What Kind of Girl is your average contemporary young adult realism story that didn’t really grab my heart, but tackled important issues in a respectful way.

I’m glad this book was written, even if I didn’t really care for it. It has a good take on common problems teenagers can face, like abuse, eating disorders, and self-harm, and why teens react the way they do in these types of situations.

For people struggling in these areas and wondering why they do, I would certainly recommend this book. If you’re reading for a good plot-heavy story, I would advise you to read something else.

This book was amazing and it definitely educated readers on social interactions and how horrible the world can be. How society wants to constantly defend boys/men because they’re “good people” or that their future would be ruined if they receive the adequate consequences for their actions.
As a society, we need to uphold anyone - especially men - for their actions, it doesn’t matter how good they are when it comes to sports or academics, what matters is how they treat others behind closed doors.

This novel was a definite page turner and I’m so glad this book was written, people - regardless of age and/or gender - really need to read this.

This is the kind of story that is difficult to read - but it's supposed to be. There is POV switching, which normally would put me off, but I think it worked in this case. I think it dragged a little in places, but overall had its impact. It's quite heavy and took me a while to read for that reason. It's important for people to break the taboo around issues like this, so I'm really glad this book tackles the difficult subject matter head on.

What Kind of Girl is another outstanding young adult contemporary novel from Alyssa Sheinmel, who deserves more attention than she gets. Smart and sharp, this well done and very well written novel is absolutely worth your time. Highly recommended.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Where was the content warning on this book? Jesus, this was hard to read. I cried through almost the whole thing. As someone who has been victim to mental, physical, and sexual abuse I wish I had known that is exactly what I was diving into.

With that being said, this story was very internal. The first person narrative and the pain described in this book felt SO real. These unnamed girls dealt with such horrors and 1 out of 3 women could relate in so many ways.

This is truly a phenomenal piece of work that should be more noted in society. It is full of harsh truths and reality.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

I loved this book so much!! Being a mom, it made my heart ache. I think all women, including girls, should be taught to take a stand and take up for themselves. Abuse is wrong.

This book is sadly most likely very relatable to many people and I feel like it's a fairly accurate portrayal of situations like this and what goes on in the minds of some of those affected by situations like this. Beautiful book with wonderful character development. My only complaint is I was initially confused by the vagueness of each chapter. It took a few chapters for me to realize how many characters viewpoints are going on as the synopsis didn't really clarify there would be multiple viewpoints, but once you understand what's going on it makes sense.

This is a hard book to read, and comes with just about every content warning you could imagine.

And yet, despite the dark subjects, I found myself immediately drawn in by the incredible writing, kaleidoscopic voice, in the honesty in the characters' confusion.

It's a very internal story, with the first person narratives holding the reader close inside the experiences of the narrators as they respond to experiences including romantic violence, victim blaming, gaslighting, homophobia, eating disorders, self-harm, mental illness, and many manifestations of dangerous, toxic masculinity.

I really appreciated the structure of the book and how it reflected the subject matter. The book is told through the shifting voices of unnamed girls; even though the girls are the central characters and agents of the story, they remain unnamed for a large part of the book, like so many anonymous victims whose abuser takes a central role in the public narrative.

In this way, the collective voices become any girl, making this one of the most intimate explorations of violence and trauma that I have ever read. Somehow, the author manages to draw the reader closer into the experience, without overwhelming these moments with darkness.

It's a phenomenal piece of writing, and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone, with the note to read it when you have the emotional and mental space to confront some potentially very triggering experiences. It's a harsh, unclean story with no easy answers, and a beautifully sculpted work of literature.

Trigger warnings include: romantic violence, victim blaming, gaslighting, homophobia, eating disorders, self-harm, mental illness, bullying, slut-shaming, parental neglect, and many manifestations of dangerous, toxic masculinity.

While this novel may be classified as a domestic abuse story, it is about friendship, love, mental health, family, and so much more. The two friends, Junie and Maya are battling with their own mental health in their lives, but don’t reach out to each other until much later. Both of these girls are going through their own mental health issues, one has an eating disorder, and the other has anxiety and OCD. This book made me feel a huge range of emotions, in the end I ended up shedding a few tears.

