⭐️3.5/5 stars.
This book reminded me a little of Twin Peaks in the sense we had a lodge in the middle of nowhere with a dead girl and a beautiful girl. The beautiful girl is our main character and a times, she’s hard to like. But I think it’s because she thinks and does things that are scarily too close to how I sometimes used to think when I was a teenager. The side of me that also secretly put too much credence on wanting to be a model because being a model meant validation of my beauty. That being said, Georgia made some terrible decisions and you can’t completely hate her because you realize she’s not aware that these are terrible decisions. And these decisions have me squirming, waiting on the edge of my seat for something horrible to happen because we expect it to. Then when it does, she’s so deep into her ideas of what she needs to be that she doesn’t even realize what happened is bad. And that’s a part of the reason why this story is important to be read. The message of this story is so important. Of being a girl in a world that values how men see us. Of a world where those like Harvey Weinstein exists.
I gave this story 3.5 stars mostly for personal reasons. It was tough to listen to this audiobook. It was a tough topic with a main character who doesn’t comprehend that. But the story is brillant. The author did an amazing job giving us this believable, unlikable character. She did a great job telling this story illustrating what the world is like for young girls. I would totally recommend this book, but I would tell them to be prepared, even though the book doesn’t explosively show specific scenes.
Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for providing the ARC for my honest review.

I’m the Girl is a YA thriller following Georgia Avis, a poor sixteen year old girl who dreams of a bigger life. She thinks her beauty is the key to leaving her circumstances behind and so when a man tells her she can be a model, she steals $4,000 from her brother to pay for a photoshoot. While biking home, Georgia is run off the road by a car and discovers the body of 13 year old Ashley James. She is picked up by the beautiful Cleo Hayes. Georgia desperately wants to become an Aspera Girl, beautiful girls that work at the resort run by Cleo’s husband. She starts working at Aspera to pay her brother back all while being drawn into an investigation by Ashley’s sister Nora.

This book is layered. On one hand, you have Georgia desperately trying to use her beauty to create something more for her life and you have a depiction of how the rich live my their own rules, how the wealthy take advantage of the less fortunate, and on the other you have the rape and murder of a thirteen year old girl. I enjoyed how the story wove together and the final twist while maybe not satisfying, it was realistic and I think the ending this book needed. The red herring did come too early in my opinion to be believable but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing if you know who did it. Georgia is a complex character, she fixates on her own beauty and she makes some bad decisions. She’s not always a likable character but victims aren’t always likable and that doesn’t excuse what happens to them. I think it’s important for books to show “imperfect” victims. This story is a tragedy with a glimmer of hope. I wish that it had been executed better. While I didn’t necessarily enjoy this book, I respect what it did.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Courtney Summers never fails to deliver what you would expect from her and always more with each book she writes. This one left me deep in thought long after I finished. Gave a perceptive on how we can perceive ourselves and our gifts depending on our life experiences. This is one for the older students at our school who are Courtney Summers fans. Kathleen Glasgow and Mindy McGinnis also come to mind.

3.5 stars

This is a deeply affecting book covering some difficult subjects: the desperation of poverty, grooming, sexual assault and abuse, mirroring the Jeffrey Epstein case in more ways than one.

On the surface it is the story of Georgia, who discovers the murdered body of a young teen girl. She joins forces with Nora, the sister of the girl, to try to find out what happened. But there is more to the tale. Georgia, who is sixteen, lives with her older brother after their mother died from cancer. Georgia is beautiful, and has long held dreams of being an Aspera Girl, the gorgeous young women who work at a wealthy exclusive resort. When she grasps an opportunity to work there, it is more than she bargained for, yet the fulfillment of all of her aspirations as well.

It is a difficult book to read and to listen to as an audiobook, because what happens to Georgia is both subtle and glaringly obvious at the same time. As an adult reader, I just wanted to jump in and rescue her from this life that she sees as perfect from the outside, yet is anything but when it comes to reality.

The parts for me that were a little too clunky were that the narrative wasn't straightforward and it wasn't linear, especially toward the end. I had some difficulty following what happened in the end and how it exactly wrapped up. This is the exact thing that happened to me with Sadie, and I may just have to skip this author's books in the future because of it.

Overall, this is a brutally raw story, but it is important in its message, especially for the teen audience it is meant for. It definitely draws emotion to the surface, breaking your heart and making you furious all at the same time.

One of the reviews I read of this book said simply "this book gave me the icks." It gave me SO MANY icks and not in a good way.
I thought this was going to be a good murder mystery similar to Sadie (which I loved). It was not. It was basically about a 16 year old girl who is exploited for her looks by old men. And she likes it. And she isn't even straight. The only characters I semi liked was the love interest and Georgia's brother. I did not like the main character Georgia. I did not like her *need* to be an Aspera Girl (not sure of spelling as I listened to the audio). It did not go into great detail of what it meant to be an Aspera Girl, but it was heavily implied and definitely not something a 16 year old girl should be doing. I did not like the several scenes of basically rape that Georgia thought was something ok to do, something she should be doing. Yuck.
The murder mystery part wasn't even that great. It honestly wasn't even talked about a lot because it focused heavily on Georgia's need to be an Aspera Girl. The ending went so fast it was honestly a little confusing about who the murderer even was.
Overall, like I said before. The icks. Not really for me. The writing style was ok and kept me listening until the end, but probably not one I will be recommending.

