After getting hit by a car and discovering the body of Ashley James, Georgia Avis still owes her brother $4,000. In order to repay him, she gets a job at Aspera, a lodge/lounge/club/resort for the elite. As Georgia's fascination with the Hayeses, the couple who run Aspera, increases, so does her entanglement with the victim's older sister, Nora. However, balancing Aspera and her investigation becomes more and more difficult until there's enough pressure to potentially break a girl.

The main issue that this book struggled with is pacing -- it ebbs and flows. The first few pages are jam packed with action and then the next 30% has very little plot developments and only after the 50% mark does the book recover a consistent and attention keeping pace.

The writing portrays a world that is enticing and horrifying in turns. The plot is intriguing, a story that you cannot look away from. The slow discovery of how, exactly, everything happens was fascinating. The characters were all intricately developed, the well-fashioned pins holding up the story. Sexual violence is an integral theme to the story, which makes the book difficult to read at times.

Overall, a book that will require a reread in order to fully see the way in which everything unfold, that will leave you with questions to ponder after it's done.

3.5 ⭐

Thankyou to Netgalley for allowing me to review this title early.

I really enjoyed Sadie when I first read it and this one had similar vibes but you can see that Summers' writing has gotten better but the story itself was just alright. I liked the lgbtq+ rep and the twists were unpredictable and well crafted. Definitely can see people loving this one.

What I expected: A fun YA thriller about two teenage girls solving a local crime and perhaps falling for each other along the way.
What I got: Not that.

This was my first read by Courtney Summers and let me just say, the writing was phenomenal. I’m the Girl is the most well written and sophisticated YA novel I’ve ever read. It’s also the darkest and most mature YA novel I’ve ever read. Before you pick this up, please heed the trigger warnings. This is graphic and disturbing and raw.

I’m struggling to review this book because 1) I don’t want to give anything away and 2) I’m still sitting in my own feelings about what I just read. There was a lot to like about I’m the Girl, but there were certain aspects I just couldn’t connect with. At times, it felt like I was dropped into the middle of a plot with no necessary background information. Like, perhaps I skipped book one (the internet tells me I did not)? I just didn’t understand Aspera (is it a Country Club? A spa?) and the main character's obsession with becoming an “Aspera Girl” other than it’s what the hot girls do. Lastly, I’ll just say I was expecting more of a concrete resolution from a YA read.

I think this book touches on some really important issues and I so vividly remember being sixteen and thinking I knew better than everyone (spoiler alert: I DID NOT). I remember being stubborn and stupid and wanting things so badly that I thought I’d die without them. I don’t know if I would recommend this as a young adult read, but gosh it made this non-young adult feel things.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book; all opinions are my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for allowing me to be an early reader.

This book will stay with me for a long time. It’s such an impressive thriller, with such an engaging voice and beautiful prose. This is my first Courtney Summers book, which I know it’s a total heresy, but it did mean it got to blow me away with its lush descriptions and astute observations. I felt like I was inside the book, and I was so tense for Georgia all the time.

The pacing didn’t super work for me, though. I felt like so much happened in the prologue alone that I expected the rest of the book to move at the same speed, but more than half the book ends up being the main character refusing to see what is kind obvious to anyone else, even after she gets hints, and even after she is victimized. I love a coherent character, but I also love character growth, and Georgia never seemed able to pivot from her core beliefs, not even to wonder if maybe she was in a little bit of danger.

On the one hand, I feel like that can be true of situations where children are victimized and where the adults in their lives don’t want to have honest conversations with them about sexual assault and harassment, and instead act like they are stupid for not figuring out on their own. On the other hand, it’s hard to be invested in a mystery when you know what happened in the first 50 pages, and you have to wait 200 more pages for the main character to catch up. I feel like if Georgia had stayed the same character and made the same decisions but the answer to the mystery was a bit less obvious, this book would have been perhaps one of my favorite of all time.

As it is, it’s still great. I couldn’t put it down and Sadie just shot up to the top of TBR.

After reading Sadie, I was so excited to read another Courtney Summers book, and this one blew my mind. I was hooked from the very first page, and couldn't stop reading until the truth finally came out. It may be a difficult read for some people, so I urge you to proceed with caution, but it's so worth it once you get to the end.

