A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Sadie and have long been a Summers fan given her talent for dealing with difficult (but often trigger heavy) issues, and generally enjoy her writing style even when her books leave me depressed. However, it seems that unlike so many reviewers, I just couldn't get into this one. I felt very removed from the characters and it felt as though I were reading from afar. Can't pin-point why, but it is what it is.

I’m the Girl is a glass case of emotions, where you’re ready to shatter as you watch Georgia and Nora experience the violent world women often live in. This is the world of the Epsteins and Weinsteins, but also the world of your teenage neighbors (and maybe your teenage self). The place where girls are exploited – but also strive to regain their own power. This is the world Courtney Summers never shies away from – and you can’t look away because this is the world of the girl.

I’m the Girl is the book Courtney shared her queer identity, though if you’ve read her others, you’ll see queer themes woven within. She’s written about the downsides of #ownvoices, where authors are expected to put out pieces of themselves they may not want to in order to be accepted into certain spaces. The theme of vulnerability is central to I’m the Girl.

Just like every other Courtney Summers’ character, Georgia is easy to label as unlikeable. Reality is – she is you and she is me. She’s us with the right (or wrong) set of circumstances. The encounters with power and privilege and having your vulnerabilities exploited, while discovering your beauty is wealth. It’s as easy to say, that could never be me – and it’s easier to say, that could easily be me.

It’s brutal and unflinching. It’s hard to read and compelling. It’s the two-sided coin of power and strength.

Loved this book - it was a bit young for me but I thought the plot was great and the character development was amazing! :)

I'm the Girl is a tough book to rate. The writing is compelling and the story is intriguing, but the content, especially in the final third of the book, is very heavy. When the story begins, it seems it will be a mystery about a young girl who was brutally murdered, but the actual heart of the story winds up being a young, somewhat naive 16 year-old being groomed by two rich. awful people. It is really a story about how wealth and privilege often protect monsters from ever being held accountable for their crimes and how complicit so many people are in those crimes. I teach high school and already have a copy on my shelf, but will be sure to warn readers of potential triggers, as this could be too much for some. That said, despite the heaviness of the topic, it is important for teen readers to see what grooming can look like and how quickly situations can turn dangerous. This book could help teen readers recognize inappropriate behaviors they've encountered and be able to identify future problematic situations. I do think that (generally) this book is best suited for older teen readers.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC copy of I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers! After really enjoying Sadie I knew I needed to read whatever she wrote!

Mini synopsis: Georgia discovers the body of a 13 year old girl, shortly after she herself is hit by a car. The girls sister, Nora, wants to know what Georgia knows about the person who did this. Georgia remembers nothing and honestly she’s pretty preoccupied with being an Aspera girl. I also saw there’s a Sadie tie in so I was keeping my eyes peeled for the references!

Courtney Summers can just write and make you feel things. And this book hurt. My heart was hurting for Georgia the whole time especially when she just wanted to be an Aspera girl no matter how much everyone was telling her it wasn’t a life to live. The grooming (& shock of who else played a hand in it) felt like that’s how it would actually play out.

I also liked the relationship between Georgia and Nora was precious and I thought the slow build from friend/crush was perfection. I hope they make it bc I think they are good for each other!

⭐️⭐️

𝘼 𝙗𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙜𝙜𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙣𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: 𝙞𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙞𝙨, 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩 𝙞𝙩?

I’m so upset I didn’t enjoy this book as I had such huge hopes for it. I haven’t read a Courtney Summer book prior to this one, but I’ve heard absolutely nothing but great things about this author.

I will start by saying I did enjoy this author’s writing style, however, the story just didn’t work for me. It was full of unlikable girls and I just didn’t care for them whatsoever. I also found our main character Georgia a bit over the top and annoying at times.

I really believe one of the main problems here is the lack of character development. I wish we got more out of Georgia and wish I saw more of a growth process. It also felt very overwhelming reading about her and not having that connection.

