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.

I requested I’m the Girl from Netgalley because Summer’s writing is always impressive and it was described as “a spiritual sequel to Sadie”. I absolutely loved Sadie, but, unfortunately, I didn’t love I’m the Girl.

The synopsis describes I’m the Girl as a murder investigation, however there’s very little of that in the novel as the focus is on Georgia’s naitivity in the face of a very corrupt and depraved world.

Summers is excellent in her characterization of unlikeable main characters. Georgia is no exception. She’s naive and frustrating for most of the novel, however that’s also the consequence of being a sixteen year old girl who was given little to no information.

What I disliked most about this novel is that Summers thrusts readers into the story with little to no context. I felt lost for the first few chapters before I began piecing the story together. Had the novel started a few days earlier, it would have given the story and Georgia as a character more context.

Lack of communication is what drives the story. Most of the tension in the novel could have been resolved before it even started had Georgia’s mom or brother been honest with her about the realities of Aspera. They could have still shielded her from most of it while still being honest.

Overall, I’m the Girl was mildly disappointing after the perfection that was Sadie. I’m the Girl is a story about the ugly underbelly of the elite and what can happen to young girls who are taken advantage of by older men.

Georgia Avis is a 16 year old who stumbles upon a dead body and is hit by a car. She grew up in poverty, idolizing the Aspera, a resort for the wealthy. She ends up working at the Aspera to pay back her brother for the $4000 she paid for modeling headshots, and ends up uncovering the secrets of the Aspera girls and what exactly goes on on the executive floor. Georgia is still learning about the world - she maintains hope despite her grim and traumatic story. As an adult reading this book, there are definitely times when I disagreed with her judgement and had to remind myself of her age.

This story is not for the faint of heart. Just when you think the mystery is solved there is yet more to uncover.

The ending is vague and leaves a few things unsettled, but I think it works for this novel.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Courtney Summers sure can write the most beautiful prose. I was a bit wary of this book because from the beginning, it was obvious it would deal with some very sensitive matter. I didn’t know if I would be triggered or not, and I wanted to step forward carefully, but Summers’ command of pace and character makes it frankly impossible not to devour her writing.

Though her protagonist in this book, Georgia, makes several dumb mistakes, you relate to her every step of the way, even if you can’t understand her experiences and perspective. I wanted her to get to be an Aspera girl even as I knew, from the start, that it would end really badly.

I wanted her to succeed, even as I could tell, as an adult, that her version of success would be disastrous. Georgia just made me think of younger me, of how I thought I understood how fucked up the world was and was equipped to handle bad people, when that was not the case at all.

I honestly wish I had read this book when I was a teenager, even though it’s dark and it’s graphic. I think I would have felt so seen, so understood.

This was an absolute binge read for me as it was fast-paced and an easy read! It started off with Gerogia finding Ashley's body in the road leading to the notorious Aspera. It is fair to say Georgia has always been obssessed with Aspera, a resort for really wealthy folks but she never really understands what it meant to be part of Aspera. So there is Ashley's murder that needs to be investigated and readers are also on another thriller ride with all the intrigue about Aspera, I pretty much flew through this book and enjoyed all the twists that came with it.

I'm the Girl is the new unsettling novel from Courtney Summers.

"Sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis finds the body of Ashley James - a thirteen-year-old girl that had been missing for several days. She teams up with Nora, Ashley's older sister to look for the killer. their investigation pushes Georgia into a world of unimaginable wealth and power.Georgia wants so badly to belong that she struggles to say no and finds that power and beauty rule. And sometimes it doesn't matter who the killer is..."

I didn't totally understand this story until I figured out which lens to view this through. Once you get there you understand what Summers is trying to say and everything clicks into place.
There are some horrible moments in this book. Georgia ends up in situations with adults that she trusts - yet they take advantage of that trust. So many of them. And in the end Georgia must make a choice.

So many unlikable adults in this book - so many predatory adults - male and female.
There is a Sadie reference. Go read that if you haven't yet - it's a great audiobook.

The ending is vague but works here. Another thought-provoking, if unsettling, book from Summers.

I truly love this author. She has a very dark and twisted mind to come up with books like “I’m The Girl” and “Sadie”. I honestly couldn’t put this book down as I was trying to figure out who killed Ashley. I eventually did see it coming close to the end, and I wasn’t quite impressed by the ending. It didn’t feel complete and left me wanting to know more about what she would do in the town. Obviously she couldn’t stay there knowing what she does. But all things considered, I was on the edge of my seat reading this, wanting to see how it ends. I’d definitely keep reading this author’s books because she has a really great sense of topics that aren’t normally written about or even talked about in society. Bravo for writing about the things that are hard to see behind the scenes of this sad dreary world.

4.5*

georgia’s life changes after she discovers the dead body of thirteen year old ashley. determined to find out who did it, she sets off on an investigation. along the way, she discovers how money, power and beauty influence others in extremely harmful ways. all georgia wanted was to be an aspera girl, but she soon finds that it’s really not what’s best for her or for anyone else.

reading the description, it made it seem like this story was more of just trying to determine who the killer is but it’s so much more. it’s about trauma. it’s about grooming, predatory power structures, sexual assault and rape. i do hope that the content warnings will be added to the beginning of the book because it’s really heavy.

georgia was a difficult character. she’s naive and trusting especially when she shouldn’t be but she’s also only sixteen. her mom died, her dad isn’t in the picture and she found a dead body. it made me so sad for her when she would believe these predatory people because all she wanted was to be seen, desired and loved. she went through so much before and within the span of this book and her reactions and thoughts make so much sense even if it wasn’t right.

i wanted a bit more out of nora, ashley’s sister. she has such a devastating story and i wanted her to be a bit more prominent. but from what we got, you can tell she’s extremely strong.

it took me a while to get into this because it was a bit confusing at the beginning but i really really enjoyed it. it being confusing and messy was such a reflection of georgia and her experiences.

thank you to netgalley and st. martins press for giving me this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Well. This is possibly the worst book I've read all year. So that's something.

I read this physically and it was so hard to follow. I still don't think I understand everything that happened because the writing style was a slog to get through. How is this the same author that wrote Sadie? I don't understand.

And no, it wasn't hard to read because it dealt with hard topics. It was hard to read because it was poorly written.

Ugh. So disappointed.