This novel is told in two perspectives of best friends, one is the victim of domestic abuse, and the other is her best friend. I love how in the beginning Sheinmel labelled the chapters according to stereotypes of what the girls are going through. You don’t know which girl has what label; I initially thought it was different people and their perspectives of what was occurring at the high school.

I read this book quickly; it drew me in right away and kept me hooked. In high school I frequently read books about mental health and eating disorders. Even though this novel does delve into domestic abuse, the mental illness does not overshadow it. Maya kept second guessing her decision to stay with Mike after he slapped her hard enough to leave a bruise around her eye. Maya’s questioning about staying with Mike and what the right thing to do happens frequently with women who are victims of domestic violent. They question if they should stay with their abuser, because it was a one-time thing, and that they probably deserved it.

I absolutely loved this book. It's so compassionate about each issue that Junie and Maya are facing, and I think it's a valuable resource for a variety of things (abusive relationships, obviously, but also mental health and eating disorders).

Review: 3 Stars

I was really excited to read What Kind of Girl for many reasons. I had previously read A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa B Sheinmel (check out my review here) and really wanted to check out her latest book about the after effects of domestic abuse. What Kind of Girl explored domestic abuse, anxiety, OCD, victim blaming, self harm and bulimia. I was thinking of this book recently when I covered books with mental health representation for Top 5 Saturday and after reading I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one.

There were a lot of things that I really liked about What Kind of Girl. The chapters in part one and two start with headers like the popular girl, the burnout and the girlfriend and all throughout part one I thought that each chapter was about a different person. It wasn’t until I started reading part two that I realized that all of part one was actually from the same perspective and it was trying to show that one girl could have many different sides to her. Even though I was confused I think that it made my reading experience interesting when I realized that all of part one was actually the same perspective. I found myself looking back at those chapters and I was really able to see how a person is bigger than the roles or stereotypes that they fit in and I think the fact that I didn’t realize that part one was all from one perspective really helped make that idea have a bigger impact on me as a reader. Maya was all of those roles, she was the burnout, the popular girl, the girlfriend and the bulimic, but she was also so much more than any of those things and my reading experience, while confusing, really helped bring that point home.

I really liked how this book helped humanize mental illness. Maya was super easy to relate to, so it was easy to find yourself understanding all of the thoughts that went through her head and find yourself in her shoes. I felt like Junie was a good character, but I found her a little less easy to relate to and I felt like she just didn’t feel as real to me. I don’t know if that is because of a lack of character development, or if I just didn’t relate to her issues as much as I did with Maya’s issues. I found myself emotionally involved in the abuse part of this story. I was so angry at Mike and all of the other students that wouldn’t believe Maya. I loved Maya and I really felt for her and everything that she went through.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was the way this book explored victim blaming and self blame for domestic abuse. I think that it really dove into the harmful thoughts and things that people say after someone came forward with abuse and also really helped me understand the different perspectives. I think that the domestic abuse parts were done pretty well. I think that the mental health issues were also represented pretty well for most of the book. While I’m not an own voices reader for all of these issues, I think the ones that I have experienced were represented really well.

But when talking about how this book dealt with mental illness I also need to bring up my biggest problem with this book, which is it’s ending. I really hated the ending and how mental illness was used as a plot device. By the end of the book everything is all wrapped up and the girls are going to get treatment for their illnesses and they told the people closest to them the truth about the things they’ve been going through. It’s not that that’s not a viable ending, but it’s that it didn’t feel believable in these circumstances and it felt a little too much like an after school special ending that we were supposed to learn a lesson from. The fact that these characters’ mental illnesses magically got better and they magically decided to tell the truth about EVERYTHING to their parents and then go get therapy just felt a little far fetched for the situations.

