Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Definitely creepy. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

As a teacher who recommends Sadie to anyone who will listen, I was both eager to devour I'm the Girl and also hella nervous because I loved the premise and wanted it so badly to be my next recommended Summers work. We find ourselves squarely in the "must recommend" column. It's a divine work, full of dark and twisty secrets, and Summers get again nails the gripping and tumultuous relationships, the painful bridging of truth and lies, the power that law enforcement yields, and a cruel, vicious world that is uncomfortable to witness but necessary to read. Trigger warnings will definitely be needed on my bookshelf, but this one is not to be missed.

<i>(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley. Trigger warning for violence against women, including rape and murder.)</i>

“It wasn’t her inevitability,” I say. “It was his.”
“Yeah? That’s what you think?”
“If it hadn’t been her, it would’ve been any other girl.”
It was almost me.

***

“You said a whole world would open up for me.”
“And it will, but you have to remember it’s still their world.”

***

Courtney Summers is one of a few dozen authors who's an insta-read for me, and her latest does not disappoint. The book description pitches I'M THE GIRL as "a spiritual successor to the 2018 breakout hit, SADIE," which is true - but I also found a lot of THE PROJECT in here: mostly in the way that I wasn't sure which direction the story was headed, and worried that the wrong characters (and their problematic world views) would prevail, right up until the very end, making for a rather uncomfortable read.

Thankfully, the warped, jaded, and ultimately misogynistic mindset of the story's female antagonist (and, by extension, the world that made her) doesn't prevail - but neither are we treated to a happy (or even particularly hopeful) ending. I'M THE GIRL is as bleak as it is suspenseful; it interrogates rape culture, patriarchy, capitalism, and privilege, but only offers the tiniest grain of sugar to help the medicine go down. Actually, that's a terrible comparison, because there is no clear cure here.

It's certainly a twisty and harrowing read, but to what end? I actually felt more despondent over the state of the world after I turned the final page.

Love Nora + Avis though, and some of Nora's grief-related stuff is super-relatable, especially in these dystopian pandemic times.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh, Courtney Summers you did it again. You made me care about the characters in this story and then devastated me by the end. I'm the Girl tells the story about the summer when Georgia Avis finally makes her way to Aspera to become an Aspera girl. The exclusive club is where her mother once worked and was cruelly dismissed from a few years before the story takes place, but Georgia has always been drawn to the club ever since the day the owner, Matthew, finds her walking along the road and offers her a ride. Telling Georgia that she has so much potential. Georgia, now sixteen, is on her way to Aspera when she stumbles across the body of the police chief's youngest daughter.

Teaming up with the chief's oldest daughter, Nora, who Georgia knows from school and also is attracted to, the two set out to find out what happened to Nora's sister. Georgia enters the world of Aspera and the secrets that hide behind the club's exclusive doors. What she finds out will break your heart, but leave you wanting more time with these characters.

If you've read Courtney Summers before, then this is another powerful read by her. I highly recommend it, and it also contains a nice little Sadie easter egg.

I'm the Girl is a tough read. It's raw and real, and explores the ugliness of powerful people and the abuses the take. This book hurt to read. Georgia is so hopeful and innocent. To see her get taken advantage of without really knowing what was going on was hard to read. I feel like it's important, though, for people to get their hands on this book. This book is emotionally draining, and it is one of my favorite books this year.

First, I would definitely consider this book to be Adult, not Young Adult. The content level was too detailed for what I would comfortably recommend to a teenager. The book was so dark and deep, but I could not stop reading. Summers did an amazing job of playing the power dynamic of the wealthy and the young. At times, the book was so disturbing and uncomfortable, but I think that's what made it so good. Summer did not hold back on the darkness of power and the corruption of the entitled. There were times when I felt annoyed with Georgia as a character because she was so naïve and vain. But, the I remembered that she's a teenager and experiencing these things for the first time in her life. This book was so well done and I always look forward to the next book the Summers releases.

This book was not at all what I was expecting, but not in a bad way! It was a close look at the exploitation of one girl rather than a more sweeping examination of the issues. Focusing primarily on Georgia really helped showcase just how awful some things were.

The ending left me feeling like there was a bit to be desired, it reminded me a lot of another recent novel of Summers', Sadie. However, I think the lack of resolution is only fitting for the story and anything else wouldn't have fit with the narrative at all.

Overall a very worthwhile and timely read!

