As per usual, the NetGalley app was really acting up as I tried to listen to this one, which definitely impacted my listening experience.

Overall, this audiobook was easy to follow and the narration was average. The story was interesting, realistic seeming, and relevant to recent events. I'm not sure that it ever really fully captured my attention though.

Courtney Summers has a knack for writing uncomfortable and heartbreaking books about young women. She does not shy away from exposing readers to the harsh realities of life and dares you to not look away but to face things head on.

Sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis discovered the body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James. She along with Ashley's older sister, Nora, try to find the killer. But are they biting off more than they can chew?

Georgia wants what most people want - to fit in and to be loved. She wants to be appreciated for her beauty. She wants to be a member of her town's elite. She wants to fit into the world of privilege. But membership has a price. So many times, while reading I wanted to give Georgia a hug and some sound advice that I am pretty sure would go ignored.

I'm the Girl shows innocence and innocence lost. It shows how the powerful and the wealthy wield their power. How predators’ prey on others. This book also shows how growing up is hard to do.

This book is not a happy go lucky book. It deals with difficult subjects and situations. It shows how naïveté is no match for the ugliness in others. This book is both raw, gripping and evokes emotion.

I had both the book and the audiobook and felt the narrator did a great job with this book.

This book may be a trigger for some due to the subject matter.

This was raw, heartbreaking, gripping, well written and evoked emotion.

Thank you to Macmillan audio, St. Martin’s Press – Wednesday books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’m the Girl – Audiobook by Courtney Summers

Listening Time: 9 Hours, 36 Minutes
Narrator: Lori Prince
Publisher: MacMillan Audio, MacMillan Young Listeners
Release Date: September 13, 2022

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult, Mystery, LGBTQIAP+

Georgia Avis is sixteen and lives with her brother since her mother died of cancer. Chloe Hayes finds Georgia on the side of the road after being hit by a car. Before the accident, she found the body of a missing girl. The hunt is on for the murderer and the hit-and-run driver. Georgia is ambitious. She works at Aspera as a digital concierge. Her dreams are to be an Aspera Girl. She knows she is beautiful and wants the most out of life but what will be the cost.

The narrator was perfect for the read. The book has a fast pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. The book led me in a different way I expected, and it was emotionally raw. The characters are all flaws which makes them feel more real. If you like mysteries with a LGBTQIAP+ theme, you will enjoy this one.

This book jumps right in, like American Dirt by Jeanine Cunmings. In this novel, Georgia Avis wakes up after being hit by a car, only to stumble across the body of a 13-year-old girl — the sister of a beautiful, mysterious girl she knows from school. Together, they seek the truth about what happened that night in this gripping, terrifying mystery. There are interwoven themes about the realities of femininity, social class, and queer identities existing in a world and system designed to oppress them.

A magnum opus for Courtney Summers with beautifully thoughtful and powerful prose. The narrator for the audiobook was perfectly fit for the voice of these characters, and I don't make that claim lightly – not all audiobooks are narrated the same, and this particular audiobook was done incredibly well. I would even recommend the audiobook over the physical copy!

A big thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book prior to release in exchange for an honest review!

What the F*ck did I just read? The only way I can describe the book as is ICKY! The trigger warnings are in abundance. I can't believe this is a book marketed towards young adults. I can't even summarize this book because it just felt so messy and disjointed and not in a good way. Im not gonna lie, I was attracted to the cover and the blurb sounded somewhat interesting so I requested this on Netgalley. I hadn't read any of the authors other work but her other books seemed to have good ratings.

This book had one too many plots and was way too graphic. It seemed to glorify abusing beautiful women and there really is no resolve to this book. We just find out what happens and then fade to black. Like WHAT?! There is no conclusion here. No, she finds out and tries to stop it. Basically this book is just a big middle finger to woman and to tell them don't even try to help because the bad guys are always gonna win and the people you think are good guys aren't. Maybe I'm just too bright eyed, but this book was just not it.