Overall I think that there were good things and bad things about this book. I think that for the most part the mental illness representation was pretty good, but I can’t say for sure about all of the issues explored in the book. Bu it really annoyed me how Maya and Junie got magically better right in time for the ending because it just didn’t feel real. Despite some of the issues I had with What Kind of Girl I still totally think that it was worth reading because it opened my eyes to the impact that victim blaming can truly have.

Trigger Warnings: Domestic abuse, societal pressure/expectations

This book was a touching one. It explored the various perspectives following domestic abuse, and how society creates it's own perspective that influences everything.

It definitely is a harder book to read, so if you are sensitive to the subjects shown above, please be very cautious before picking this one up.

It's a hard-hitting story that completely takes your mind and values into the light. I do think the book itself is an important one for many readers of all ages to read. A solid 4 out of 5 stars from me!

Oof the world just really hates girls, doesn't it? An unflinching look at the culture surrounding girls and women who report domestic violence and assault, this book explores victim-blaming, he-said-she-said and more. I'll be thinking about this one for a long, long time!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and review it. Warning... there are a lot of triggers for teens who are struggling in this book - cutting, bulimia, drugs to reduce pain, etc. I wanted to like this story so much more than I did. I struggled figuring out who was telling the story in the first several chapters as it would bounce around and the author never mentioned the main characters by name. Once I realized who they were I was able to get into the story a bit more and see how the characters developed and changed through the end. In the end, I was still a bit disappointed- there was no closure.

Unfortunately I am no longer interested in reading this book, therefore I will not be reviewing it any further.

I've always been a big fan of Alyssa Sheinmel's, and was very excited to see another book of her's being published this month! What Kind of Girl is a raw, gritty novel that deals with tough, often stigmatized issues such as relationship abuse, self harm, anxiety, and bulimia. I appreciated that the novel started with a trigger/content warning for the topics that would be discussed within the novel's pages.

The novel deals with two best friends, Maya and Juniper, who are also two of the most popular girls of their private school. Maya is dating the track school star Mike, who everyone loves. What no one knows is that Mike has gotten increasingly violent towards Maya, and most recently a slap has resulted in a black eye for Maya. Maya decides she can't take it anymore, and goes to the school's principal. What follows is the division of the school for who believes Maya and who believes Mike.

Also woven into the novel is the friendship between Maya and Juniper. Both are dealing with intense issues that they've chosen not to disclose to each other. Throughout the book we see these coming to a head and their relationship transforming and being tested.

What Kind of Girl started off a little confusing to me -- the chapter headings alluded to more characters than actually exist, but that could have just been me. Also, I don't like when novels finish inconclusive, and this novel left the reader with a lot of loose ends! I didn't feel satisfied when I turned that last page -- I had a lot of questions instead. I don't want to imagine my own ending, I want to know what the author intended for this pair, for better or worse.

North Bay Academy, popular track star Mike Parker's girlfriend has accused him of hitting her. But, she's gone to the principal instead of calling the police?

Is she telling the truth?

Some of the students want to hold a rally to expel Mike, while others aren't so quick to believe his girlfriend.
This book tackles relationship violence, cutting, victim blaming, bulimia, bullying and a whole lot more. Alyssa did a wonderful job and I think it tells people that it's ok for you to stand up for yourself. Lots of hard subjects, but it was a very good read.

Thank you to Publisher and NetGalley for the eARC

This author wrote one of my favorite unreliable narrator books – A Danger To Herself And Others. I was so excited to see that she had another book out that I requested a copy ASAP! I couldn’t wait to read it. Sadly, this one wasn’t as enjoyable. Here are my pros and cons for What Kind of Girl:

Pros

1. This book is about much more than just a boy allegedly hitting his girlfriend (which is also a con for me, see Con #1). It also talks about multiple mental health and abuse issues, including self-harm. I do not have any of the mental health issues that were discussed in this book; however, as a person who doesn’t understand and is uneducated about self-harm, I felt like the thoughts and feelings of a person that does self-harm were explained very well in this book. I felt like I got a little bit into her head and started to understand what self-harm did for her mentally. Even if I personally can't fathom how hurting one's self could possibly be a positive thing, I feel like I at least understood why she felt that way. She was the most genuine character in the whole book. She was the one I cared about. She was the one I was interested in. She was the one I wanted to succeed and get help and get healthy. She was the one I wanted to read about. Honestly? The rest of the book was just unfocused noise to me.

