I'm the Girl
🌟🌟🌟

**Major trigger warning book**
Rape, harassment, emotional and sexual abuse, trafficking, etc.

What I loved:
-- Georgia Avis, the 16yo main character, is intriguing and complicated.
-- Narration by Lori Prince...she did a fantastic job keeping up with the pace and characters (a lot of moving parts)
-- Length at about 8 hours

What I didn't love:
-- Dark, hard-to-read themes of female objectification, grooming, sexual abuse and manipulation.
-- Major Jeffery Epstein vibes. Ewe!!!
-- Lots of moving parts... complicated to weave together.


Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy.

Unfortunately this book was not for me. The first half of the book, I was under the impression I missed something. As if this was a sequel to a previous book. It wasn’t what I expected it would be. I felt as if I was missing something. At the beginning there is an author’s note. From that note, I had a feeling this book wasn’t going to be my preference, yet I still wanted to give it a shot. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me a chance to listen to this audiobook.

I’m The Girl was a powerful read that explored themes of female sexuality, sexual violence, and autonomy.
This book follows Georgia Avis after she finds the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James and her quest to uncover the killer while finding her own place in a system designed by men for men while also navigating her own sexuality.
Very powerful novel. Recommended with trigger warnings.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners in exchange for my honest review

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis discovers the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James. Her memory of the tragedy is shaky, partially due to trauma partially due to immediately being hit by a car, assumingly being driven by the very person that killed Ashely.
This was such a hard book to read, an impossible book to enjoy, but I did not put it down. I found myself sitting, hands in heads, nauseous listening to this audiobook. I don't know how to rate it because I hated reading it, but that's exactly why it's so good?! It was so uncomfortable! It was so well written! It was tragic!
I am going to retreat into the world of fluffy romance for a few weeks to recover from this. Courtney Summers is a goddamn master.

I was excited to read this title based on the authors other work. I knew to expect a dark story, but I didn't anticipate how dark this story would be. I will have difficulty recommending it to teen patrons.

I was not a fan.

Lori Prince was a great narrator. Her voice is so expressive and has great dimension.
Courtney Summers is a great writer, I can't complain about that, but there was a lot happening here, for the story and the characters. The characters were intriguing. Courtney did a great job at making the story vivid, which was uncomfortable at points, but great when you can make an audience feel through words.
What I dislikes were the amount of stories crammed in here. By the end I was agitated and hated everything and everyone and didn't know what was important or even the point of the story anymore. I felt like Courtney could have written at least three different books. There was Georgia and her personal demons, both internal and family, past and present. Then there was Ashley and her death, which brought in Ashley's family, but also her family had their own storylines going on. Then there was Aspera, which seemed to be a whole world/story on it's own.

This had potential, but just had too many storylines and not enough focus on one in particular.

This is a hard one to review. I'm the Girl (quite graphically) tackles the issue of wealthy people grooming and preying on pretty teen girls from impoverished backgrounds.

It's one of a couple books recently that is clearly drawing on the Jeffrey Epstein case, including a woman involved in recruiting and grooming the girls. Topically, this is important and relevant. What I appreciate about this approach is how it portrays the nuance of what the process is like for teen girls who are exploring their own sexuality in ways that are and AREN'T safe. And how they might not understand the difference.

The difference is power- a peer doesn't hold undue power over them while an adult does and is preying on their inexperience and naivete. In this case, the main character is a lesbian, which further muddies the waters in how she thinks about men being interested in her. We actually get two quite explicit scenes back to back, clearly intended to demonstrate the difference in both power and desire, regardless of supposed "consent" (not that a 16-year-old can actually consent to this with an adult). One scene involves the result of grooming by an adult with power over her, the other is an actually consensual encounter with her girlfriend. The contrast is stark, but the progression is realistically drawn which might be very uncomfortable for some readers. I do think it's effective for what Summers is trying to do thematically.

Now as a NOVEL with a mystery plot, this book is less successful. The pacing is weird, the reveals aren't always well explained, there are conveniences that don't entirely make sense, and a lot of things are less surprising than I think they're intended to be. But maybe that's because as an adult reader, it's obvious how incredibly naive the main character is. But this is a very real problem, and it's true that there are people with privilege who get away with this kind of thing.