Thanks to the publisher for an ALC in return for an honest review. This book releases 9/13

I wanted to love this book. It was extremely hyped up on booktube by readers who are very similar to me and I was really excited to get an ARC!

I read it as an audiobook and I must admit, I found it hard to follow at times, having to go back and listen again to understand the different jumps or who was doing what. None of this is at the fault of the narrator, it just seemed more prosaic than I am used to listening to and had to adjust.

It's hard to accurately rate a book where you deem the characters unlikeable, because sometimes that is the point. The characters were just incredibly naive, as I am sure I was at 16. It was evident where things were going before the characters realized it.

This read was definitely uncomfortable, but as the spiritual successor to Sadie, the writing left nothing to be desired. Characters are complex and interesting and feel fleshed out, real. Our main protagonist is selfish, naïve, and beautiful--a combo I find riveting to read because of how un-perfect she is. I do find that the plot is heavy on glorifying richness, elevating it to god-like levels which confused me. I understand the characters living close-by to this resort would feel destitute in comparison, but her struggles didn't feel entirely life or death. Her love story is super sweet, and I really enjoyed listening to the narrator. Overall, the only pain I have about this book is the ending. It's open-ended and very ambiguous, which is usually super cool, but this time around left me rolling my eyes.

There is so much not to like about this suspense/mystery. For starters, a sixteen year old girl finds a thirteen year old girl's body, broken and practically naked. The families of these girls are broken and the children have little to no supervision or role models. It's understandable that they would be taken advantage of and find less than desirable paths as they navigate their teenage years. I found the actions of Georgia, Nora, and Ashley mostly predictable in that of course, they are going to trust bad people. The story flows nicely and is narrated well. Could I figure it out before Georgia did? yes.

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.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this book and I was pleasantly surprised. This story was heartbreaking and I felt so bad for Georgia the whole time. I loved Nora and Georgia relationship, it added some heartwarming moments to the story. I wouldn’t necessarily consider this book to be a full blown thriller. The ending is really when the thriller part comes into play, but even then it’s not a ton. Overall, I did enjoy this story on a tough subject and it was a quick listen.

TW: Rape, violence, language, abuse, toxic parent relationship, drugs, drinking, death of parent, grooming, gaslighting, murder

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: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.
Release Date: September 13th, 2022
Genre: YA thriller
Pages: 352
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
1. The cover is pretty
2. The plot sounded like it could be interesting

What I Didn't Like:
1. The writing is ugly
2. The story goes no where
3. Using sexuality to sell a book

Overall Thoughts:Do you love books that beat you over the head with words like "beauty/beautiful/perfect"? Over and over again and again the author repeats those words.

It's seriously hard to feel badly for our main character who thinks she is so hot she's at least a 9. She's a shitty girl and steals her brothers money ($4500) to pay for to get photos taken at the mall. Questionable photos. I was confused on why the brother walked away with the photographer calling the shots saying he'd refund only half the money if he gets the photos back. Like if this photos are questionable then you'd think the brother would be threatening to call the police if all the money wasn't returned. She's only 16.

Troupes I am tired of in YA books are;
1) Twins
2) Parent(s) are dead
We don't get twins in this book but we do get the parent is dead in this one. Georgia's mother dies and we are left with this reminding us that she is indeed a corpse.

10,000 mentions of Aspera that drove me insane.
This makes you think that there will be some kind of wrap up for Georgia but there isn't. She still wants to be desired by men. I would love to know the point of this book other than making you feel like shit reading about a girl so despite for love to allow herself to be raped over and over.

Final Thoughts: Courtney Summers is just a two star author to me. The books she writes always try to come across as edgy and something new but they fall flat for me. I had high hopes for this one to be the one that shows me the love people have for this author, but again it just couldn't make me love her. I have one other book that is on my owned tbr shelf; This is Not a Test and if that one doesn't win me over then I am done trying.