Also, miscommunication is another factor that didn’t work for me. I don’t want to get too into spoilers, but there was this secret that was held just for the drama. I think it could’ve saved so much time and would’ve prevented so many situations. I just felt annoyed that everyone was keeping a dumb secret from Georgia.

While I do enjoy this author’s style, I felt like the plotline was a bit underwhelming and flat. It was a bit confusing following the flashbacks and different timelines. I kept having to re-read certain paragraphs because it was so confusing and I felt like I missed important details - I didn’t!! It also dragged at times and had many issues that bothered me.

Overall, this book just didn’t work for me. I loved the author’s lyrical writing style, but the plot just didn’t work for me. I had issues with the story itself and the main character. I also felt like the reveal at the end was disappointing and a bit predictable. I wish I would’ve enjoyed it more, but unfortunately, this one was a miss for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy, all thoughts are my own!

Georgia Avis is 16 years old. She wants a different life than the one she has as she lives in poverty and hardships. She wants glamour and to be rich. Her mother died a year ago. She discovers 13 year old Ashley’s dead body in a ditch by the road that the resort wants to work at even though her mother had told her to stay away. Why? What did her mother know. She teams up with Nora. (Ashley’s older sister) to find out who killed Ashley. Georgia is trying to track down Ashley’s killer when she gets several perspectives on what a young woman’s place is in the world. Georgia finds herself searching for secrets of the r town. Matthew Hayes, the resort manager, Aspera sees Georgia as nothing but a potent lower worker. His wife tells her to use her beauty to get what she wants. Georgia ends up finding herself at the mercy of these powerful people and organizations. Georgia must decide if she wants to continue in this participation or leave it. What will she do? Will Georgia be able to solve Ashley’s murder?

This book is difficult to read at times as Georgia is so innocent. Yet at times, I found joy in the book. It helped making the book easier to read. Can Georgia accept the ways of the world she lives in? The author has written a book that made me think and wondered at Georgia’s difficult life. It’s an amazing novel with important questions to ask yourself what would you do.

This is the second book by this author that I have read, and it is definitely a book to make you stop and think about the impact of perceived beauty in our culture.

This wasn't an easy book to read due to various situations. I say not easy as in the topics are deeper such as exploitation of young girls, rape, assault, drugs, and self-worth.

Georgia has had to endure a lot in her life with the death of her mother, being lured into a seamy situation by an older man, death of a friend, and trying to find her place in this world. Sadly, she hinges everything on her perceived beauty. She may be beautiful, but she believes that she can become more based on this one attribute. As we learn in our lives, beauty is fleeting and there has to be more to a person to make it in this world. I think she is lost and has not had the best role models or guidance from family members to realize that there is more to life than the outside package.

I did feel like the book was disjointed at various spots, and I sometimes wondered why the characters were so obtuse. That said, it is still a story that fits into our world, and I think there might be some that can relate to the character's situations. It won't be a comfortable read, so be prepared.

I love the way the author shines a spotlight on critical issues. There was a heaviness to this book and I was not in a frame of mind to process it all.

Man, this is ROUGH you guys. While I loved Sadie and I'm the Girl is supposed to be a "spiritual successor" (whatever that means) to it, this one just really didn't work for me as well. It is really dark, gritty, and hard to read, and I think it is probably best suited to an older YA audience as opposed to a younger one. It didn't read like young adult to me besides Georgia's age and it seems like it would be hard to recommend to the right age group. You are definitely going to have to watch your triggers before you start as well, and I thought that the mystery aspect got a little lost amidst Georgia's naïveté and all of the terrible things that happen to her. I also didn't think this was a thriller even though it is marketed as one. So, on that front, it was a miss for me.

I did love the LGBTQIA representation and (as always) Courtney Summers' writing, which is what really allowed me to keep going. The audiobook also had a hand in keeping me invested because the narrator Lori Prince was AMAZING. She sounded just the way I was imagining Georgia would sound, and she was able to completely bring to life how young and conflicted the MC was. That being said, I did get a little lost in what the point of the story was, and it meandered around a little too much for me. There are definitely some incredibly important themes in I'm the Girl and would make a great discussion book because there is so much to unpack in the story. While I didn't love it, I am in the minority and if you can handle the triggers this book brings, I would still recommend giving it a go.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Man, this book made me so mad. I tend to have that feeling when reading Summers' books, but this one in particular made me mad. I don't really want to give anything away so this review is likely going to be short and vague.