Courtney Summers has the unique ability to tear open my heart in the most disturbing way. George is awfully full of herself, but that's kind of the point.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was so excited when Courtney Summers released another book. She is a fantastic writer. Sadie is an absolute masterpiece. I’m the Girl completely missed the mark for me. Most of the time I was confused about that was going on and how it all connected. From the beginning, I struggled to feel engaged with the story.

When sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis discovers the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James, she teams up with Ashley’s older sister, Nora, to find and bring the killer to justice before he strikes again.This was a quick read intriguing premise. I do commend howeverhow author handles dark themes in a manner that does not feel tacky purely for shock value and everything was made sense to the plot. All in all, I'm glad I read this.

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What does it mean to be "the girl?" For Georgia, it means to be someone desirable. She dreams of being an Aspera Girl at the local high class resort, even though she doesn't fully know what that means - but we as readers can make an educated guess based on the fact that they're not called "Aspera <i>Women</i>". To be a girl is to be disposable, to be without power that you didn't use your body to get, and while "aspera" can sound a lot like "aspire," it can also sound even more like "asperse": to censure harshly and falsely or to bespatter.

It takes Georgia a long time to learn this lesson. This isn't a book about revelations as much as it is about harsh truths that no one wants to see brought into the light and the way people with power will abuse it with impunity, creating even more things that need to be kept in the shadows. The ending is abrupt, which I'd say works: it represents the way that the truth sometimes smacks you so hard that you're just left reeling, feeling powerless and bewildered. Would it have been nice to have a bit more closure or a revenge element? Yes, but that also wouldn't have been the point. This is about realizing that what power you thought you had is actually all that you're <i>allowed</i> to have in a world that would rather that girls never learn to become women. It's hard and it's vicious and that's the point.

This isn't quite as strong as <i>Sadie</i>, but it shares some of the same themes. Aspirations can quickly become traps of aspersions and lessons learned the hard way - one dead girl at a time.

Thank you to the publishers for granting me the opportunity to read “I’m the Girl.”

I was once again stunned by Courtney Summers ability to write such a moving, and riveting plot. The pace of this entire book kept me on my toes, mostly in suspense. I enjoyed the main characters, and felt that the story was well crafted. No spoilers from me, but I recommend this book with my whole heart. Courtney Summers is a genius.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for granting me access to this ARC.
Overall I feel like I liked this story, and then I'm not too fond of the story. The main character annoyed me when she would be in these red flag situations time after time, but then I remember she's 16?! I hated how Matthew would play with our main character's mind and tell her what she wanted to hear.
I enjoyed the pace of the novel, and some of Summers lines were well delivered, like this one "I want to ask him how he's not feeling this because there's something about wealth, real wealth, that's less what is seen and more what is felt. A viscosity, almost."

3.5 stars rounded up.

I feel like I'm starting to sound a bit like a broken record when reviewing books of this genre: fast-paced thrillers with queer protagonists and plotlines that beggar belief but are a whole lot of fun to read. This was a sort of smoky, shadowy story that offers just a peek at some of the depravity of many men in the world as well as touching on ideas of reclaiming female power and what that means in the world.

That being said, I felt like so much had to be packed into this book to keep the action going that it lacked much punch as none of the big concepts really had room to breathe. For instance, the reveal of the murderer's identity was made so casually that I was just sorta like, "Oh. Okay." The commentary about women's place in the world and how to navigate what one of the main characters asserts is essentially a man's world is poignant but rings hollow because it's swallowed by The Action.

That all being said, this was another book that I devoured and that I did think was great in a lot of ways. One of the best parts, in my eyes, is that I'm The Girl presents unapologetically queer characters that weren't conflicted/tortured about their sexual identity. Hurrah! That alone warrants the extra half star.

Thanks to NetGalley as usual for the ARC.

I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting suspense novel with a unique storyline. The Aspera club is the secret society for only the highest tier of the rich and famous. As Georgia gets into the real truth of the club it turns out not all that glitters is gold. It ended a little abruptly, it could have been extended to a duology and gotten more information on the secret world of Aspera and the Sheriff’s role in it all..