This book is so good! Its a realistic and relatable view into how girls are taken advantage of and groomed by powerful people who know exactly how much harm they’re causing. I could rant about the parallels to this story for hours, but that would be giving things away. I highly recommend this book and think it could help shed light on important red flags for girls.

This book does a great job exploring gender and sexuality as one young woman discovers the dead body of another and teams up with her sister to bring a killer to justice. Perfect for fans of Ashley Winstead's The last housewife and great on audio. This book will keep you on your toes and enrage you about the injustices of violence against young women. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

I’m the Girl
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Young Adult Thriller
Format: Audiobook
Date Published: 9/27/22
Author: Courtney Summers
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Narrator: Lori Prince
Goodreads Rating: 3.68

TW ⚠️: Sexual Assault

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: 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. But their investigation throws Georgia into a world of unimaginable privilege and wealth, without conscience or consequence, and as Ashley’s killer closes in, Georgia will discover when money, power and beauty rule, it might not be a matter of who is guilty—but who is guiltiest.

My Thoughts: This story is narrated solely by Georgina, a flawed narrator, who appears very timid but comes across very real. This story explores sexual assault, while it is hard to listen to, the topic couldn’t be more important in today’s world. It is no secret that money is power and power is the ability to control a town, even law enforcement. While this is a work of fiction, this scenario takes place repeatedly in today’s world. The narrators do an amazing job in portraying the characters and it matched exactly how I imagined they would be. The characters are developed well with depth, are mysterious, empowering, and creatively written. The author’s writing style is complex, emotional, thought provoking, intriguing, and just brilliant. I was engaged from the first second to the last second. The author’s tone really sets the stage and pulls you into the story. This story hosted an emotional rollercoaster for me, from sadness, anger, happiness, and the gambit in between. This audiobook released later this month and I highly recommend you pre-order. In fact, if you pre-order, there are some nice incentives that the publisher provides.

This book ruined me...in a good way. I could not stop talking about it with everyone!
Even though the premise of the book is dark and difficult to read about, the way the book is written and the way the characters were built was extremely refreshing. Summers has a way of writing female characters that are real, raw, complex, and emotional.
Georgie is fascinating, as the story progresses she's constantly in flux. Since she is still understanding herself, the trauma she has experienced, and is growing up, you never have quite enough for the whole picture of what's happening with the crime making you need to keep reading it.
I love the inclusion of Georgie's thoughts about her sexuality and the power in how society (especially men) perceives her as beautiful. Summers takes this line, ""This world was made by men. Beauty is decided by them. And power is held only by them. And there’s nothing you can do about any of it." and turns it upside down.
This book takes the social constructs of beauty, classism, sexuality, and young women and tears them down leaving the readers with a lot to think about.
It has been a little while since I listened to the audiobook of "Sadie" which is mentioned lightly in this book. I don't think it's necessary to read "Sadie" to be able to read "I'm the Girl."
I would recommend this book to fans of Courtney Summers but also Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow, All Eyes on Her by L. E. Flynn, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson, and The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma.

I don't think Courtney Summers is for me. I've tried three of her books now.

This is an extremely well-written and timely young adult thriller that is supposedly about the death of a young girl found on the side of the road, but it's really about how the world is built to use up pretty young women and undermine their self-worth, and what that looks like. The main character is Georgia Avis, who dreams of becoming a model, of making it big, and she uses her looks to do it. At the same time, she's horrifically innocent while being used by people who on the surface look like they are supporting her.

It was, frankly, really unpleasant to read. I don't think it was meant to be pleasant, but that kind of book usually isn't for me, and I don't think it was here, either. It was so uncomfortable being in Georgia's head, because her perspective is so skewed, and the things she doesn't understand about the world around her (while thinking she does) are staggering.

If you liked Sadie, I think you will like this as well. It actually takes place in the same world, where a feature film has been made about West's podcast from that book. But I think now that I've read three of her books, and none of them have gotten more than 3.5 stars from me, when so many other people are just blown away by them, I might have to retreat gracefully and pursue other authors who are more to my tastes.

I flew through reading this book, and just HAD to hear it come to life in audiobook form, as well. Wow.

A beautiful, powerful, gut wrenching reading of an already beautiful, powerful, gut wrenching book! Fantastic

This was DNF for me personally.

I had gone into listening to this audiobook with intrigue. There are trigger warnings and even an intro by the author to make it clear that this is not a “sweet” YA. However, I did give the book a chance but had to give up after sexual assaults were described early on in the book.

I do think this is an important book and while it did not appeal to me, I could tell from the initial pages that it was well written with good characterization.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Courtney Summers does what Courtney Summers does best in her forthcoming queer thriller, I'M THE GIRL: she shakes you out of your stagnant complacency whether you wanted to be or not. To borrow a line from her acclaimed previous novel SADIE, "this story begins how most stories do: with a dead girl."