Cons

1. This book lacks focus. Is this about a girl who is hit by her boyfriend? Or is it about bulimia, self-harm, drug use, OCD, negative parent/child relationships, etc.? If the author was trying to draw attention to multiple mental health and abuse issues, she failed... because most of them didn’t get any real focus at all and everything was diluted.
2. The little game the author played at the beginning of the book fell totally flat for me. Each chapter was narrated by a “kind” of girl – the burnout, the girlfriend, the popular girl, the bulimic. You don’t know who these girls are until the end of Part 1 of the book. Then Part 2 starts in a similar way, but you already know the twist so it is no longer effective… and then the format just disappears. Very weird.
3. I actually started to get a bit confused between the two main female characters. They were so similar to me that I found myself having to pay very close attention to which character was which. There simply wasn’t enough distinction between them (unless they were talking about their specific mental health/abuse issues) to keep them apart.
4. I’ve never read a book that started so many sentences with “maybe” (e.g., maybe they think I’m stupid, maybe they think I’m ugly, maybe my parents won’t understand, maybe they will like my clothes, maybe they won’t notice, etc.). I understand the “why” behind it (the girls are constantly experiencing self-doubt, low self-esteem, and are continuously questioning everything), but reading those numerous “maybe” statements throughout the book was distracting and repetitive to the extreme.
5. This book has an unresolved ending and it is INFURIATING!

Summary
I have to be honest here… I really started to think this was another unreliable narrator story. Since the author wrote such a compelling unreliable narrator novel for her debut, it made me wonder if she was doing that again. With all the flip-flopping, lying, questioning, emphasis on some extreme mental health issues, and just everything that happened in this book, I really wonder if the purpose was to prove that we, as the reader, don’t really know anything about what happened other than what we were told. And if there is anything I have learned in this life it is that what we are told is not always fact. People lie all the time. Now, I am not saying the girl in this book wasn’t hit by her boyfriend. If I’m honest, I tend to think he did. However, we didn’t really get facts – just two sides to a story (and very little of Mike's side actually), a black eye, and an unresolved ending. I really have to wonder if this book was an experiment just to see how readers react to an accusation.

This book obviously made me think and my head is all over the place. I almost considered not writing this review altogether to be honest. As a book, it wasn’t that compelling as written and I initially gave it 2 stars (considering all of my cons). However, what the book made me think about afterwards was more complex. While I don’t think the book was necessarily a great read, if it sparks a discussion that is typically not a bad thing. Therefore, I bumped my rating up to 3 stars overall.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Title: What Kind of Girl
Author: Alyssa Heinmel
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

North Bay Academy is rocked when Mike Parker’s girlfriend walks into the principal’s office and accuses him of hitting her. She has the black eye to prove it—but is she telling the truth? Mike’s the most popular guy around; would he really hit his girlfriend? And if he did, why didn’t she tell anyone the first time it happened? Why did she go to the principal and not the police? Is it true…or is there more to the story?

This is an excellent book about a tough topic. It showcases what some girls experience: like it’s not bad enough they go through dating violence. They also have to deal with people calling them liars, thinking they deserved it, and/or taking their abuser’s side. This is told in alternating viewpoints, but the story strands weave together seamlessly, creating a picture that has even more depth than what the reader first thinks.

Alyssa Heinmel was born in California and raised in New York. What Kind of Girl is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.)

This is definitely it is me not you situation. This book hits me way to close to home and reading it gave me anxiety. I had to stop reading for my own mental health. However, be that as it may, in my opinion that just means it was good and hard hitting. For this reason I would give this book word of mouth around my library. This book is full of relevant issues coming to light in terms of dating abuse and mental health. I would recommend this to teens.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.