"The Girl Who Wasn’t" it’s a good book. I was 14 chapters in, and I was already loving it and wanting more of it.

Now here goes my honest opinion: I don’t like the idea of pretending being someone you are not, but I can obviously see the reasons behind Jeanette actions. Insecurity, loneliness, wanting respect. For her, the only way to approach Jack (and be respected by him) was to be someone else. Regardless, I liked the story and the ending. Throughout the book, Jack and Jeanette found a safe place in each other and I think both deserved it after everything they’ve been through.

The Girl Who Wasn’t by Cara Thurlbourn is a companion novel to The boy Who Lived In The Ceiling. While you don’t need to read The Boy Who Lived In The Ceiling the two main characters appear in The Girl Who Wasn’t as side characters. I would like to personally thank Wise Wolf Books and Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book!

The Girl Who Wasn’t is about a young teenage girl named Jeanette who is having a lot of personal problems at home. Jeanette’s mom is agoraphobic which means that she is scared of leaving the house and she excessively online shops. It is to the point where the house is overly cluttered with useless stuff. Meanwhile the other main character is Jack. Jack’s life may seem picture perfect but it is far from it. Jack’s mom is abusive to his dad and due to her career she has Jack in Football instead of his true passion which is music. Then Jack begins to conversation with a girl named Marica who understands him and is very comforting to him. But what would happen if they finally meet? If you are intrigued I highly recommend you pick up this book!

This book kept me turning the pages and I needed to know how these characters would overcome there obstacles! As I was reading I sympathized for them so much! I felt so bad and none of these characters should have had such a difficult time with their parents! I did feel embarrassed for some of these characters when they made the wrong decisions but that is normal. No character is ever perfect but they were good people who mess up. I felt bad when Jeanette could not turn to her friend about her problems with her mom! Which I can understand she felt embarrassed and it’s not an easy thing to say to her. My only complaint is that I wanted the book to be a little bit longer in a sense that I wanted a little more development in the end. I wanted a little more closure but that’s me being a bit nit picky. The characters felt so real like someone I would have been friends with in High School. I do wonder if there will be another book with Aisla? It would be very interesting seeing her develop more!

The Boy Who Lived in The Ceiling was a powerful read about two individuals finding each other. The Girl Who Wasn't, well, wasn't as good as that novel.

The Girl Who Wasn't is told in dual perspectives between Jeanette and Jack. Jeanette is struggling with dealing with her mom, who is agoraphobic and a hoarder. Jack is dealing with his controlling mother and anger issues.

At first, I wasn't Jack's biggest fan, but as the novel progressed, he started to grow on me. Jeanette, on the other hand, had the reverse effect. I started out liking Jeanette, but as the story went on, I liked her less and less. Jeanette creates a social media profile for Marcia, a girl who doesn't exist, by using pictures of another girl. "Marcia" and Jack begin a friendship that starts to develop into something more. This catfishing got really uncomfortable as Jack shares more and more with Marcia, while Jeanette shares very little. In fact, the novel treats Marcia and Jeanette as two separate people, which attempts to lessen the impact of Jeanette's catfishing. While I love You've Got Mail-esque plots, I just could not get behind the one-sidedness of Jack & Marcia's online communications.

The only two characters I really liked were Violet and Freddie (from The Boy Who Lived In The Ceiling). Violet is the best friend of the year in this novel and it's really nice seeing her and Freddie together after the previous novel.

Another note, Jeanette is a musical theatre fan. In this novel that means that she loves Hamilton. There are a lot of vague Hamilton mentions: the use of "Track 18" to refer to Guns & Ships and the use of a "duet between to men" to refer to a song. I'm not entirely sure why the Hamilton references were extremely vague like this. Also Hamilton is the only musical directly referenced. There is a nod to Roger and Hammerstein musicals, but nothing else.

All in all, I'm a little disappointed that this book was what it was. The writing style is great and it was lovely seeing Violet & Freddie. But the main plot and the relationship between Jack & Marcia (aka Jeanette) really ruined the enjoyment of the novel for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wise Wolf Books for the eARC of The Girl Who Wasn't. I really appreciate it.

