Writing on point as always from Courtney Summers. This was not my favorite of hers, but I tore through it all the same. In a book like this, I think we want resolution and action and the point of the world women live in is that there really usually isn't any.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

I loved this book. Although I had partially figured out who the "bad" people were, this book is timely. I always love Courtney Summers writing and truly loved reading this book. I could not put it down.

I read this ARC via Netgalley Shelf.

Georgia has always wanted to be an Aspera girl, but ever since her mother was fired from the exclusive resort, she discouraged Georgia from it. But now Georgia's mother is dead, and her older brother is struggling to pay the bills, and Georgia just spent thousands on professional photos that she hopes will get her into Aspera. Photos that went missing after Georgia is nearly hit by a car. Her near-miss leaves her with a head injury, which is nothing compared to the dead girl further up the road. The incident, on the road to Aspera, leads Georgia to a job - not as an Aspera girl, but as an Aspirant, but Georgia knows she has what it takes to rise up. As the police investigate the crime, Georgia tries to piece together what she knows, believing she's in control when she just might not be.

Like Sadie and The Project, this story has the feel of a true crime story fictionalized. In this case, it felt a lot like the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal. Georgia's point of view gave a lot of insight into why a young girl would pursue and trust someone like Matthew. She sees Aspera as a means to rise up in life, to become one of the rich and famous. Naively she thinks her beauty can be wielded as a tool to do this, not fully understanding what goes on behind the façade of the exclusive resort. She's stubborn, too, and doesn't want to listen to everyone telling her to stay away, but also because her mother never told her the truth about it. A harrowing read for older teen readers.

Content advisory: strong language, sexual assault.

This book was well written, had a definite vibe, and dealt with heavy, serious subject matter. Beyond that, the main character really bothered me - I understood her difficult circumstances but it was like she was brainwashed, hypnotized, or didn’t have a brain in her head. By the end, there was no satisfying ending - we know the story behind what happened but no one is held accountable, which is disappointing.

There is one thing guaranteed from a Courtney Summers novel - it’s going to hurt.

I’M THE GIRL is no different. I actually had to take a few days before writing this review because I had a lot to think on. Honestly, I am not sure I have probably landed on what those thoughts are yet. Summers is never one to shy away from dark and difficult topics, and I love that about her work. In this latest release I knew it would be even more dark considering it is inspired by the exploitation and dangerous society young women live in (I believe this was inspired by the Jeffery Epstein case?) However, I am not sure I was prepared for just what awaited my reading experience.
Following teen Georgia as she steps into the world of Aspera and faces the darkness that lies there is hard. As a reader, I struggled to understand her actions - her dependence on needing to be see as beautiful and perfect and worthy at her own cost. And it was hard to watch her be let down by those who were supposed to protect her over and over.. My mind kept going back to an earlier review I saw that stated something along the lines of Georgia just being a girl. She was still so young. I just wished her all the peace that girls deserve to grow up with.

With themes of bodily autonomy and violence and the dangers of victim blaming I’M THE GIRL is a brutal, raw, and unflinching dive into the patriarchal society we live in

Georgia Avis is determined to aim higher than what she views as her unfortunate circumstances. When she finds herself with the opportunity to defy her mother and achieve her dreams, Georgia jumps in headfirst, not realizing that beneath the facade of wealth and privilege lurks something dark and dangerous.

This is not an easy read. Summers is not afraid to tackle hard topics, including sexuality, female bodies, power structures, complicity, and violence. Her writing style is unflinching, as she forces readers to confront the uncomfortable nature of the world today through an expertly woven story and painfully realistic characters.

A book about the haves and the have nots and ones girls dream to cross over to the glamorous side. Sixteen year old Georgis Avis wants to be somebody, wants to be the girl, and she thinks becoming an Aspera girl is the way to achieve her dreams. Even the mysterious death of a young girl won't sway her.
A bit dark and gritty, I'm The Girl explores heavy topics like poverty, sexual assault, and the power dynamic that wealthy people hold over young, vulnerable teens. While the writing style was intriguing and unusual, I had a hard time connecting to the any of the characters. I always felt like I was missing half the story. It held enough mystery that I wanted to keep reading until the end.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review honestly an advanced digital copy.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Trigger Warnings: Grooming, sexual assault, abuse, and drug use. Please be aware that this book does reflect some of what we know about the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Georgia Avis wants to be a model and she will believe almost anyone who tells her she is beautiful and has the looks for it. Which is how she gets conned and ends up taking provocative pictures that are not what sixteen-year-olds should be posing in. These pictures end up with her getting injured and finding a dead girl (Ashley) on the side of the road. While Georgia has no memory of the person that hurt her, she does know the Aspera owners Chloe and Matthew Hayes were the ones that found her and took care of her. This all plays into part of Georgia's dream as she not only wants to be a model but wants to be an Aspera Girl because of all the rumors she's heard about it, and how her mother told her not to go near the Hayes.