This book is less focused on characters and a specific plot and felt more focused on the world run by power, beauty, and wealth. Don't get me wrong, the mystery regarding who killed Ashley was interesting and I wanted to know very badly who did it. And we do find out what happened to her, but knowing the answer didn't make me feel any better in this case.

I'm the Girl is all about the abuse that those in power can dole out without any repercussions. It felt almost too realistic and I could think of too many real cases in which behavior like this had occurred. It was absolutely maddening to read about the behavior of these characters and how easily it was accepted as normal and okay.

I really don't want to say any more about that subject because I wouldn't stop and I would give it all away, so I'm going to switch to the characters for a bit.

Georgia was a very compelling character. I really empathize with her story throughout the book and came to feel both exasperated by some of her behavior/thought processes (mostly regarding her mother) and super protective of her. I liked her relationship with Nora and the support they protected each other.

This book is definitely a difficult read in terms of content. I binged a lot of fluffy romance after reading this because it was just a lot by the end, but I would definitely recommend giving it a read. It's intense but touches on so many real issues that are important to discuss and challenge in popular media.

3.5—A very hard read, so please check the trigger warnings before picking it up. I’ve read three books by Summers and I’ve finished each one feeling empty. I never feel satisfied by the outcome, and that’s because they’re all bleak as hell. It’s not a bad read, she’s a fine writer the plot is good, the characters are complex, the writing is intriguing-_but man. Give me a resolved happy ending for once, please.

“What makes you decide to kill a girl? What makes you decide not to?”

This was a hard one. After reading Sadie a few years back, I knew I needed more Courtney Summers in my life. Until I saw the ARC for I’m the Girl, I kind of forgot all about it. I’m so glad I went and requested it. It was such a great read for the mood I was in, and I finished it in one sitting. (I definitely felt it the next day.)

Georgia Avis is riding her bike when she’s suddenly hit by a car. As she stumbles away, she sees someone in a ditch. Unfortunately, the young girl is dead, and she’s only thirteen. This sends the town, and Georgia, on a terrifying journey to see what money can really buy.

“You’re going to learn very, very fast that money can make anything happen.”

This is a very timely book. Georgia’s town is a normal one, except it is home to Aspera, an exclusive, members only resort for the rich and famous. Georgia wants nothing more than to be an Aspera girl. They’re beautiful, they’re talented, and they’re special. Coming from poverty, she wants to be part of their world.

This is a very sad, very bleak novel. It deals with some heavy topics, so please check content warnings at the end of this review. I kind of knew from the description how the novel might go, but I was still not prepared for the emotions I felt reading this book. In a world where so many people are just struggling to survive, there’s a real group of people who are paying money to be horrible people. This book is not listed as based on a true story, but we can definitely guess.

“Maybe it’s not how much time passes—it’s what it takes from you when it does.”

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

CW for death of a child, murder, rape, drugging, pedophilia, sexual assault/violence, suicide, incest, grooming, abuse of authority, and corruption

3.5 stars-

One night while biking on a remote road, Georgia Avis is hit by a car, and simultaneously discovers the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James. She then teams up with Ashley's older sister, Nora, to find and bring the killer to justice before he strikes again. Georgia, a beautiful 16 year old aspires to be an Aspera Girl. Aspera Girls work at a wealthy, and elite club. When an opportunity to work at Aspera opens up, Georgia starts work there while also investigating Ashley's death.