This is the second book I have read from Cara Thurlbourn and I loved it . Both books have dealt with hard issues like hoarding, anger problems , not be able to be your self , pressure of being a teenager and many more. There was twists in the book I did not expect but they went really well in the book and went down another subject. The story is about Jeannette and Jack who are in there last year of school and they both facing really hard problems. I did cry in places because I felt really sorry for Jeannette and what she was growing though it was heartbreaking. I really warmed to the characters straight the way and the story was easy to get into. I really like Cara style of writing.

Jeanette isn't happy with her life. Her whole world currently revolves caring for her agoraphobic and hoarding mother and it doesn't leave much time for friends or dreams. She's spent her life dreaming of going off to university and studying Musical Theatre, of finally having friends she can confide about her life in - and then she meets Jack.

Jack seems to be very happy. He has friends, is applying for football scholarships and is everything Jeanette wants to be. But it's all a front - his mother is violent and only wants him to play sports because of her failed tennis career but all he wants to do is play music. Then he meets Marcia, the love of his life. But she won't meet him - because Marcia isn't real.

Jeanette knows its wrong to pretend to be someone else - but she doesn't even know herself yet.

Right from the beginning, there was an immediate sense of sympathy and care invoked for both our main characters, and I was definitely attatched to them in some way. The supporting roles in this story were brilliant - I loved Jeanettes best friend, Violet, and she was definitely my favourite. I found Jeanette and Jack to feel very similar to the typical tropes - quiet girl who's secretly cool, angry jock who has a soft side - but I did love how their friendship evolved and grew over time with them.

The Girl Who Wasn't contains some graphic depictions of people with agorophobia and other mental disorders, and whilst they did capture just how serious these issues can be I wasn't fully comfortable with these being vilified and being the only part of Jeanettes mothers personality without any real explanation.

There was some pleasant surprises along the way, I thought this was going to be pretty straightforward like the many nerd/jock stories that come about, but there were some wonderful flickers of hope in what could have otherwise been a very dark story.

“ what kind of family is that? If everyone just looks out for themselves?” -From The Girl Who Wasn’t

3 stars

This was a bit of an odd coming of age story in so far as none of the main characters really “grew”. I started out liking Jeanette and hating Jack, but by the end I was flipped. The catfish thing was pretty unforgivable, and it was a bit unbelievable that everyone around her was okay with that in the end. It would have more than likely ruined at least one friendship. Violet was the real standout in the book, being a better friend than any of them really deserved. The pacing and writing were on par for the genre.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was very promising from the description and the beginning chapters.

I loved that we got to see Jeanette and Jack's worlds separately and see them grow into knowing each other. One of my biggest pet peeves in romance books is when we have instant attraction and only see the two main characters interacting together. I loved the slow and steady integration Jeanette and Jack had Ito each other's lives.

SPOILERS BELOW:
However, this story had a lot of telling and not showing. The relationship between Marcia and Jack didn't develop in a way that was believable. From two conversations (that the reader sees) feelings of love develop? I wasn't buying it, however, Jack's emotions did seem the most heightened and fast pace throughout the whole story. Being able to switch and/or grow within seconds.

With the plot being on mostly the separate household lives of Jack and Jeanette as well as their separate relationships with each other, I feel like none of those storylines came to a wrap and if they did, then they felt a little rushed.

However, I am giving this story three stars because the writing style is lovely and Jeanette's whole storyline is captivating. Side note: I wouldn't really categorize this story as "romance". More like a coming-of-age story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book!

The story is told from the POV of two main characters: Jack and Jeanette.

Jeanette is a quiet, somewhat awkward teenager with few close friends. She lives with her mother, who suffers from extreme agoraphobia/hoarding tendencies. Her mom's struggles really negatively impact Jeanette, who feels worried to leave her mom alone for too long (resulting in Jeanette not spending much time outside of home apart from school and choir practice) and embarrassed about her living conditions. She struggles to connect with people--even her closest friend, Violet--because she is scared of anyone knowing the truth about her mother's mental illness.

