I was really excited to read I’m the Girl because I loved Sadie so very much. I truly, truly did.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this one nearly as much.

I spent the first half of the book (other than the very, very beginning) thinking, “I just don’t care about you and Aspera.” I just didn’t. It was not relatable nor was it interesting.

The second half was a bit more exciting, but I still was just was not invested at all.

There were way too many gratuitous sex scenes (yes, I understand it was to show that these young girls are being sexualized at a young age, but not all of the sex had to do with that).

The plot was extremely predictable.

Some of it just didn’t flow well. I found myself re-reading passages because it made no sense with what just happened. I thought maybe George was drugged out for part of it, but she wasn’t. At least not that we know.

I hate to say it, but this story is weird and just not that enjoyable.

after a couple days of dragging myself through the convoluted slop of a plot i am so sad to rate this 2.5 stars
but the plot is just so weird and hard to follow
the characters are never really allowed moments to breathe or grow
and boy oh boy i needed georgia to breathe for several moments because this girl was acting so stupid and for what like WAKE UP!! GIRL STAND UP!!
her character motivations are so bad through the whole novel and not a lot of mystery solving ever actually happens
the way summers writes also left me very confused as she would jump time and place between chapters and it would feel super odd
there isn’t any grand moral that can be made w this book: it states some very shallow, obvious things about hierarchies of power and women being objects but never truly says anything of value
the queerness in this book also felt like tokenization?? why is georgia so obsessed w male attention if she’s a lesbian and why is her queerness used as an explanation/excuse for others actions i don’t get it

(4.5 stars)
Wow.

I've read and enjoyed Courtney Summers' writing before and I continue to enjoy it with this book. The two other books I've read had the same dark vibe but this one just took it to a whole other level. I'm the Girl is hard to read at times, actually a lot of the times. Summers' writing is gritty and dark. The beginning was a little hard for me to get into, plot wise, because I found it to be a bit slow and a bit confusing. Once things become a little clearer, I couldn't put it down. I thought it was almost like if Gillian Flynn wrote YA. The themes and messages of this book with grooming and predation of young women are tough to read but are necessary to read.

Highly encourage looking at trigger warnings prior to reading. Read at your own comfort level.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was my first Courtney Summers novel and it was a *doozy*. The voice of the characters were so distinct. She really masters the deep inner voice & narrative we tell ourselves when we are young and traumatized to get through the moment....it was triggering AF tbh. Summers gave a beautiful content warning at the beginning of the book but I wasn't fully ready for how spot on it was.

This is a dark story with quite a few horrible encounters and situations. But it's so good at showing a really dark side of the world. Georgia is a young girl, 16, and is just really discovering the power she has with her beauty. Right away, the story starts with a disjointed accident and Georgia getting up from laying on a road and finding a dead body of a girl she knew.

From there, the story unfolds to show you the dark underside of a small town with a lovely rich man's Lodge and country club just up the road. The whole town wants to get in there because it's for the rich and famous, the "special" people. It's easy to see how kids would grow up hoping for the day they coul get to go in there.

It's hard to read Georgia's story at times. She just so young. And she just doesn't seem to realize or fully grasp what is going on but the reader can. We can see the warning signs, we can see the things her brother sees and keeps trying to warn her about. We can see the actual power structure and see the danger everywhere. It's a good, eye-opening story, but it's dark.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

I'm the Girl is a very dark book. The darkness works - or doesn't - to varying degrees of success, but it also meant that this wasn't exactly an enjoyable read.

For starters, the list of trigger warnings that should probably accompany this book is about a mile long. Courtney Summers pretty much jams every sort of terrible thing into the plot. As I said, sometimes the moments pack a punch, while at other points, they seemed forced in, more trauma for the protagonist for the sake of trauma. In a sense, all the terribleness builds to a pretty predictable conclusion: the ultra-wealthy are bad, actually. To be honest, I probably didn't need to slog through a story of murders and rapes and suicides and child porn to figure that out.