I'M THE GIRL is not a nice book. It will take a toll and exact a cost from each reader it touches. Much like how life exacts a skin price from young women moving and growing in this world.

Juxtaposing a grisly murder of a 13-year-old with the elusive, private, and exclusive world of the Aspera Resort, Summers contrasts the glimmering gold of luxury with the rot lurking just beneath the thin veneer our society permits.to maintain plausible deniability when it comes to power, privilege, and the abuse of girls.

Georgia, our protagonist, is not a nice girl. She is not likable, and many readers will struggle to find a redeeming quality between the pages. However, to me, this is Georgia's best quality: she is unapologetically and unequivocally herself. She is surviving in the only way she knows how----consequences and your opinions be damned.

Georgia, for me, is the best and worst part of this story: she is what a beautiful girl without means has to do to survive, to claw her way out. She is the refracted mirror image glaring back at us, asking us if we accept the way things are, and if we do, how can we possibly pass judgment on her?

Thank you Macmillan audio and Netgalley for and advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book was really hard to get through, major trigger warnings for grooming, sexual assault, and murder.
Reading this as an adult from the perspective of a child was so hard. Georgia was seeing what she wanted to see and from an outside perspective it was uncomfortable to read these things and know something wasn’t right. Because Georgia didn’t see it as a problem the situation is downplayed a lot but as an adult and reading between the lines you really see how terrible the situation really was.
I think this is a really important book, how groomers have accomplices and the people you think you can trust aren’t who they say they are.
For anyone thinking of reading this book, know that it is tough to get through, deals with a lot of triggering content in a pretty graphic way but it talks about something important and relevant.

I can definitely see why this is being called a spiritual successor to Sadie. A queer thriller about a teenager trying to figure out who killed a young girl and getting swept up into a dangerous world of adults is definitely present in both books. A large focus of this book is wealthy people, mostly men, taking advantage of young girls and preying on their desires to “be successful” or move up in the world.

This is definitely a tough read at times because of the emphasis on grooming and sexual assault in the story. However I never felt like it was being featured unnecessarily. The main character, Georgia, is one that I can see some readers being frustrated by. But I think that she’s a good example of a teenager who is naive and trusts the wrong people and what can happen as a result of that. As the readers we can see the ways that she’s being manipulated even if she isn’t aware of it.

The pacing of the mystery plot felt a bit off to me. Sometimes it felt like it went forever without much development then all of a sudden a bunch of things would happen at once. While I do think that some of the reveals could’ve been more shocking or stronger, overall I think this is a really worthwhile read. Just know that parts of it are definitely harrowing.

I'M THE Girl by Courtney Summers was my last summer read for 2022.

I was super intrigued by the premise of this one, and the book ended up being a great story. But I can't lie and say that there was one character in this story, including the main character Georgia Avis that was anywhere near likable. Every last character was selfish, with very few, if any redeeming qualities. There was literally no one to root for in the entire book, and that wasn't something I was expecting at all.

The entire mystery of the story was explained in the last chapter, which led to it being very rushed and not fleshed out very well. While I didn't like the ending, I expected it because I am old enough to know that those who do wrong don't always get punished for it.

I really, really wanted to like the main character Georgia Avis, but I just couldn't do it. I found her naive, fickle, and completely self-absorbed. Her whole identity is wrapped up in being seen and being beautiful. Not once does she show any kind of ambition that isn't based on her physical characteristics. She ignores things that are staring her in the face because it doesn't fit her vision or narrative.

Now I know that this review sounds negative, but it really isn't. I actually loved this one because it spoke about a variety of important and difficult topics. While didn't like or connect with the characters, I loved the story itself. I consider any book that can make me feel deeply about it, positive or negative, a good book.

Oh man. Major trigger warming for this one is definitely grooming. This book was interesting, and it definitely made me uncomfortable at the fact that the main character, George (Georgia), had no idea that the things being asked of or said to her were not normal. Like others said, this has My Dark Vanessa vibes, the spicy parts aren’t as spicy as this is a YA book.
I liked the murder mystery aspect of it, kept the story flowing!
I thought this was a great book, if not an eye opener for youngsters. Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan audio for the advanced audio copy!

This book was so frustrating but in a good way. The main character made bad decisions. I wanted to shake her so bad. However, you sympathize with her and understand why she makes those decisions. This book tackles a lot of complex and serious issues: beauty, power, femininity, feminism, sex, sexual assault, grooming, sex trafficking, etc. It covered a lot, so much so that I think it could have been slightly longer OR written for an adult audience.

Courtney Summers is definitely an auto- read author for me.

If you read Sadie, you will love I'm the Girl. Sixteen-year-old Georgia discovers the body of a thirteen-year-old girl and teams up with the girl's older sister, Nora, to figure out what happened. They discover wealth and privilege don't buy happiness, and killers aren't always who we think we are.

The narration is fantastic and I listened on the edge of my seat. So good.