Jack is a handsome teen who hangs with the more "popular" crowd. He's on the football team (to appease his mom, herself a professional athlete), but his real passion is music. His life outwardly appears pretty perfect, but behind close doors his family life is less than ideal. Jack wants to pursue his musical passions, but he's afraid to do so because his mom may react poorly--even violently. Like Jeanette, Jack does his best to keep his home-life a secret.

Jack and Jeanette meet on the bus, and Jeanette is instantly drawn to him. Jeanette is desperately insecure and fears that Jack won't like her for her, so she creates a fake online profile of a girl she names Marcia, using pictures of a beautiful girl from another girl, and attempts to talk to Jack that way. Jack ends up getting quite close to Marcia and even developing romantic feelings for her, while simultaneously forming a friendship with Jeanette in real life. Jeanette is shocked to find that Jack likes the real her just fine, and eventually realizes that the Marcia profile was silly--but by the time she realizes it, she's in too deep.

Overall, this book kept me intrigued. I felt invested in Jeanette in particular, and was curious about how the whole fake-profile thing would play out. I really enjoyed all of the side-characters as well--and especially the surprise twist with Suzanne! I didn't see it coming and I thought it was very cute.

There were some things that I felt could have been improved. I felt like the story was a little slow to start, with the first 30% or so of the book being a lot of filler and extraneous descriptive details that felt a little clunky to me. I also wished that we saw more of "Marcia" earlier on in the story, and more of the text conversations between Marcia/Jack would have helped the narrative of him falling for her.

Also, I felt like we see a lot of backstory and detail for Jeanette + the situation with her mom. We get less of that with Jack's family dynamic, even though Jack is very much also a main character. It's clear, of course, that both Jack and Jeanette have struggles at home--but the whole violent aspect of Jack's mom is not revealed until much later in the story (up to that point we are left to assume that she's just really high strung and expects Jack to follow in her athletic footsteps, regardless of his own desires).

I felt like there was a set-up to Suzanne having some sort of illness, but it was never explored, which was odd to me?

The resolution to the main conflict (the profile) felt rushed--I kind of wanted more descriptive detail about what happened after the big reveal and more about how the characters resolved it. It felt like the reveal happened and then we leap forward in time and everyone is friends.


Despite these minor grievances, I did enjoy reading this and I would loooove to see spinoffs for some of the minor characters! Especially Suzanne, who was a secondary character but who I felt really endeared toward.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the ARC :)

A touching coming-of-age story about how far we’re willing to go to find a lasting friendship.

Jeanette’s life currently revolves around caring for her agoraphobic and hoarder mother, all while dreaming of attending university for a musical theater course. When her mother’s illness worsens, she finds solace in a new friendship

I really enjoyed the previous Arnhurst book, and was excited for this, as I find Thurlbourn's writing style very entertaining. However, unfortunately, 'The Girl Who Wasn't' did not live up to the expectations I had for it.
The story itself was intriguing- I enjoyed the backstories of both Jack and Jeanette, but I also don't feel like enough time was spent fully exploring such heavy topics. I also felt as if Jeanette's character wasn't properly explored- with the constant references to 'Hamilton' feeling quite jarring (as a musical theatre student myself, I found it strange that she didn't reference any other musicals, other than this very well-known one).
Although Thurlbourn's writing is fast-paced and easy to read, the large number of inconsistencies between American and British English felt out of place, for a book set in England, though this is only a small issue, and quite nitpicky.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but one that has a large number of issues, and not as enjoyable as the previous book in the series.

Overall, the book was a good read. The main characters, Jack and Jeanette, are extremely relatable considering their familial problems. You felt empathetic for the characters and wanted them to come out the other side.
That being said, the book still needs to be edited probably one more time to catch some errors. Specifically, text being bolded to indicate text conversations when it is regular dialogue. As well, the text conversations came off more as a script or spoken dialogue rather than an actual text conversation teenagers would have. I think some revision of this would have made the book a slightly more enjoyable read. Lastly, the ending was rather abrupt and did not answer a lot of the questions that the reader was left with. As there is no indication for this book to be a part of a series, it was hard for me to see the book end that way.
Still, despite my criticisms, it was still a very enjoyable and quick read. Definitely would recommend to teens or young adults who want a simple but interesting read.