Wooo boy, this book is dark for a YA thriller. It's super dark pretty much right off the bat (and while I've read 'The Project,' and that got very intense as well, it wasn't as unremittingly bleak as elements of this was, at least in certain ways). There's sexual assault, preying on minors, rape, and all sorts of content warnings to be advised of going into this. The whole work is an indictment of the ideologies and institutions that make SA and rape culture so ubiquitous, so it's certainly no walk in the park to read. That being said, it's still a very engaging read, and not entirely bleak. The budding relationship between the MC and the dead girl's sister allowed slivers of joy in the book, which made them stand out all the more against the overall tone/backdrop of the novel.

I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers is a thrilling, fast-paced, impossible-to-put-down novel. Like all of Summer's books, I couldn't help racing through it. Georgia is a complex, flawed, naive protagonist I wanted to swaddle in bubble wrap. Sometimes I read with my hand over my mouth, knowing Georgia was walking blindly toward a cliff's edge and the author would no doubt shove her off any second. I love Ms. Summer's writing style-it's absolutely flawless. Highly recommend!!

I have very mixed feelings about this book and it took me a little while to stop and process what I read before coming to a decision as to how I was going to rate it. I have a lot of thoughts here, so humor me here for a bit as I try to get them out in some coherent fashion.

The Good: Courtney Summers is a fantastic writer. She could make a rewrite of the phone book worth reading. The way she manipulates language is stunning. It’s clear that her craft improves with each novel she releases. I will continue to read whatever she writes because I believe she still has a lot of great stories in her. This one was not one of them.

The Not-So-Good: There is a lot of not-so-good in this novel. Let me start by saying that Sadie is an absolute masterpiece and calling this one a “sister novel” isn’t a fair assessment. I understand the sentiment, but it’s off-base. This book is explicit in ways that even Sadie was not. I’m the Girl was trying to be poignant and provocative at the same time and completely missed the mark. For one, the plot holes were gaping. I read the ending several times over and still am not 100% sure what even happened. The main character, Georgia, was completely unlikable and there is no way you can root for a protagonist with absolutely no redeeming qualities even when they are put in hopeless situations. I found myself wanting to physically gag more than once (ugh, Matthew and Cleo, seriously?) and never once did I understand why the plot unfolded the way it did. The meaning was completely lost behind the umpteen explicit scenes that had no bearing on the story itself.
I think people will rate this highly because of the intrigue, but If you’re going to write a novel based on such explicit content, I think your theme needs to be crystal clear. The theme in this was about as clear as mud. I only understood where she was trying to go with it because I watched interviews with her, not because the book made it clear that the events that took place were inherently wrong. I know I’m just one reader in a sea of people who will love this offering because it’s risqué, but as a fan of Summers and her work, this one just feels like a complete let down.

If you’re going to position yourself as an author who champions girls who are broken and lost, you should make sure their lives and stories are told in a way that is meaningful. Sadie did that beautifully and it’s why it has such staying power. All of the brokenness led to something significant. This one felt cold and devoid of any real consequence. I don’t think it did any of the victims who have led similar lives any justice. (Because, let’s be honest, we all know where the inspiration for this story came from.) I just know that if I were one of those girls, this isn’t how I’d want my story to unfold. Even if a story doesn’t have a happy ending, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lesson that can be learned from it, and if Summers meant to infuse a deeper meaning here, she missed the mark.

This book, while not quite as gripping as Sadie was, kept me intrigued and guessing for the majority of the story. This story is well-written and keeps you thinking even after you finish it.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this book!

This book was just as brutal and raw as Sadie was. It was so easy to jump into this story and was hard to put it down.

I'm The Girl was so hard to read because as the reader you know where things are going even though Georgia doesn't, but it is so realistic in its portrayal of a situation we see too much on the news. Courtney Summers doesn't shy away from the ugly truths of reality but allows her readers to empathize with the characters dealing with that reality.
This book has haunted my thoughts since I finished it - demanding justice for girls like Georgia and protection for all girls so that history will not repeat itself.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers.

I remember really enjoying Sadie and The Project, also written by Summers, so I couldn't wait to pick this hot new release up. And while I didn't love this as much as Sadie, it still had a lot of the delicious dark tones and all the dangerous teen living you could ask for.

Georgia Avis is a sixteen year old who has just found the body of a thirteen year old girl named Ashley. In order to find her killer, Georgia teams up with Ashley's sister Nora, who Georgia can't help but feel tingles for every time she's around her. But a much larger force is going to go to great lengths to stop anyone from discovering who the killer is, and Georgia may find herself right in the center of that.

