This book seemed right up my alley and in many ways, it was. However, the amount of trigger warnings that I would need to give before recommending this book to a student makes it a little difficult for me to say that I would recommend this one in the classroom. I think the right reader would love this story, but it isn't the story for everyone, especially those who already have a history of trauma.

Lord, Courtney summers knows how to mess me up! This book will mess with you at times, I found the protagonist likeable ,Georgia is just trying to get thru life and will do whatever it takes to make. I do feel like at times the book was hard to get thru but I finished and overall I loved it. It started with Georgia finding 13 year old Ashley murdered and raped. Georgias main goal is to be an aspera girl and teams up with Ashley’s sister Nora to take down Ashely’s killer.

Georgia Avis finds the body of 13-year-old Ashley James. Determined to find the killer, Georgia teams up with Ashley’s older sister, Nora. The investigation puts Georgia in danger as she’s thrown into the world of the wealthy and privileged. A world where beauty is everything and everyone is guilty.

The was a fast paced read where all the characters were unlikable and untrustworthy. It’s a YA read but the book is filled with a lot of trigger warning such as rape and sexual and physical assault. Overall, I thought the book was just ok. I loved the pacing but I didn’t find it suspenseful and the last few pages were confusing. I reread them multiple times and I still have no idea what they meant.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copyin exchange formy honest review.

I'm the Girl is an eye-opener. Layered with an underlying current of danger, it's a book all should read. Stories like these only come around once in a while though there are parts throughout that are experienced by teens frequently. (The looks, the comments, the unwavering reality that the world wants us to grow up quickly). It's thought-provoking, cutthroat, and heart breaking. It's all I expect from a Courtney Summers novel and everything I hope for.

2.5 stars
what an odd reading experience
i don't understand the message this book was trying to put forth and i don't understand who this book is for.
the conversations that are had in here are typically conversations that i really appreciate having and hearing about. but i just don't feel like their was a "good" moral to the story here - men are always going to abuse their power and we just have to deal? i don't think that was the actual intent but that is how it came across.
the entire time Georgia is trying to get attention & validation from men and i don't think she ever really grew past that.
the romance did not work for me at all - i never found myself rooting for the relationship and it felt so strange, tonally speaking, to be included in this story

I'm the Girl
by Courtney Summers
Pub Date: 13 Sep 2022

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of Courtney Summers. She has a powerful and such real way of writing that pulls the reader in to whatever world she is writing about. Some of her previous works have had a dark theme and this one falls under that heading. While her words were well written, they were also very hard to read due to the ugly subject matter. This is not what I would call an "enjoyable" read...there are a number of triggers (child grooming, sexual abuse) and the whole book made me feel beyond uncomfortable and raw. That is a sign of a great writer...one who makes you feel; however, this book is a one-time read for me.

I still look forward to whatever else Courtney Summers will pen!

Superb writing. The description in this book was like no other. I grew a great fondness to some of the characters and felt like I was right in the scenes with them. The storyline was interesting to me but I did feel like it was lacking something. Overall, I really liked this book though.

“I think maybe when a girl dies the way Ashley did, we all do a little.”

This book is an absolute heartache of a read. It’s entirely too real and a glaring spotlight on the innocence of teens even as they are being forced into adult situations faster and faster.

Georgia Avis is a poverty stricken teenager who dreams of being more than she thinks she has been. Of being an Aspera girl. The pinnacle of success in her 16 year-old-mind. The one thing her deceased mother said she wasn’t good enough to be.

Georgia plans to use her beauty and allure to prove her mother wrong. Unfortunately, finding the body of a dead and abused 13-year-old girl, Ashley James, on the road to do so, puts some obstacles in her plan. Or does it? Georgia is thrust into the elusive and exclusive gates of Aspera and thinks she’s on the way to everything she’s ever dreamed of. Until Ashely’s sister Nora confronts her with questions and doubts about the day she found Ashley.

While Georgia’s ultimate goal and mindset throughout this story is to become an Aspera girl, we also see her navigating normal teenage emotions/life while living through the aftermath of finding the abused dead body of a young girl she knew. Georgia is working at Aspera. Falling for Nora. Trying to figure out what actually happened to Ashley, and also trying to mentally recover what she endured on that road and what she doesn’t even realize she’s endured since. It’s… a lot.

We as the reader are made aware in subtle ways what’s happening to Georgia and I swear I spent much of my reading time begging her to see what I could. Begging her to understand something she couldn’t because she wasn’t told and just didn’t know. Begging her to fully understand something I most likely wouldn’t have understood fully at 16. Begging her, when she wasn’t the one in the wrong.