Please Note: The story is set in the UK (I believe) and I am from the USA so my review will be from the POV of an ‘American' and I might get some stuff wrong due to regional differences.

(My thoughts are really scattered for this review. I had a lot of thoughts while reading, but after finishing the story I realized I didn't really care about the characters or anything that happened to them. Nothing pulled me in as a reader. The story wasn't awful but it wasn't something I found myself eager to keep reading either.)

I liked the blurb a lot. I downloaded the eARC based on the blurb. The story I ended up reading had little to do with the blurb.

There is way too much set up and not nearly enough fake texting. There’s a lot of unnecessary explaining in the book. There are even more unresolved story lines.

The fake profile didn’t even come up until around 20% I think. The story meanders around and things happen, but it feels more like journal entries than a cohesive story. It felt like I was watching the story happen to other people instead of feeling like I was living through the events with them.

**********LIGHT SPOILERS TO FOLLOW**********
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The story is told through the POV of both Jeanette and Jack, as well as a few text message only chapters with Marcia and Jack. Jeanette and Jack both have family issues and none of them are resolved at the end of the book. While the story does end on a high note (absolutely no pun intended) it also leaves a lot to be desired. The final ‘chapter’ felt very unresolved and didn’t add enough to the story to leave me feeling satisfied.

There are a lot of filler chapters and it keeps the story from really grabbing your attention. While I felt sympathetic to Jeanette I also got annoyed with her for never doing anything. She spends most of the story being pushed around and refusing to acknowledge that her mom has a problem. Even after her mom’s accident (and the series of events that happen after that) Jeanette still refuses to see that she can’t help her mom and that she (Jeanette) herself needs help. Emma seemed harsh, but she was also the only one who truly saw the situation and was trying to make her own life better.

The same thing with Jack. The entire scenario with the football team felt implausible and silly. That it took so long for his mom to confront him about it seemed even more bizarre.

I also had a real problem with the text messages. None of them read like text messages. They came across the same way as dialogue and they didn’t ‘feel’ like two teens texting. Some of the exchanges felt more like stuffy business correspondences confirming appointments.

Mental illness isn’t handled well throughout the book. Jeanette blames herself for her mother’s condition and Jack shows signs of aggression that he can barely control. Both of these poor kids need to be in therapy before things get worse. It makes it even worse to know that they have other family members who can see those same signs and yet nothing is done. (I’ve been overly critical of books that handle mental illness and abuse badly lately so I might be reading too much into these elements).

The resolution was also rushed. After the big Marcia reveal we get a big time jump and then things are apparently all fine. There’s no closure. There’s no conversation. There’s no emotion even. We just jump ahead and Jack and Jeanette are good friends.

Also the relationship reveal with Jeanette was awkward. (I’m absolutely not putting spoilers in so I’m not sure how to write about this). I know teens are confused about a million things and that feelings and hormones and everything are crazy, but it seemed weird that Jeanette never took time to question any of her feelings or emotions. There was one small conversation with Freddie and it was over.

I don’t really have a lot to say because nothing really made any kind of impression on me. All the characters felt detached. They had emotion but they didn’t feel alive. They had challenges but they seemed almost superficial. I never knew what Jeanette wanted the entire time I was reading.

At least with Jack you knew he had a passion for music. He pursued that (to an extent). But with Jeanette I honestly didn’t know what she wanted. I think more depth to her character specifically would have helped me better connect to the story. Aside from singing in choir Jeanette had no personality.

Actually, no one really had any depth. Violet had purple hair and a boyfriend. Suzanne is in choir and can cook. Freddie volunteers and has a job. Not all secondary characters need elaborate lives, but the fact that I couldn’t tell you ANYTHING about these characters that make them unique is a problem.

There was potential here. But I think too many things got shoved into the book and muddied up the message. Any one issue from the blurb should have been enough to carry the story, but all of them made it so attention had to be split between too many issues and none could be explored in as much depth as I would have liked.