George, the main character and narrator, was similarly hit or miss in my opinion. At times, she's insightful and her frustrating complexity does ring true for a teenage girl hoping to trade on her looks to get out of a shitty small town. But she also came across as infuriatingly naive and even stupid at moments. Her poor choices pushed the boundaries of what was actually realistic, and her obsession with Aspera always felt a little hollow to me. The narrative choices of only revealing bits at a time meant that I had a tough time feeling any sort of connection with George, and never quite managed to immerse myself in her world. Without that, I struggled to feel any sort of sympathy for her when her poor choices led her down a predictably treacherous path.

In the end, despite my high hopes after loving Sadie, I'm the Girl just didn't land as well for me, and I was mostly just thankful to walk away from it when I finished reading.

3/5

I am a die-hard Courtney Summers fan. So it kills me to say that within the first few pages, I was questioning whether the book was going to be for me. I’m the Girl was loosely inspired by the Epstein scandal, and I’ll admit this was the first time I’ve hesitated before picking up a Summers book. But that’s what I search for - writing that doesn’t shy away from the gritty hard truths, and I’m the Girl is anything but shy.

When things were good, they were really, really good. The murder storyline was solid. The dynamic between George and Nora, electric. I also loved George’s relationship with her brother. Basically everything that took place outside of Aspera, I deeply enjoyed.

But once she steps through those gates… I had a really, really hard time with some of the character choices and I think that ruined the entire vibe for me. I’ll be the first to argue that YA books can be enjoyed at any age, my own experience proving that you can relate to the characters having been there once yourself. But I really struggled putting myself in George’s shoes. I just could not wrap my head around her obsession with Aspera. It’s easy to ignore at the start, I was young and wide eyed and dumb once too. But after what happened there early in the book, and what keeps happening, she just… keeps going back. There are reasons for this in the book, but I just… couldn’t.

The other glaring thing about this was, her brother knew things. Important things that went on at that place and he didn’t tell her until the very end. Yeah, he promised his mom, but I think she would have understood breaking that promise if it kept George from that terrible place!

Books like this are written to make the reader mad. To open their eyes. I get that. I love that. But this… seemed too gratuitous. Like it only existed to provoke that anger, and as someone who is already almost always angry, it didn’t hit the mark for me.

One thing the book did get right is the overall question of whether we accept the fact that wealthy people — usually men — can do whatever they want without consequences. We see it. It happens. And if, even after #metoo, there are people still not questioning it, still not speaking out against it, well, hopefully this book opens someone’s eyes.

Thank you NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and St. Martin's Press for giving me an eARC to review. This is a difficult one - both to review and to read. I would absolutely consult the trigger warnings as Summers unapologetically tackles sexual assault and grooming/abuse of minors. It's an important novel, but make sure you're in the headspace to read it.

As always, Summers has incredibly poignant writing. We follow Georgia, a 16-year-old girl who stumbles upon a dead body on the road to Aspera, kicking off the events of the novel - her coming of age, revelations of different secrets in town, the understanding of the power structure of the patriarchy. Summers successfully gives us an unreliable narrator, a naive girl who has a dream that, as a reader, I was SCREAMING for her to run away from - but didn't we all feel those things at 16? Didn't we all not realize how weird it was when a man complimented us, stood a little too close, watched a little too long? We know now. But it's easy, at 16, to tell ourselves a different story, and Summers captured that perfectly.. The club, the men - all of it is so menacing, and it's so heartbreaking to watch Georgia get taken advantage of.

I would argue this is not so much a thriller/mystery - Georgia isn't TRULY investigating the death of Ashley, she just kind of finds things at Nora's insistence. If you're looking for a thriller in the vein of Sadie, this might not be it - but it's still important, still gripping, and still a book you won't be able to put down.

4.5 stars

Georgia Avis found the body of 13-year-old Ashley James. Depserate to find some sort of justice for her, she teams up with Ashley's older sister Nora to find out who her killer was. However, the investigation puts Georgia herself in danger as she navigates the world of the wealthy and powerful. People who never have to answer for anything.