While Georgia is trying to find a way to work at the Aspera, she starts hanging out with Nora, Ashley's older sister, and together they hope to find out who hurt Georgia that night, and who hurt Ashley.

Overall I did like this book. I couldn't read it fast enough and I had to know what Georgia was going to find out next. Throughout this entire book, I just felt on edge because of what the book was about and knowing how dangerous of a situation Georgia was in even though she didn't fully understand it due to her age. Not only that but it seems that almost everyone in power in the town she lived in had a connection to Aspera in some way. Nora and Georgia together and alone started to piece together what happened to Ashley during the days she was missing, and they might just uncover something even more sinister.

The ending of this book while heartbreaking still leaves hope that maybe just maybe things will get better in the future for everyone involved.

This book will be great for past readers of Courtney Summers. If you have not read a Courtney Summers book before just know that this does deal with some very serious topics and for those who don't mind open ending stories.

Review will be posted on my Instagram @readingwithwrin on release date

Georgia is 16 and dreams of being an Aspera girl. A place where the rich and powerful gather and all she really knows is that she belongs there. Her mother didn't think so, but her mother is dead now and nothing is going to get between her and her destiny.
When she finds the body of a brutally murdered girl she is attacked and then found by Cleo Hayes. Aspera wouldn't exist without Matthew and Cleo, both rich and gorgeous, each of them like a beacon in the dark to Georgia. They offer her a summer job but not as an Aspera girl, really the only thing that Georgia wants. She knows she needs to prove herself to them before she will be worthy of that golden ticket.
There is a lot Georgia doesn't know though. The question is will it matter to her if she gets her dream? Georgia had to be one of the saddest characters I've ever seen. She is too young, too trusting, too beautiful, and too consumed with her vision of the world and her place in it to see what is right in front of her.

Georgia, a 16-year-old girl, tells the story and while she is trying to escape poverty she believes her beauty is the way out of poverty. She has the dream to be an Aspera Girl, the gorgeous young woman who works at a wealthy exclusive resort. Georgia lives with her brother after her mother passed away from cancer. Now, things take a different turn when she discovers a body of a 13-year-old girl along the side of the road. Georgia joins forces with Nora, the sister of the girl whose body she found, to solve the murder and find out what actually happened. But, there is more than meets the eye about the tale. When this happens she is bedazzled with a world filled with wealth, privilege, and power. While she is very naive, she is beautiful, and while she knows she can use her power of beauty she does not know exactly how much influence she has.
Now, this book should definitely have some trigger warnings because this does include grooming and sexual assault. However, this book is definitely thought-provoking and intense. This author has a way of not shying away from hard topics, but she has a way of covering the hard stuff and writing it in a way that is soo thought-provoking. Now, this is a raw edgy kind of story and at times it was hard to read. But, it was well worth the read!
Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read and review this one! It definitely was a thought-provoking read! I definitely recommend it if you enjoyed her other book Sadie or if you enjoy thought-provoking books!

I really enjoyed this book and the way it was written. You get to know Georgia and her POV (as this book is told through Georgia’s POV) finding out what is going on with Aspera, who really killed Ashley and learning and growing on her own as she deals with patriarchal power structures, the power of money and influence and very real and scary sexual assault.

I would not recommend this to anyone who is triggered by sexual assault as it is mentioned fairly often and in detail of how it plays out. I do find this topic to be really important and if it’s something you can stomach this book is a different perspective then I’ve seen often in other fiction pieces dealing with the same sensitive material.

This book really made me think and did captivate my full attention from the very beginning but it just left me wanting for more of a full conclusion at the end, though I don’t know if that would’ve actually been beneficial to the writing style. Just a personal preference.

I’m giving this one 4 stars!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This book took me a long time to get through because the subject matter is so difficult. I absolutely loved the book, but it IS dense.

If people are going into this book looking for something that will leave your heart pounding in suspense, you’re looking for the wrong book. This is a slow, chilling look at a world of depravity from eyes of an emotionally blind, jaded and traumatized child. It was so, so sad, and beautiful in the most horrific of ways.

This was so dark and I usually can handle just about anything. The writing style just was not for me.