And, much like how I have felt about other books by Summers, I think it's important for teenagers to have access to books like this even if they are explicit and mature at times. Because protecting them from these books isn't always protecting them from things like this happening in real life. I think a criticism of this will be that it's too much for teenagers and shouldn't be YA, but I don't agree. I think the novel is clearly written from a teenage perspective and with their real feelings in mind. It doesn't feel didactic or like it's infantilizing the burgeoning sexuality of teen girls- just trying to draw some lines between where that sexuality can be explored safely and where it is being exploited in harmful, predatory ways. There is a huge amount of value to that. The narrator of the audiobook nails the voice of a teen girl in this place in life. Excellently done.

I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I loved, loved, loved Sadie so when I saw "I'm the Girl" I immediately jumped at the chance to read it. However, there was not one likeable character in this story, which normally is okay when you can hate the villain that much more, but in this case there was no one readers can rally behind, no one to cling to as the read propels us on, no one to feel sorry for or connect to or root for/against. There were just a lot of characters making sub par decisions and older male figures being the stuff of every mom's nightmare.

That said, I adore Courtney Summers' writing and while I read Sadie in paperback form, I'm not ready to give up on this book, maybe I need to read "I'm the Girl" in paperback too, in order to connect better, I don't know. But I so badly wanted to like this and it just didn't hit for me.

Pub date: 9/13/22
Genre: YA thriller
In one sentence: Georgia discovers Ashley's dead body, and she teams up with Ashley's sister Nora to solve the crime - but she finds that the criminals may be closer than she thinks.

This book started out promising, and I was excited to untangle the mystery of Ashley's death. However, it soon became very problematic. Georgia's character was obsessed with the hotel Aspera and the concept of beauty - it seemed like all she thought about. It makes me angry when YA books send the message that a girl's worth is based solely on her appearance, and this book did exactly that with the beauty obsession.

In addition to this problematic topic, there was also a large amount of graphic sexual content, including grooming and sexual assault against minors. Some of this is portrayed as romantic when the reality is anything but, and for this reason, I cannot recommend this book. The epilogue hints at character growth, but it doesn't outweigh the toxic messages in the rest of the book.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review. I wish I had more positive things to say about this book.

This book was good! It honestly was hard being in the narration of Georgia at times because I wanted to shake her and tell her that she was being taken advantage of! But it was very real and realistic.. which also made it hard to read at times. Overall enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books / Macmillan Audio for early access to the audiobook of I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers in exchange for an honest review.

CW: rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, grooming, gaslighting, emotional abuse, child abuse, trafficking, drug misuse, alcohol use, care accident, terminal illness, death of a parent, grief, see full list on StoryGraph.

Sixteen year old Georgia Avis finds herself in a dire situation when she finds the body of a younger girl and teams up with the girl's older sister, Nora, to discover what happened. In order to continue with their investigation, Georgia finds herself embroiled in the world of high-end hospitality, serving the wealthiest clientele at the very hotel that Georgia's mother gave her whole life to help her avoid. Soon, Georgia learns first hand about the pervasiveness of greed and sexual assault culture.

This is someone else's five-star read, it just wasn't mine. I did not like Georgia as a character and her decisions were absolutely baffling to me. As much as I did not like the character of her older brother, she willfully disregarded his attempts to keep her safe. Even as Georgia begins to discover for herself what a dangerous place this is, she continues to stay and continue to make poorly thought out decisions. Ugh. This book was frustrating to say the least, and I don't think it contributed anything particularly unique to the larger conversation about rape culture and the widespread acceptance of sexism.

I received an eArc of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I can't tell if I'm getting older or the author vastly overestimates the naiveté of sixteen year old girls. There are several situations the the main character finds herself in that I believe would have set off some alarm bells in my head at that age. Not all of them, I can understand the want and need at that age to be perceived as pretty and self blame stemming from unwanted advances. But like the protagonist has zero savy whatsoever which feel unrealistic given a) her unsheltered background and b) her age.

Because the protagonist is so completely blind to her surroundings, there isn't much tension in this mystery thriller. It's mostly her being like I think this super obviously moustache twirling bad guy is soooo admirable. Her love interest, Nora, feels underdeveloped, as though her only character traits are avenging her sister and gay. Frankly this book would have been better from her POV, there would have been more tension and emotional depth at least.

The only reason I'm giving this two stars is because it's handling of this kind of sexual abuse is well executed down to the grooming and belief in self agency. So, it's not as bad as it could have been.