It didn’t help that the story touched on some of my least favorite tropes: all parents are ‘bad’, lying about who you are to a love interest (yes, I knew this going in, I didn’t know she stole someone else’s PICTURE. Had I known it went beyond a fake name I wouldn’t have picked this out to read), keeping secrets for the sake of keeping a secret and (not really a trope) low stakes for the MC.

Something else that bothered me, but I'm not sure where to write about it was that in the first chapter Jeanette is getting ready for school and is wearing crazy colors and clothes so that people see her but then she gets all nervous when she thinks people are watching her. I didn't understand if she wanted to be noticed or if she wanted to blend in. It was also really unclear if Jeanette was plus sized or not. There was no indication of it until later when she worries if a swing will hold her weight, or when a jacket doesn't fit her properly. There were other off-hand comments about weight as well. It was never properly addressed so I don't know what to think.

Mild language warning (I didn’t keep track) stuff like sh*t and d*mn. I can’t remember anything worse than that.

Honestly. It just needs some polish and tightening up. Trim some unnecessary scenes and add some in other places. Let Jeanette and Jack both open up about their struggles. Let them be vulnerable to someone and show more depth.

A ‘younger’ YA reader would likely enjoy the story, but I think a lot of readers will find the plot is too loose and doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to the basic story.

I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this book. I liked the characters and plot, I just felt like the ending was rushed and chaotic after so much buildup! It left me feeling weird about the book and I had previously enjoyed it greatly. I think that the author has serious potential, but the ending was poorly executed in my opinion. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my free arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

Overall, I really enjoyed The Girl Who Wasn’t. I found the plot engaging and relatable. Jeanette and Jack were both interesting characters and well-developed. The story went in unpredictable directions which made me want to keep reading.

I would have liked if the minor characters were developed more, as I believe there were some potentially fascinating stories unexplored. I would definitely read a spin-off based on them!

I read the e-book, and some of the narration was mixed into the text chains, which I believe was a small editing error. Beside that, the book was clear, well written and a thoroughly enjoyable read!

I would like to thank netgalley and wise wolf reads for this e-arc.

This was a really great coming of age book that felt like it was based on a million true stories. While reading it I could almost picture all the characters being people from my high school. It made me think a little deeper about what my high school peers may have been going through in their personal lives. Due to this I think it's a good read for teenagers!

Because it felt so familiar it didn't surprise me much in any way and I felt like I knew where it was going the entire time.

It's a cute story that kept me interested in finishing. I do wish that a few other characters such as Suzanne and Freddie would have been given bigger parts to understand them a bit better. (Could make for a good spin off!)

I would like to thank netgalley and wise wolf reads for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

ARC was sent to me from a publisher through NetGalley
Rare a book surprises me as this one did. I thought I knew the way this book was going I was wrong but not in a bad way.

We have our two main characters Jeanette and Jack who are both dealing with their own family problems
Jeanette doesn't get to have much of a social life because she always needs to be home to take care of her mother and Jake whose parents have planned out his entire life without actually asking him what he wants to be or do.

These characters were so relatble. Jeanette whose insecurities made her think no one would want to be her friend if she was just herself. Which leads her to make some not-so-good choices. We follow these characters as they learn how to make their own choices and learn from their mistakes. The friendships and relationships devolved beautifully throughout the book.
If you want a fast-paced book this is the book for you. It's easy to understand and it doesn't drag.

A boy caught between the expectations of others and a girl just learning to be seen. Even though they come fromhh two different worlds, they’re both exploring who they are beyond their insecurities and the struggles of dysfunctional homes. This coming-of-age novel was full of twists I wasn’t expecting. How refreshing! The protagonists were well-rounded and dynamic. I was completely invested in their journey and cared about their success. Unfortunately, one of the main secondary characters was rather flat with some past struggles that were hinted at but never explored. Usually, that’s not a big deal in a series like this because said character may very well get his/her own book to explain things. However, this character is a big enough part of the resolution that they probably will not get their own book, so I’m unsatisfied with all the unanswered questions I have about them (I’m not giving away the gender in an effort to avoid spoilers). Beyond that, the conflict was interesting, and the resolution was a complete surprise that broke out of the typical mold. This was a story that drew me in and wouldn’t let go until it was all finished. #thegirlwhoewasnt #netgally