As Nora and Georgia get closer to the killer, Georgia realizes it might not just be about one person who is guily. When everyone around you is a part of the dangerous thing, how do you decide who is at fault? And how do you keep yourself from enjoying the power that it can bring? Georgia has to figure out how to have her own power to hopefully bring Ashley's killer to justice.

Thanks to NetGalley, LibroFM, and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy of I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers to review! Courtney Summers is never afraid to cover the tough topics, and this book is no different. It's being pitched as a kind of successor to Sadie, and that's an accurate description. It definitely has the same kind of feel.

I'll start with the fact that this book isn't easy to get through. Summers tackles a lot of issues connected to teen girls in relation to men who are wealthy with power. There are some very dark moments in this book, especially as Georgia tackles her own traumas. While she might not be the most likeable character, that's also kind of the point. Teen girls are complex beings, and that's part of Summers' purpose in writing these stories. They need to be told as much as the happy ones.

Summers also nails the emotions in this book. All Georgia really wants is someone to love her and appreciate her for her beauty. She wants her life to mean something, pretty much like anyone else does. It's part of the reason the relationship between her and Nora works so well. They're both looking for someone to support them, to help them through their trauma. It felt so realistic.

The narrator for the audiobook is also fantastic. I was engaged in the story the entire time, even if it was difficult to read. Summers takes you on the same journey as Georgia.

All in all, if you look for dark, true crime like stories, this one will be right up your alley.

I’ve read many books by this author, and she is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. This book has all the raw emotion I expect from one of her novels. She always writes about such hard topics with dignity.

Georgia’s streams of consciousness were very interesting and I feel made up most of the book. I really felt connected to her as a character because of all of her inner dialogue. I was intrigued with her encounters with the “privileged wealthy people” she comes in contact with.

Nora frustrated me the first 30% of the book, but I really grew to admire her. I liked the interactions between her and Georgia. I felt like she grew as a character throughout the story almost as much as Georgia.

I wasn’t expecting the story infield the way it did, but it definitely added more mystery. I was highly impressed with this book, as I always am with works by this author.

This book was so good and different. I really liked how different this was and the different things going on. I really hope there will be a sequel!

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an eARC in return for an honest review.

Wow! Where to begin? Georgia is a beautiful 16 year old who is poor and has dreams of being an Aspera girl. Aspera is and exclusive club for the ultra rich and famous who frequent there because of the privacy and other special treatment they receive.

When Georgia stumbles upon the dead body of 13 year old Ashley on the side of the road, that only leads to Aspera, it changes her life. Due to other events, she is suddenly swept up in the world of Aspera and the wealth and privilege that comes along with it.
Georgia takes an office job in hopes to help find Ashley's killer and work her way up to the coveted position of Aspera girl. She is willing to do whatever it takes.

I heard that this is inspired by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell and it's spot on. While this book is a tough read, it delves into the world where money and power can make anything happen. It's sad and very scary that we live in this world.

Georgia is only 16 and yes she made some bad decisions but she is a child. She has very little adult guidance being that she's being raised by her older brother Tyler who takes on extra shifts to make ends meet and it's still not enough. Tyler knows the reputation of this place but is still willing to let her work there because he hopes she is safe with a desk job and they need money.
When I finished the book I said damn and sat with my thoughts for a while. It's a very powerful YA book. I would suggest it as well as Sadie.

Georgia just wants to escape her life, especially after stumbling across a dead body. The key to that escape is a job at a wealthy, secretive club, the same club that tore her mother apart.
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Nora wants answers for her sister’s death and teams up with Georgia to find them but these answers may lead to their worst nightmares.
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As this mystery unraveled I just wanted to get to the end to see it all come together. There are many, many Trigger warnings in this one so tread carefully.
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Thank you #Wednesdaybooks and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

This is a story about a girl, who feels she the girl.

Wow, was this not for me. I don’t really have a lot to say- I don’t need a protagonist to be likable, but I do need them to be compelling. In fairness, the subject matter felt a lot like reading about the victims/survivors I work with, and reading this felt like a weird fever dream version of a work conversation.