I think this book was so many things, but I think for me it was a solid reminder that as mature as some teens are they are still children. They deserve transparency and honesty from us about this world because in it there are people who will try to hurt them. They deserve the power to know that they deserve more than to bow at the feet of those with more power than them. They shouldn’t have to accept things just because they aren’t the one on top.


TW: teenage drug use/drinking, death/murder, overdose, discussions of rape/SA, alcoholism, grooming, sexual assault, statutory rape, rape, discussions of parental incest, allusions to pedophilia, discussions of being drugged without consent,

CW: on page consensual sex (since this is YA)

This was a quick read with a good introspective on how girls are used and used up by people in power and not always just men. However it felt unfinished to me and I felt like I didn't really know Georgia that well so I wasn't totally invested in her.

I'm the Girl is a brooding, provocative story of a young, beautiful girl who stumbles upon a crime scene and enters a dark world in which men have power and use it to consume young girls.

Georgia, the main character, is incredibly beautiful, a fact she ruminates on and repeats throughout the book, but she's also incredibly naive -something she vehemently denies and cannot recognize in herself until it's much too late. Georgia is thoroughly unlikeable, as is every other character in the story except her older brother, who acts as Georgia's caretaker. Georgia's love interest is a girl named Nora, who is the sister of the slain girl Georgia comes upon in the first few pages of the story. Nora is cagey, strange, and oscillates wildly between kind and vicious. Then there is the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell characters, who groom and take advantage of young girls, including the main character.

I really wanted to like this book. It has a lot of compelling elements and I applaud Summers' desire to shine a light on the seedier, darker parts of our world. For me, though, it wasn't successful at this task. Partly because the main character is so exceedingly naive that it is frustrating to plod along with her as she walks directly into the sharks' mouths and then seems stunned when they have teeth. Her naïveté also feels…forced. Like she acknowledges repeatedly throughout the story that she understands that men leer at her because she is voluptuous and beautiful, and was even on her knees about to give a gross man a blow job at the beginning, and then is taken aback that rich men do bad things??? The disconnect for me was a difficult hurdle to get over.

There is also a dream-like quality to the writing that sometimes left me feeling confused as to what was actually happening. I had to re-listen to one section of the story three times to make sure I understood what was happening, and even after the third listen, it still wasn't clear. And the ending was honestly nonsensical. SPOILER AHEAD. If these people who had already killed once and clearly had no regard for the lives of others knew she knew what they'd done and was ready to tell, it seems absolutely ludicrous that they would then just let her walk out of there. END SPOILER. For me, the story just didn't live up to the expectations it set forth.

I would caution anyone who is triggered by graphic sex scenes and/or sexual assault to stay away from this book, as there are more than a few scenes in the story, some consensual and some not. This book is definitely for older, more mature teen readers and adults, and ones who can stick out a slow burn, because this book is definitely that.

I'm the Girl is another unique story by Courtney Summers, one that takes on social issues especially the issue of powerful manipulation of the innocent. More specifically wealthy people profiting from pretty teen girls from impoverished backgrounds. They draw them in, groom and train them all the while making them believe they're the best thing that's ever happened to them. The use of women (think Jeffrey Epstein!) to recruit young girls who don't yet realize how to safely explore their budding sexuality is exploitation of power - an adult preying on the inexperience and dreams of minors. The difference between consent and manipulation is graphically explored in I'm the Girl as the main character is a lesbian just beginning to explore her feelings with a girlfriend - a consensual relationship. And then there's a power scene between an adult and a sixteen year old - clearly a case of abuse of power which may be uncomfortable for some readers. I applaud Summers for effectively and carefully presenting the subject manner.

I'm the Girl is the story of Georgia, who discovers the murdered body of a young teen girl. She joins forces with Nora, the sister of the girl, to find out what happened to her. Georgia is beautiful, and has long held dreams of being one of the elite Aspera Girls, beautiful young women who are chosen for their looks to work at a wealthy exclusive resort. This could be her ticket out of poverty. When circumstances land her there, she's excited because it's all she's ever dreamed of . . . and yet, something's off. I'm the Girl unfolds entirely from Georgia's point of view. Her character is naive and innocent - aware of the power of her beauty to a point, but totally unprepared for the harsh reality of real life and the predators lurking out there.