I have never read a Courtney Summer's book but have had The Project on my TBR for forever, so when the opportunity came to read I'm The Girl, I jumped at the chance. I went in not really knowing anything and it wasn't quite what I expected. I can see how others might like this book if they regularly read YA but this was not for me. There were repetitive descriptions of Georgia's body and other's bodies, lots of trigger warnings including assault. It was a difficult read but it was a very fast read!
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another masterful novel by Courtney Summers exploring the ways girls navigate power structures in their world; this time, agency around beauty and relationships. I'm the Girl is often creepy and disconcerting, but that's the point—there aren't simple answers here, and she doesn't shy away from the complexities of navigating your power as a beautiful young woman. I can't wait to re-read.

This queer, addicting thriller, “I’m the Girl” by Courtney Summers, deals with murder, assault, relationships, and class issues. That’s all you need to know.

I love Courtney Summers. I would happily read her grocery list and beg for more. I knew this book would destroy me going in, and yet, I still devoured it through my tears and aching heart. What can I say other than this is another brilliant masterpiece that I wish I could read again for the first time. A million stars! All the stars!

Truly I wish I had got my act together to read the eARC I received from NetGalley and Wednesday Books well before publication day so that I could then reread the copy I pre-ordered from my indie bookstore! Alas, procrastination got the better of me, so I dipped into the ebook the weekend prior and then finished I’m the Girl in all its hardcover glory. I braced myself for devastation, and I was not disappointed. Courtney Summers just seems to be continually reaching new heights of her powers. If I sound like a fangirl, it’s because I am one!

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis lives in small town Ketchum. With her mother having passed not too long ago, Georgia is supported by her hard-working older brother. But she has aspirations of her own: she wants to become an Aspera girl. Aspera is the ritzy private retreat on the outskirts of town, and Georgia’s mother worked there—as a cleaner—before being fired in disgrace. Georgia’s brother wants nothing to do with Aspera. But the sudden and shocking murder of the thirteen-year-old daughter of a police officer—on the road that leads to Aspera, no less—throws everything into turmoil and doubt. Even as Georgia’s desires seem to be within reach, she has to decide if that is truly what she wants—or would she rather figure out what she has with Nora, and who killed Ashley?

At its most basic, I’m the Girl is technically a murder mystery. Nora and Georgia are allies—albeit reluctant ones at first—in solving the murder of Nora’s sister. Indeed, this was my first impression of the book from the marketing I saw. But please don’t be mistaken: this is not a cozy sapphic detective team-up. It is brutal and twisted and you are not going to feel comfortable reading it. It’s about the ephemeral and illusory nature of power in a misogynistic society that regards women as bodies more than people. Ashley’s murder is a part of that, of course, as is what Georgia experiences. But there’s a reason that Georgia is the sole narrator of this book.

Georgia is young. Sheltered, even. Her mother has gone to great lengths to protect her from the harshness of this world, but of course, Georgia resents her for this. I love how Summers subtly reinforces Georgia’s youthful inexperience. At various times throughout the book, Georgia will casually remark about how she doesn’t know or doesn’t understand something, whether it’s how to do something on the computer or the meaning of a word. Sometimes these confessions are solely to us, the readers; sometimes they are to people in her life. It’s a small thing, but it reminds us that everything we read in this book is being filtered through the mind of a sixteen-year-old girl from a small town. Lots of books are like this, of course, but what I mean when I highlight this fact is that Georgia is more conduit than character.

Indeed, this book at times feels like an arthouse film where the cinematography and scene structure matters more than the acting. If I have a criticism of I’m the Girl, it’s mainly that Georgia receives very little character development for a protagonist. She is stubbornly fixated on becoming an Aspera girl, even as the flags around her turn deeper and deeper shades of red. I bet that if I head over to the Goodreads reviews of this book, I’ll see—yep, there’s a bunch of 1-star reviews highlighting this flaw. And I get it! We all want to see an innocent protagonist who gets taken advantage of, victimized, abused, grow and challenge her abusers and somehow win. Summers is as stubborn as Georgia in refusing to give us that satisfaction. If you have read Sadie then you shouldn’t be surprised, though you are allowed to be disappointed.