This one is full of triggers so check them before reading.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Every time I finish one of Courtney Summers books I am left thinking about it for hours. She is so good at crafting an ending that is non-traditional and unexpected. The main character George is so naive you can't help yelling at her to wake up and smell the roses. I suspected very early what was really going on. It is very disturbing to watch events unfold. The narrative is a sad comment about our society as it is unfortunately true. A very thought provoking story.

Another Courtney Summers stunner. Literally, there's nothing else you need to know about it. If you loved her others, this is a must read. It has the beautifully crafted characters, the depressing plot twists, and themes of wealth and power. The main character, Georgia, finds the body of a 13-year old girl near the Aspera resort. Georgia aims to uncover the mystery of the girl's death, while being sucked into the allure of the resort.

I’ve never read anything by this author before, and by the description I thought this was going to be a mystery murder thriller, but that this book is being marketed as YA made me a little uncomfortable…it’s in my opinion VERY graphic for YA?

*Some spoilers*
It took awhile for the story to get going, and there were so many vague story teases that I kept getting frustrated with what was going on. Also, what’s going on at this…resort? Is clearly obvious, yet the Georgia’s brother, KNOWING what happened to their mother at this place, STILL TOOK GEORGIA THERE at the MINOR age of 16 so she could work to pay him back for money she stole from him because a guy at a mall told her she could be a model, and CRINGY things happened around that, and the brother is just like “we need the money soooo 🤷” LIKE WHAT?! 👀

And then when everything comes together it’s horrifying, but then like, just nothing happens in the end? Like the horrible people get to just continue to do horrible things? And Georgia’s brother is just like “yeah our mom actually wanted better for you she just didn’t show it very well” WHAT?! And then it just sort of ends. 🫠

I just, don’t know how to feel about all of this 😂. Like, the writing was decent, but the story just felt messy at times and underdeveloped, and I really don’t know how I feel about this being YA.

If you’re going to read this, I highly recommend checking the content warnings; including rape, sexual assault, and child abuse.

This one comes out this Tuesday, 9/13. 📚

"I'm so bad at wanting things because I'm so terrible at not having them."

This book was absolutely foul. It was grimy and disgusting and hopeless. But it's so important.

Courtney Summers writes some of the most compelling and unique YA thrillers I've ever read. They follow protagonists making decisions you hate, but decisions that are made every day.

Going into this, I had no idea what to expect. I knew nothing besides the title and author and it took me on quite a ride. That being said, this is not a mystery. You aren't reading to find out what happened. You're reading to see how this happened and how it continues to.

There are so many girls in this world like Georgia and Ashley. And so many men who abuse them.

This story is not a pretty one, but it's real. Yet another haunting tale from Courtney Summers.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of this!

Mystery/thrillers are very hit or miss for me, but seeing this was queer I was excited to give it a try. The MC just never clicked with me, sometimes an unlikable character is compelling, but I never felt emotionally invested. The mystery unfolding left me a little confused? So this could’ve just been me not understanding. I was put off by how much sexual violence was happening, and just overall didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I’d hoped.

I’m the Girl bills itself as a mystery, and the comparisons to Sadie are inevitable, but I’d argue that both these things are setting it up for failure. The problem with the novel is that it lacks any kind of catharsis or solution. The entirety of the book the heroine, George, is obviously misguided—self-obsessed, worried about what men think of her, and ignoring all the clear warning signs about the super secret rich people club in her town. However…she doesn’t learn. Even up until the last chapter, she is still willing to accept that she has no higher purpose than beauty.

The book’s sexual and physical violence don’t seem to have much purpose. We already know real world things like this happen, so what is Summers trying to say about it? The novel offers no solutions, no way to vent our rage, no justice—-nothing.

I love books that aren’t afraid to tackle difficult subjects, but if there is no payoff then it starts to just feel voyeuristic.

For a different (and more adult) take on a similar topic, I recommend Ashley Winstead’s The Last Housewife (full disclosure—I was a beta reader of the manuscript).

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an early copy of this book.

I had such high hopes for this one y’all. I have loved every Courtney Summers book I’ve ever read but I think maybe my expectations were a bit too high. I went in thinking this would easily be a 5 star read and that unfortunately didn’t happen.

One good thing about this book is that I couldn’t put it down. I read it on a plane and I got through it pretty quickly actually. But…this plot fell really flat for me. When I read the last page,
I refused to believe that was it. I know this book is about wealthy people preying on impoverished young girls. I think this book was trying to say something about power dynamics and how power is held by the wealthiest people. I feel it didn’t though or it was saying what has already been said. It just didn’t make that impact I think it meant to on me at least.

I think this book will either have people loving it or not liking it. Sadly this one was just not for me.