The mystery in this story is convoluted and not always easy to follow as the pacing feels a bit off. However, I recognize that I'm not the target audience as this book is shelved young adult. I do however, appreciate that the story spotlights some extremely difficult issues such as poverty, grooming, sexual assault/abuse and abuse of power. Summers's writing lends itself to rendering stories about young teen girls and once again, she's penned a beautiful yet heartbreaking story. She doesn't sugar coat anything - just lays it out there and challenges readers to read and absorb it and maybe, just maybe make some noise about it. It's a call for action, a cry, a warning we should all heed. Highly recommended to fans of young adult mystery.

I will start by saying that Courtney Summers is an auto-buy author for me. I have read every book of hers and most of them have been five-star reads. She's amazing. But this one was so incredibly disappointing. Georgia's biggest ambition in life was to be an Aspera girl. I understand that Aspera (a very high-class resort for the super wealthy) represented everything Georgia wanted, but I really didn't get the appeal of being an Aspera girl. It was basically just a maid for rich people, but Georgia made it seem like it was the same as being a movie star.

The mystery wasn't very engaging and there was no suspense in terms of finding out who did it. And the ending was so anticlimactic and unsatisfying. I had to force myself to keep reading this one, which is not what I am used to in a Courtney Summers book.

I’m not sure how to feel about this story. I was honestly confused at the beginning, found my groove, and then the last few pages? What was that? The story was predictable. I’m still confused about what happened with Georgia’s mother. I’m honestly okay with the confusion and unsettling feelings, but I really disliked the ending. I’m still giving it four stars because I love the style, the craft is so deftly handled. Summers is a master of writing, and a bum ending doesn’t change that. Fyi- a few graphic/sexually explicit scenes. Will not hype up but definitely have a group of upper classmen that I could share it with.

I think we could all see who from the get-go who the murderer was even if Georgia refused to see anything in front of her face. That's okay. i was trying to tell her throughout the story. Yes, I was talking to the characters. It was difficult to read and know just what the Aspera Girls were all about and how badly she felt she needed that title. I understand that her mother did not always find the right words and Georgia didn't always listen and heard what she wanted to. She was just a child. I did love her coming into herself with Nora. That was a relationship I could get behind, even if they both were dealing with things in different ways.

Courtney Summers is a great writer. She takes a hard subject and makes you continue to read and really feel every emotion. Most of the time i wanted to hug Georgia and tell her yes she was beautiful and she didn't need anyone to tell her that to be who she was.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy for review.

This book did not go where I thought it was going to go, and yet I am pleasantly surprised by it. The characters really rope you into it and keep you coming back to it, but also asking yourself: what is going on? Who really is the good person here? Did that really just happen? Georgia did get on my nerves after a bit, since she was leading her life with her ideas and fantasy of the world rather than with the reality of things. But she was also an incredibly strong, yet vulnerable.
The atmosphere this book has is eerie, yet so familiar for people who have grown up in small towns.
I have two critiques with this book. One being the lack of trigger warnings. This book should absolutely have a set of warnings right off the bat as it covers a lot of heavy themes including: murder, r*pe, physical and sexual assault, as well as grooming of minors. This brings me to my second issue…I was of the understanding that this was marketed as a YA novel, if I’m mistaken then please disregard this but I had applied for this novel through the publisher through its YA branch. For a YA it is quite heavy on the sexual side at times; it either would need to be re-marketed or given the proper warnings from the get go.
This is my first book by Courtney Summers and I would definitely read another of her books in a heartbeat!

After "I'm the Girl," I think we can safely crown Courtney Summers as the queen of the emotionally devastating thriller. Summers' novels are so intense, so thought-provoking, and so evocative that I find myself in a slump after finishing each new novel. It is so hard to find a follow-up novel that can deliver the powerful punch that Courtney Summers seems to effortlessly deliver. "I'm the Girl" is no different. This book is *heavy* it touches on painful and difficult topics, from underage drug and alcohol abuse to sexual assault, grooming, and physical abuse. The book is incredibly difficult to read at times, and there were definitely moments where I cried at the injustice of the entire circle closing around both Georgia and Ashley.

Georgia Avis has only ever had one dream, to be an Aspera Girl. To work with the most influential people at the most influential club, reserved for the most beautiful girls in the town. After years of emotional abuse from a mother determined to make her believe that she could not attain any higher status than the poverty she was born into, Georgia finds herself desperate for the acceptance and attention of Matthew and Cleo Hayes, Apera's owners, and brightest stars.

