This book was heavy in all the right ways. Georgia is a sixteen year old girl living with her brother following the loss of her mother. Georgia has dreams far bigger than her years and will stop at nothing to reach them. When Georgia finds the body of a young girl on the roadside everything seems to change and Georgia attempts to reach those dreams far quicker. Georgia aspires to go to Aspera and be an Aspera girl despite warnings from her mother before she passed away, from her brother and from all the signs right in front of her. Throughout this story Georgia learns some of life’s terrible lessons but hopefully finds closure with Nora at the end.

I liked that this story depicted the realities of being a teenage girl and how being told how beautiful one is can shape the course of their decisions. This story was raw and real but a good read overall.

I was gifted an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m The Girl follows our main character Georgia, after she wakes up with no memory of how she got on a secluded road, bike stolen, and next to a dead 13 year old girl, Ashley…the Sheriffs daughter. Georgia soon realizes that Nora, Ashley’s older sister will not settle for no answers. Together, they begin to retrace her sister’s steps. Meanwhile, Georgia is dealing with some of her own issues. There are intimate photos of her that were taken from the accident, and the man who took them is just suddenly gone. Both girls will learn that the journey they are taking will lead them to far more heartbreak than they could have imagined.

I will not lie, this book was a hard one to read. Check out trigger warnings if you choose to read, because even though this is marketed at a YA thriller, it does have a lot of adult themes. I think that the message is important and the book did a good job of helping you understand what/why someone might fall into these scenarios. However, it can be very difficult to read at times.

I love the sapphic romance that we got. The relationship that forms between Georgia and Nora was super sweet. I also love the short chapters, as it helps you fly through the book. I was granted an e-arc as well as an audio arc, and I enjoyed the narration very much. I read this within about 8 hours. I could not put it down because I needed to know what was going to happen next. Overall, I really liked this book (my favorite from Summers) and would recommend this but only to an older audience like 16+.

!!!!SPOILERS!!!!

This book felt like a huge nod to the Jeffery Epstein/Maxwell case. If you are at all familiar with that, it really takes on a fictional look at what the victims may have felt. Not right away, but as we start to near the end and you find out more and more about the operation that is being ran at ASPERA. Cloe’s character kept on reminding me of Maxwell, and I feel like she was probably a large inspiration for the character. I don’t want to say much more, because it is more shocking to experience the book for yourself.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me early access to both the e-arc and audio!

Not going to lie, a little disappointed with this one. I think I get what the author was trying to do with this book and I think I get what the commentary is but the execution is where I struggled. It's basically about a young teen girl who is determined to be THE girl at a sex club. She's obviously to young to understand what's going on at the club and some of the references and actions seemed obviously to adult for her and yet she was so DANG DETERMINED to get in there. Like why?! Her reason never felt like it lived up to all this effort she was putting in. All shame on all the side characters, like telling her not to do things but then providing absolutely no explanation, like DUH of course she's going to turn around and do it anyways. You're putting a teen girl in adult situations and forcing her to live and be in very scary adult experiences but yet treat her like she's to young to understand. WHY?! WWWWWWWWHHHHHYYYYYYYYY?!!! I just wanted to insert myself in the book and sit her down and go, look here's what's happening. All in all, pretty dark content, realistic mystery, a few somewhat surprising twists. Not to bad but not the knockout I was hoping for.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was so confused and could not get passed the first 50 pages. I wanted to love it but it missed the mark for me. I did not finish this book.

This is a tough one for me to rate. I understand what the story is trying to do, and I did enjoy parts ot it, ,but the YA-ness of it all was so distracting. The main character was so frustrating to read. I know teenage girls don't always make the best decisions, and I think that's an important voice to hear from! But jeeze. It seems like we took that to the extreme. None of her decisions made sense and it kinda felt all for nothing at the end?

Courtney Summers has a knack for writing uncomfortable and heartbreaking books about young women. She does not shy away from exposing readers to the harsh realities of life and dares you to not look away but to face things head on.

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis discovered the body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James. She along with Ashley's older sister, Nora, try to find the killer. But are they biting off more than they can chew?

Georgia wants what most people want - to fit in and to be loved. She wants to be appreciated for her beauty. She wants to be a member of her town's elite. She wants to fit into the world of privilege. But membership has a price. So many times, while reading I wanted to give Georgia a hug and some sound advice that I am pretty sure would go ignored.

I'm the Girl shows innocence and innocence lost. It shows how the powerful and the wealthy wield their power. How predators’ prey on others. This book also shows how growing up is hard to do.