That being said- the audio was great! Thank you so much @netgalley @wednesdaybooks & @macmillan.audio for the advanced copy!

DNF at 23%

I just was so confused. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters and didn’t really want to figure out the mystery. I was bored and there were no chapter headings so I felt like it was far too long to hold my attention.

Disappointed by this one!

I honestly have no words to describe my feelings about this book - in a good way. It's strong, heartbreaking, unfortunately realistic, and pulls you right in. The one thing I still feel like I have actual loose ends about is her mom - what did she actually do and how did she actually die???? Outside of that, this was another amazing, impactful novel from Courtney Summers - never to be missed.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

I'm the Girl follows teenager Georgie Avis, a 16-year-old desperate to break out of her impoverished life. When she finds the body of 13-year-old Ashley James, she is thrust into a glittering world of wealth, excess... and murder.

This book was billed as the "spiritual successor" to Courtney Summers' breakout hit, Sadie, and while I think I enjoyed the format of Sadie's storytelling more, I'm the Girl is still a phenomenally written, chilling, and occasionally haunting story. There is a lot of assault and grooming, which may be triggering for some readers, as Summers does not pull punches.

This is not a fun book. It really, truly is a difficult book, from the first page to the last. But if you're a fan of Courtney Summers, I'm the Girl delivers the deftly written, timely, thought-provoking, and haunting kind of story Summers excels at.

So, this book is definitely on the dark and disturbing side. There are a lot of trigger warnings so definitely look into them before reading.
It follows Georgia as she obsessively tries to become an Aspera Girl. Which is a girl that works at the Aspera Resort where her mother used to work. They basically work exclusively to attend to the high roller executives. Doing literally whatever they want or getting them whatever they need. I'm not sure why this is the pinnacle of what Georgia wants to be, just because at the age of thirteen after running away the owner called her beautiful and told her to come back when she was older.

She makes many.. many... many... bad decisions when it comes to working for Aspera. I don't know if she is naive or just very willfully ignorant when it comes to getting what she wants. But I do know that multiple times I wanted to reach through the book and shake her until she came to her senses.

A lot of her issues could have been avoided if her mother told her the truth about what went on at the resort, and stopped telling her she wasn't good enough to work there. Maybe rephrased more like your too good to work there? Every time her mother said she wasn't good enough it just doubled her effort to work there. Even going so far as to try walking thereafter she was hit by a car and found the body of a young girl who had been assaulted.

While this is supposed to be about Georgia and Nicole solving Ashley's murder it really takes a backseat to all the bizarre stuff that Georgie keeps doing to herself to get ahead at Aspera. It could have not been included at all and I think the book would have been mostly the same.

Honestly, I kept reading just to see if she would ever wise up, and realize that her brother is the only normal male relationship she has. And even in the end, I'm not totally sure she 100% realized what actually was happening.

I genuinely hated this book.

I’m the Girl centers around a resort like members only club full of adults that groom and exploit underaged girls from impoverished backgrounds. It’s aggressive written and sexually violent, and gave me the ick

Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

This is a tough book for me to review because Georgia is one of the most dreamy, naïve, and impulsive characters I have come across in fiction. But it’s a fine line to walk in judging that because it would be easy for a reviewer to victim blame her because of the sheer amount of dangerous situations she lands in because of that naivety. If you’re looking for character growth, you won’t see it in this one. While I’ve always said you can like a book without loving the characters, it’s hard to like the situations she keeps landing in, which are central to the story.

If you’re a fan of Summers, then you tend to know the subjects she writes about. So you can go into this expecting some tense and uncomfortable situations throughout the book. It’s often incredibly inappropriate, leading you to want to reach into the book and pluck Georgia out of it. I spent so much time screaming at her to come clean, to fess up to things she shouldn’t have kept secret, that it was futile. So overall, I have mixed feelings about this. I think some portions were helpful, and the story overall is enjoyable, but it’s tough to get around Georgia. Thank you, St. Martin’s, for sending this along.