I love seeing Courtney Summers do what she does best– write about angry girls navigating a world that is against them. I will never tire of her beautiful prose and its aching accuracy. This one in particular explores the desperate grab for femininity in order to be desired and considered valuable by men, and I've never read anything like it.

I loved how information was revealed as the story slowly pieced itself together. Personally I could have used one or two more chapters to allow everything to wrap up a little more fully, but I do love Courtney Summers' commitment to forcing you to sit with the end of a book and figure it out for yourself!

So glad I got to read this one. Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC!

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The protagonist is Georgia Avis, a beautiful, naïve, underprivileged 16 year old who fixates on Aspera, a local resort for the rich and powerful. Her deceased mother worked at Aspera and vaguely warned Georgia off of it, but Georgia interprets such warnings as her mother saying she wasn't special enough to belong there,

After finding the dead body of thirteen year-old Ashley James on the road leading to Aspera, Georgia teams up with Ashley's sister and Georgia's longtime crush, Nora, to piece together the mystery of Ashley's death. At the same time, Georgia is working at Aspera and getting sucked into the lives of its owners, Matthew and Cleo Hayes and the promise they see in her.

I really liked the author's previous books, especially Sadie, but did not fin this one to be as compelling. It tackles a number of difficult issues - rape/murder, child sexualization/pornography, power imbalances, etc. Georgia makes terrible decision after terrible decision and her naivety is frustrating, but perhaps understandable in someone her age. The more confusing question was why her mother and brother didn't do more to warn her off Aspera by explaining the terrible things that went on there. The mystery seemed a bit obvious from the outset and the whole story seemed to be wrapped up rather hurriedly.

I want to preface my review with the fact that I didn’t realize this was a young adult novel, so I know I’m not quite the audience for this book. That being said, I was excited for this one, as I love true crime and thrillers, but I felt let down. The main character was annoying, naive, and very one-dimensional. I didn’t understand her obsession with Aspera, and it was hard to believe that she was so gullible when the men in this book mistreated her (not to victim blame at all). I liked the queer element of the book, but to be honest that was really the only thing I liked. Her love interest was similarly one-dimensional, though she had more of a personality than the main character.
There was a lot of build up in the plot, just for it to fall flat in my opinion.

Summer’s newest book releases in July and it should be another huge success. With each suspense book she write, I think she gets better and better and throwing the reader off.

Sixteen year old Georgia finds a dead teen and was nearly killed by her murdered. She teams up with the girl’s sister Nora to help solve the mystery of the murder. This book calls into the question the powerful, wealthy, and entitled who think they control the world and everyone around this.

I will admit the ending confused me and I still is not quite sure what happpened-but I enjoyed the book nonetheless.

This story left me guessing the whole time. I couldn’t quite figure out who was the bad guy and who was the good guy… but neither could Georgia!

I really wanted to love "I'm the Girl", and for the most part, I did. I enjoyed the fact that George wasn't your usual sort of protagonist. She's so easily swayed by compliments, and how other people view her, and it feels absolutely true of what you'd find with any sixteen year old girl. They're manipulated easily because they're told what they want to hear. Beyond that, the story itself felt a little too predictable for my taste, and after a book like "Sadie", somehow this one feels like a step back for Summers.

Beyond that, I enjoyed the characters of Nora and Tyler, and I like many of the ideas displayed here, but this isn't a book I would necessarily be coming back to.

I've said this here before, but suspense is not my favourite genre. A few years ago I kept hearing about this YA suspense novel, Sadie, so I decided to give it a shot and I loved it. I then received an eARC of Summers' next book The Project - once again I was not disappointed. I'm happy to report that Courtney Summers continues to impress with her perfectly imperfect protagonists.

Georgia Avis just wants to be more than her mother believed she could be. Her goal is to become an Aspera girl - one of the ultra-attractive young women hired for the enjoyment of the guests of a retreat for the elite, the same retreat Georgia's mom was fired from. Then Georgia finds the body of 13 year old Ashley James, and begins working with Ashley's sister Nora to find the killer - and the answers just may be at Aspera.

If you're looking for a dark YA suspense novel with a complicated protagonist and (bonus!) a sapphic romance, pick up I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers, available September 13, 2022.

Thanks to @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!