This book is not a happy go lucky book. It deals with difficult subjects and situations. It shows how naïveté is no match for the ugliness in others. This book is both raw, gripping and evokes emotion.

I had both the book and the audiobook and felt the narrator did a great job with this book.

This book may be a trigger for some due to the subject matter.

This was raw, heartbreaking, gripping, well written and evoked emotion.

Thank you to Macmillan audio, St. Martin’s Press – Wednesday books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers

352 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books
Release Date: September 13, 2022

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult, Mystery, LGBTQIAP+

Georgia Avis is sixteen and lives with her brother since her mother died of cancer. Chloe Hayes finds Georgia on the side of the road after being hit by a car. Before the accident, she found the body of a missing girl. The hunt is on for the murderer and the hit-and-run driver. Georgia is ambitious. She works at Aspera as a digital concierge. Her dreams are to be an Aspera Girl. She knows she is beautiful and wants the most out of life but what will be the cost.

The book has a fast pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. The book led me in a different way I expected, and it was emotionally raw. The characters are all flaws which makes them feel more real. If you like mysteries with a LGBTQIAP+ theme, you will enjoy this one.

I wanted to read this book because I loved Sadie, But, what in the world did I just read? I read it, and I read it quickly but the whole time I was so confused about what is going on. Georgia Avis discovers a dead body in the woods, has an encounter with the killer, and teams up with the sister of the deceased to solve the murder. She wants to be an Aspera Girl, but what that is exactly isn't clear.

From the author of Sadie comes a mature YA queer thriller that is a commentary on young women in today’s world.
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Sixteen-year-old Georgie Avis yearns for more. More than what this town and her dead mother gave her, but when she finds the body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James on the side of the road she finally has a purpose. Georgie teams up with Ashley’s sister, Nora, to help find her killer. It leads Georgie to Aspera: a compound that (for a price) will grant any desires you wish, but also has the local law enforcement wrapped around their finger. Run by a commanding leader, Matthew, and his stunning wife, Chloe, they take a special interest in Georgie, who wants nothing more than to be an Asperan Girl, no matter the cost. As she sinks deeper into their world, Georgie will find out what it takes to live among the elite…and what she’ll do to stay there.
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Yikes. This book tackles a lot of hard, difficult, uncomfortable topics that young women deal with. I will say it was very well written, no matter how many times I wanted to stop reading. This is listed as young adult but I don’t know if I would even put this in a high school library. It reads like one big trigger/content warning. Please take lots of care before picking this one up. Out 9/13. Thank you Libro.fm for the ALC.

CW: graphic statutory r*pe, pedophilia, child sexual abuse, vomit, kidnapping, murder, death, blood, blackmail, stalking, car accident, grooming, child p*rnography

It’s nice to see things wrapped up in a neat little package at the end of book, however, real life doesn’t always give us that option. I’m the Girl gives us that dose of reality -it has been a few days since finishing the book and I’m still thinking about it.
The content in this book is rather dark (possible triggers: rape, unwanted advances, murder). It’s nice to dream big and wish for a better life, unless you’re Georgia Avis. She’s conned, hit by a car, discovers a dead body… what else? She may find love, but I can’t say that I find the relationship very healthy. And boy oh boy is Aspera the creepiest place ever! On the surface it’s a place of luxury for the rich and famous to escape, but as things come to light I would have given my notice and not stuck around.
The author did a great job of keeping me intrigued throughout the book - I was definitely never bored. I recommend this book, but be warned - happily ever afters are for fairy tales…
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of the book.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. While I love Courtney Summers' writing style, her books have garnered the reputation for being hard books to read and review. Hard because the characters she creates have bleak lives or there are a lot of terrible things that happen to them. This book needs content warnings before I even get into the body of the review. This book may be YA, but I think it's for over 18 + / adult because of the content. As other reviewers have pointed out trigger warnings for sexual abuse, assault, rape, grooming behaviors, drugs/being drugged, and so on.

I'm the Girl is about Georgia Avis, a 16 year old girl who never had a dad, her mom died of cancer and her older brother is her guardian. Georgia had just stolen 4K from her brother to get professional photography pictures of her done by a sketchy guy at the mall in an effort to get a modeling contract. She then rides her bicycle toward the town's private resort, Astera,, owned by Matthew and Cleo Hayes. She wants a job there, doing what exactly we aren't told, but her mother worked there and was involved in some kind of scandal. On the way there she is intentionally hit by a car and left with a broken arm and her bicycle, phone and pictures stolen. She discovers the body of 13 year old Ashley James who bears the mark of sexual assault and an ugly bruise.