**I received an advance copy of this audiobook on Netgalley in exchange for my honest review**

Originally posted on storygraph

This is the story of a girl, Georgia, who gets caught up in a new society as she grapples with all sorts of discoveries, past and present

This story is very hard to describe without spoilers, but essentially Georgia is witness to a crime, which is somehow connected to this mysterious and elusive society which she yearns to be apart of. But of course, nothing is as it seems

This book was disturbing, definitely check out the content warnings first. I also found the content very difficult to process, and I know that was kind of the point, but the ages of the characters made it hard to grapple with.

I found Avis quite unsympathetic and naive, though I do think that was purposeful. I was able to predict the ending somewhat, which also detracted from my enjoyment. I did enjoy the thrill and intensity of the book, and some of the side characters, but the main plot was definitely a little too annoying to read (because of the obvious naivetes). It was also just so heavy, and it was almost as though the heavy content didn't even get resolved. There were many plotlines that I would have appreciated more closure on

The audiobook was well done, the narrator spoke with adequate emotion and added to the depiction of the characters

R

This audiobook took forever to get through due to the intense, and disturbing subject matter. Trigger warnings for sexual assault. The story was well written and the narrator did a great job with the book. It was difficult to listen to at times and I found myself pressing pause frequently to get some air from the subject.

Georgie is a 16 year old girl who comes from poor surroundings and the key to freedom and the lifestyle she dreams of is her beauty. She accidentally comes across the dead body of a young girl. From that moment on her life drastically changes.

This was a heavy read but it was well done. Ultimately I have mixed feelings about it. I’m curious to know what other people think.

I Am the Girl is available September 13.2022.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

I had to reflect for at least a day but I think I'm giving this 3.5

Courtney Summers writes such powerful captivating stories of the dangers and flaws in our world especially for young girls. But "I'm the Girl" does not raise to the level as "Sadie" for me in many ways.

Much of my problems in this book is the logic of the characters/ story. I know that the main character Georgia is 16 so I do not expect perfect logic. But she makes so many bad choices and even when so many bad things are happening keeps happening to her she just keeps jumping back into the shark tank of predators because her only dream is to be an ASPERA girl. As if that is the only thing that will bring meaning to her life, which revolves around getting attention from men when she makes it a point several times that she is only attracted to girls. Makes no sense. I know some of the logic had to do with her being manipulated / groomed. But still some times was unbelievable.

Also Georgia's brother, after very little resistance, let's her work at ASPERA, even though there was bad history there involving their mom. But won't tell Georgia the whole story about it to protect her. Then give her bits and peices when she is already working there. Maybe tell her the truth about that place first before letting her walk into a vipers den.

Another issue is there was no true resolution to this book. Yes, you did learn who killed Ashley. Yes, Georgia seems to finally stop seeing ASPERA through rose tinted glasses. But after everything was done there were no consequences. And maybe you could make an argument that as it was opened ended maybe they did after the story on page ended. Or maybe the reader is suppose to feel angry about those who have done wrong not getting their just desserts. Either way is leaves much to be desired.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for 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!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy.

First and foremost, I find it almost downright irresponsible that this is being marketed to younger audiences. It's incredibly graphic and there's really no upside or redemption to any of these horrible scenes. Lots of violence against young women.

Truthfully, this felt like it was dark just for the sake of being dark. Also, we find out the big reveal (that was pretty predictable) and then the book just abruptly ends.

The cover is stunning and the synopsis definitely sounded promising, but I can't in good conscience recommend this.

I think my bar for thrillers is just really high so this wasn’t a big win for me but it was a good read nonetheless. I think fans of the author will def eat this up, as well as those who are more into YA thrillers.

One thing that I love about Courtney Summers is how she is unapologetic when going into the dark and raw side of things. I'm the Girl does not shy away from that. We meet Georgia who wants to work for Avis. She wants to be an Avis girl. Little does she know the secrets and the past her family has with that place.

Georgia is a flawed character which is something I really appreciate in Courtney Summers' books. I have only read Sadie prior to this, and though I enjoyed Sadie more, I really enjoyed the intrigued, the frustration over Georgia not listening to those around her, and the social commentary of the rich in this book.


The audiobook production os this is top notch quality! There's just a new vibe when you get to listen to the audiobook vs the internal monologue I have when reading.

Overall, a superb book and it holds up to what I have read from Summers in the past. Would definitely pick it up again!!

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?