to relate to.

TW/CW: Self-harm, bulimia, homophobia, drug use, abuse
What kind of girl is one of those books that hits you hard and leaves you thinking about it long after you've read it. There were many times I needed to take a break and put the book down to gather my thoughts. The content was heavy and it really got the wheels turning in your head.

The book begins with a young lady going into the principal's office at her school. She has a black eye. Who did it? her "golden boy" boyfriend Mike. Mike "the perfect boyfriend", Mike "the one that would never do that". Well..he did do it. It wasn't the first time this has happened either. You read about everyone's reaction towards the situation, their opinions, the finger pointing, the victim blaming, and more. It was really disgusting at times seeing people come up with justifications about why mike hit her.
Along the way you'll meet more characters that are essential to tie the story up together. But I will not give out too many details because like I said the characters all tie up together. But there's titles for the characters outlined in the book. The popular girl, the bulimic, the burnout, the activist. The book did an amazing job making you feel all these emotions while reading it and rightfully so. That's what a good author and a good story does. By any way do not think this story is a fairytale, this novel, although fictional is the life of many people around the world. It's an eye opening experience. Fantastic job by the author. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a copy of this book in exchange fir an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this one. Thank you for the copy!

The writing style was perfect, the plot was clear, and the characters were well developed.

This book was... strange yet empowering. At first, you have no idea who any of the POV's are as they just get names like 'The Best Friend' or 'The Activist' but as we move through this story of relationship abuse the characters are revealed. The revealing had me a tad bit confused and had me thinking people had multiple personalities and such but by the end everything became clear. I do believe that this is a very important book for younger people to read because this is not a taboo topic, abuse in high school relationships DOES abuse in ANY relationship, whether romantic or platonic, DOES happen. But this book is about so much more than abuse. It about mental health and things girls go through to try and be perfect like this world tells them they need to be.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Thanks Net Galley for this preview!

This book was strong and so important for teens. The beginning chapters from multiple points of view displayed the many layers and feelings the average human can go through in times of intense trauma. Yes, some of the scenes were intense and I feel a warning at the beginning of the book is appropriate. I can tell this book, the characters and the themes will stick with me for a long time. I felt the ending was a little unsatisfying but overall I loved the book.