But I don’t really even consider this a criticism on my part if I look at the book through that different artistic lens. Georgia is how Summers distills the theme of the book into a reasonably linear narrative. Georgia doesn’t change for most of the book because part of the point of I’m the Girl is that our world doesn’t change, at least not in this respect. Even after #MeToo and #TimesUp, even when a big man falls and ends up in prison for his crimes, the fundamental fabric of our society remains patriarchal. The players and pawns change but the game itself does not.

With this in mind, an ending that might feel frustrating and meaningless becomes, in many ways, the most uplifting part of the book. There is incredible power not just to the final line itself, but to how the book design actually supports its delivery. The line is its own final chapter, and the book is typeset in such a way that it appears on the verso, so you’re forced to turn the page before seeing it. The last thing you read, the penultimate line, is “I bring my hands to the necklace.” In that moment, everything Georgia has experienced hangs in the balance. The necklace is a metaphor for the life Georgia has been trying to build for herself, at only sixteen. What she does next is everything, is an indication of where Georgia will be going from here. So you have to pause. You have to take in the blank space at the end of the chapter, a yawning lacuna fraught with possibility, before turning the page to read that final line and learn Georgia’s fate—or at least, rather, get the barest of hints. It’s brilliant.

Summers has a well-deserved reputation for devastation, a reputation I have long agreed with in my reviews. Make no mistake: I’m the Girl is a devastating novel. As I said earlier, it’s brutal. There are graphic depictions of the body of a murdered girl and multiple scenes of rape. This is not a nice book to read; I didn’t particularly enjoy it. If you came here looking for a more straightforward thriller, I think you’ll be very disappointed. Similarly, though this book will inevitably be labelled as young adult thanks to its protagonist’s age, it is not. Not really. But the book’s refusal to conform to neat genre lines isn’t the book’s problem; it’s ours.

Indeed, you can dislike this book and criticize it for being a hot mess of an experiment—as long as you recognize that’s what it is. And that, I think, is what I am celebrating here as a Courtney Summers fangirl. A decade ago, Summers was writing relatively straightforward young adult narratives about how we fuck up the lives of high school girls. They were good, sometimes even great, and even then Summers demonstrated her power to plumb the depths of teenage angst. But her last three novels have, in my estimation, eclipsed her earlier works by dint of her willingness to play with story structure and character in a way that she did not or could not before. I can see how someone coming to this book as their first Summers experience, or coming to it hoping for a retread of any of her previous works, might feel let down. I can’t say that I feel that way, though, because all I feel is awe.

Despite Summers being the Queen of Devastation, and despite this novel being so unrelenting in its brutality, I feel compelled to conclude that this might be one of the more hopeful entries in Summers’ entire repetoire. Is that weird? Like, Sadie remains my far-and-away favourite simply for the indelible space that girl has set up in rent-free in my mind, but that book is also quite graphic and bleak in its telling and does not, in my opinion, offer even the smallest morsel of hope for a better future. I’m the Girl, on the other hand, grants us at least one moment of hoping for something more.

Our world doesn’t change, alas. Georgia’s story is too many girls’ stories. It shouldn’t be. One day, I hope, it isn’t. But until that time, novels like this bear witness to the fundamental flaws of our society. They refuse to glorify or excuse this violence, but they also don’t sanitize it. They refuse to let us look away. The powerful men at the centre of this story are truly heinous, yet they cannot operate with such impunity unless they are supported by people—including women—who manage to rationalize their complicity until they can still sleep at night. Because, yes, men do these awful things to women and girls. But the rest of us are the ones who keep letting them get away with it.

I struggle with this one, I've heard many good reviews but the story is just not holding my attention. I'm finding it hard to read, first because of the content and second because of the structure. The content is uncomfortable, which isn't a bad thing, just something that you need to be in the right mood for, and I haven't been. The structure's been the stickler though, I get that the choppy sentences have a lyrical effect, however its keeping me from really immersing myself in the story. Unfortunately, its a DNF for me at this point.

I loved this latest title from Summers. The short chapters made it very readable, and all the characters felt very real! My only issue was how rushed the ending was, but other than that the book was very well thought out, and the plot twist was shocking even though I predicted it!