Georgia could never have predicted that being the victim of a hit-and-run that left her battered, concussed, and the only witness to the aftermath of the brutal murder of 13-year-old Ashley James, would be the event to draw her into the Hayeses' orbit. Now caught between her long-held desire to be an Aspera girl and the desire of Ashely's sister, Nora, that she helps investigate Ashley's murder, Georgia finds herself drowning in a world of both immense power and prestige where the wrong move might just make her the next girl to disappear.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

This one wasn’t for me. I picked it up because I really liked Sadie but this didn’t catch me the same way. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

This book is intense and unsettling, even by Courtney Summers' standards. Content warnings abound, particularly for grooming and sexual violence.

Sixteen-year-old Georgia grew up poor, surrounded by strained family relationships, but at least she always knew she was beautiful. She thought she understood the social currency that comes with it. But then two things happen at once: Georgia falls for a major scam and while searching for a way to make it right, she discovers the dead body of the sheriff's 13-year-old daughter on the road leading to Aspera, the town's elite, exclusive resort for the obscenely wealthy. Though her mother spent most of her life warning her away from the place, Georgia has long dreamed of being an "Aspera girl": Gorgeous, flirtatious, well-paid, and honored to serve such guests. Her horrific discovery leads to the owners of Aspera taking her under their wing, but what she finds behind the gates is more than she bargained for.

The story is gripping and Summers' streak of writing very flawed yet intriguing young women continues. Georgia is far from a likable character, but you sympathize with her and want to protect her from her very vulnerable situation. First, there's the mystery of young Ashley James' death. Georgia feels obligated to solve it after realizing the killer may have obtained information on her while escaping the scene, and that's only exacerbated when Ashley's sister Nora decides Georgia is the lead SHE needs to solve the case.

I really liked the relationship between Georgia and Nora. Both characters are established as queer early on, but I appreciate that the book doesn't immediately force them into a relationship. They barely have a friendship at first. Watching their care for each other grow in fits and starts is bittersweet, but you can't help but root for them.

The main character really goes through the wringer as her naive mistakes become others' control strategies, and it makes for a challenging read at times. In particular, Georgia is taught by the Aspera owners-– a married couple named Matthew and Cleo— that her sexual allure is her "power" and that she can only succeed in life by using that power. This leads to some deeply uncomfortable scenes. They're designed to be upsetting. They're designed to showcase how grooming works. Well, it's effective.

I know ambiguous endings are also part of the author's MO, but the ending for this one left far too much on the table and really didn't work for me. The novel focuses heavily on the vulnerability of young women and the way society fails to protect them. While I don't expect it to solve ALL those problems for the main character, it basically just ends with Georgia… choosing to stay away from and ignore all the devastating and unforgivable crimes that have occurred to and around her, because she doesn't have the power to beat the system. Boom, the end. I get that it might be more realistic because many elite baddies do not get their comeuppance, but it's too fucking grim without really saying anything new in the process. I typically love Summers' style but honestly, I'd rather have the revenge fantasy in this case.

All the same, I'm The Girl is still very well-witten and it sucks you into a living nightmare. The plot moved swiftly and the characters held my attention. It just needed a stronger ending to make it more cohesive.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

---

Gritty, real, sometimes hard to read, Courtney Summers is the queen of writing multidimensional characters that are sharp-edged and not always likable, put in situations that many people would blame them for. For example, it would be easy for someone to blame the Aspira employees for putting themselves in that situation, but that would be disregarding the power dynamics at play. I'm the Girl is a powerful examination of power dynamics between classes, heteronormativity, and sexuality, but it falls short of five stars for me in the ending. It felt like too much was left unfinished, too rushed, too abruptly cut off at the end of the book. On one hand, I understand that this is how these things often occur in real life - things don't get tied up, the powerful slip under the radar, they get away with it. On the other hand, as a reader, it wasn't exactly satisfying.

---

Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another stunner by Courtney Summers! A Thriller for YA and adults who enjoy mystery and psychological thrillers.
Georgia Avis wants "the Life". , she wants to be grow up and be beautiful, wanted and admired by all in a privileged world of wealth. But when she finds a dead body of a 13 year old her life is set on a different path all together. Quickly she has to learn to survive, but without parents and only her older brother to guide her, she doesn't know which way to turn. She turns to a old friend in the victim's sister and together they try to solve the murder.
For fans of murder mysteries and thriller this book is a winner.
Appealing cover is as appealing as the story! A good fit

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.