While Georgia didn't see who hit her, Ashley's family wants answers since she was a witness. Ashley's older sister Nora wants revenge on whomever killed her sister and cop dad Justin is drunk and scary.

Georgia, who had been rescued by Cleo Hayes, gets a job as a kind of virtual concierge at the resort to pay back her brother of the money she stole. A lot of things happen that are disturbing and difficult to understand, as an adult. I tried to remember that our main character is 16 and her brain is not fully developed in logic or reasoning. But lawd. It was hard. It was definitely confusing and mixed messages. She likes girls and she and Nora develop a bond trying to investigate Ashley's murder. Especially since the killer has Georgia's pictures which are not PG rated.

There's a lot of icky anvils, grooming behaviors and we are told Georgia is supposed to feel powerful in her beauty because men desire her? It may be naivety. Or the lack of a strong female role model since her mother kept information from her that might have changed how she looked at Astera. Her brother tried to but still allowed her to work there. The red herrings aren't even that tricky. To me it was pretty obvious but let us ignore all the red flags.

This book unfortunately went off the rails, we knew the tidy explanation was too tidy. The snooping leads to terrible discoveries and then some truly awful things continue but Summers mercifully didn't write explicit rape scene. I think what bothered me most was to have one rape survivor tell a young woman that using her sexual appeal to men was a surefire way to gain power, respect or money. Georgia was desperate for an ideal that was beyond her reach, that she could realize her dreams and be someone instead of being her best self. And her desire to be desired by men, even though she likes girls, and finds herself falling for Nora is difficult to understand.

3.5/5☆

I’ve had Sadie on my TBR forever but I still never got the chance to read it. I got the ARC of this and knew I had to read it right away. I loved the story so much. I can’t wait to finally pick up Sadie as well! Read this book!

I'm the Girl is a gritty, honest coming-of-age YA novel told through the eyes of Courtney Summers. The thought-provoking story explores the influence that power and greed have on society today. There is a lot going on in this book and it’s definitely worth the read; it had me hooked from the very beginning. Full of interesting and well-developed characters, both good and bad.

I really wanted to love this book but I spent most of it feeling kind of lost. There were so many different story lines and I didn't feel like any of them were truly finished. It's one of those endings where you make your own assumptions which is fine but I felt to confused to even make assumptions. The story lines as themselves would have been so good but when you put them all together I couldn't keep up Maybe it's because I never read Sadie that I feel like I'm missing something.


Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Woo. This book was a heavy one. I feel like I will have to sit with it for a minute before I can even write a proper review.

All I can say is Courtney Summers is still one of my fave of all time authors. She is fabulous at writing thrillers and the heavy things.

No one does traumatized girls like Summers. Loved this book, even though it ripped my heart out a bit.

I recently reviewed a book where I hated the repetitive breadcrumbs the author was using, and yet when Courtney does it? I'm here for it.

This book is filled with trigger warnings and I honestly wanted to SHAKE Georgina so many times. Like...books like this make me fear having children.

I'm not sure if I missed something but I felt like I still had some questions at the end, and not in an interesting way like Sadie. Overall though,.I would recommend to the right reader.

This features a lot of uncomfortable topics, which make it difficult to read - definitely not a light read. There are many trigger warnings, specifically sexual assault and grooming. It is a very unique writing style, but it is very dark for a YA story. Like I said, it is a tough read - Summers doesn't sugar coat the difficult topics, which I appreciate.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this book, but I just could not get into it. There were different storylines going in different directions and I feel like it’s advertised as murder mystery, but it felt like it wasn’t focused on that. I also never read Sadie, so maybe I was kissing key factors that could have benefited me. Overall, the writing was fine, the story had promise, but I thought the execution was off. I will read more by this author in the future.

I'm a big fan of Courtney Summers so I will always recommend her books for purchase and recommend her as an author that readers should try. However, this was not my favorite by Courtney Summers - it had several things happening and the story could have gone in many directions but it felt overall disjointed. While meant to be a commentary on wealthy men and privilege, it fell short for me as it lacked a lot of substance for the (too) many things going on (family death/no parents, mall photographer/nudes, dead girl in the woods, almost getting killed, murder of another character, Aspera, harrassment/sexual assault/grooming/rape, lgbtq themes, etc). As the reader I just could not understand Georgia's obsession with Aspera along with all of the other things going on throughout the book.