This just wasn't quite...strong enough? The tension, intrigue, and swampy underbelly was all there, but the joints were too weak. I never quite got a strong idea of what Aspera (you'll find out when you read it) was, or what exactly went on there. I was also, once again, totally dissatisfied by the ending, and yeah, it was just a bit weak. I don't want to discourage Summers fans from reading it, I am but a grumpy old lady, but I've enjoyed her others more.

Firstly, if you've read a Courtney Summers book before, you know what to expect from this book. Georgia Avis isn't necessarily a likeable character, but is instead very flawed and very real. Things in this book are not as black and white as you would think, and it explores the shades of gray in a world run by the patriarchy. Georgia is a very strong character that you can root for, even though her own naivete gets her in a lot of trouble. The plot is very slow burn and character driven. The characters and the writing style are definitely what I enjoyed most about this book, especially because the ending overall lacked the oomph I was expecting from a Summers book. Nonetheless, the book is enjoyable and hard-hitting in its exploration into the exploitation of beautiful young girls. It's definitely hard to read, because we as the readers know what the rich and powerful can do to manipulate young women, and we are forced to watch Georgia make all the wrong decisions.

While this isn't my favorite Courtney Summers book, I did enjoy it and think it's an important read especially with the climate of today's world and how young women are mistreated..

CW: sexual assault, rape, grooming, death

To be honest…I didn’t love this like I thought I would. The ending was so unsatisfying, and the buildup seemingly meaningless. I felt like it had a ton of potential, but it fell really flat. I wouldn’t recommend it as a good thriller.

Another slow-burn thriller from Courtney Summers, a force to be reckoned with in YA fiction. I'm the Girl follows Georgia Avis as she copes with trauma (her mother's death, a car accident, being ripped off by a faux-model scout), rekindles a friendship & more with Nora (the sheriff's daughter), and starts working for Aspera.

Aspera is an exclusive getaway for the richest and most famous men who've never heard the word no. Georgia is convinced she's in control of the situation, that she has the power. But as Georgia is sucked into the world of Aspera, she's forced to challenge her preconceptions of glamor, success, and control before it's too late. This YA fiction will appeal to older teens and adults, especially ones interested in true crime.

Side note: I ADORED the very meta reference a character made to having to live-up to the success of a movie named Sadie. Sadie was my first introduction to Courtney Summers, and it's the title that receives the most buzz. It's important to note that Summers' work isn't just Sadie. She wrote amazing novels before Sadie, and she's kept writing them after Sadie. While her works differ in scope, pacing, and topic, Summer never shies away from complicated female protagonists whose stories serve as a means to explore complex topics.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the early widget of I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers. Having been previously broken by Summers in the past (in the good way a book can) I was very much looking forward to her newest.
Riding her bike one night, 16 year old Georgia Avis is hit by a car. When she comes to, her bike and belongings are gone. As she is coming to her senses, she also notices that not far from where she is lying, is the dead body of missing 13 year old Ashley James. As typical for a Summers novel, from here unfolds a world of exploitation, a corrupt organization and simply growing up.
Georgia must navigate the world she’s always wanted, even when it turns out to not be as shiny and bright as she first thought.
I’m the Girl has a few jaw dropping twists that really got me. Overall, I didn’t get quite the gut punch that I’ve come to love from this author. Nonetheless, this is still a 4 star read that will leave your breathless.

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis lives in a weird small town with a super fancy resort/spa for rich people called Aspera and dreams of becoming an “Aspera Girl”. Then she finds the brutalized dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James on the side of the road and works with Ashley’s sister, Nora, to find out who killed Ashley.

I can appreciate that a takedown of rape culture and condemnation of privileged men getting to do whatever they want to with less powerful peoples’ bodies with zero consequences is what this book was aiming for, and it definitely illuminated the issue, but I really didn’t like reading this book or feel like the message was fully expressed. I was hoping for another Sadie to root for, but Georgia was - I’m not sure what - boring? Too obsessed with being told she’s pretty? Too naive but also knew what she was getting into? I don’t want to give this book a bad review because I’m thrilled that stories like these are being told, but this one just did not work for me. That said, I will always be a Courtney Summers fan and will read anything she writes.

I was really looking forward to I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers. Sadie is a book I recommend to older teens constantly. This book seemed a little too dark even for older teens. I know that these events can happen in real life but to put raping a 13 year old and sleeping with someone to get ahead for a job seems more adult to me. There were a lot of twists and turns but I figured out the ending quicker than I wish I had, at about chapter 54. The best part of the book was the relationship between Georgia and Nora. It was the only healthy relationship in the book. I will buy this book for our collection but I don’t think I would actively recommend it.