Recommend For:
• Complex parent relationships
• Teenage issues
• Culture that grooms teens
• Ambiguous endings

Thanks to Netgalley and the Macmillan Audio for this advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

🫣This book is a mature YA book. There are some sex scenes in it that made me uncomfortable, which I wouldn’t want a younger teen audience to read.
I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I liked the fire between Nora and Georgia, and feel like this was a great portrayal of a young queer relationship. But I didn’t like any other relationship, or character in the book. I also think, this was the authors point.
Georgia’s desire to be a part of the elite group of gorgeous women that work at a local resort is infuriating. She is sixteen! She shouldn’t be working in that place to begin with! And when she does, everything bad that happens to her I knew was coming. My momma bear instincts was screaming at her “ GET OUT!”
I did read this book as an audiobook. The narrator Lori Prince, is one of my favorite narrators and does an excellent job with portraying emotion and fear. Lori really makes you feel like you’re living the story, not just being told it. For this book, it made the whole vibe quite eerie.

The main thing I took from this book is that mothers need to remind their daughters that they are worth more then their looks. Hold your girls close at any age, and tell them you love them. It’s a scary world out there, protect them.

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 was so excited to read this one after loving Sadie, but sadly it didn't work for me. The audiobook was extremely hard to follow, so I often had to listen to passages again to recall what was going on.

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'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.

Lori Prince does a fabulous job on the audiobook. Lots of emotion and every character is distinctive.

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

CW, a note: The content warning list for this book is extensive. I would recommend checking a more detailed list on Storygraph ( https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/0985db4e-fba7-482c-ae04-a918e1a15ef1/content_warnings ). I will list a few but it is not thorough. Sexual violence/harassment/assault, abuse of all kinds, pedophilia, r*pe, trafficking, drug use, and more. Graphic language and some graphic detail.

Thank you to Courtney Summers, Macmillan Audio, and #NetGalley for the chance to listen to this advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I was really curious about this audiobook when I first heard about it, and the award-winning author Courtney Summers. I heard she writes gritty stories, gripping thrillers, and compelling female characters that aren't typically portrayed. So I knew what I was getting into, I'd read the long list of CWs, and all of the rave reviews about it. But I nearly DNF'd this book, and after I finished it, I wish I had. I don't know if I missed the Courtney Summers train or what, but I don't mind if I did. This novel covers truly awful topics that really happen to some girls, but it's not a YA novel. And not because I think young adults can't handle it, many of them can and do in real life. But this honestly felt like trauma p*rn to me. I read and love books with difficult topics, unlikable characters, the works. But I don't think Summers tied all of this trauma into good storytelling. I wanted to see that so badly, to see what all of the 5 star ratings were talking about, but I honestly felt like we read totally different books. This may sound really harsh, but maybe I'm just taking a page from Summer's gritty stories?
I will say the narrator did a brilliant job, their voice acting was incredible and helped me continue with this read.
2 (maybe 2.5) out of 5 stars

DNF @30%
I couldn’t do this. I loved Sadie by Courtney Summer but this was repetitive and was boring.

Thank you NetGalley for an audiobook ARC of I'm the Girl.

I adore Courtney Summers so was thrilled to start her latest masterpiece. I found this a slow burn - we start off with the murder and plot but there are other storylines interwoven into solving it. It was a difficult one to listen to as emotions were all over the place.

The narration was fantastic and I would def recommend adding this to your TBR.

CW: sexual assault, sexual harassment, drug overdose

This is my third book I’ve read by Courtney Summers. I liked it less than Sadie, but more than The Project.

The book follows sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis. The book opens with Georgia stumbling onto a murder scene. She and the murder victim’s sister investigate the murder at an exclusive club. The story is intriguing and held my interest, but the characters read a little flat. I wish we got more insight into the motivation of the characters, especially the protagonist.

The book is marketed as a YA book, but I think that is misleading, given the level of violence and sexual assault in the book. The book is attempting a social commentary on class and gendered power dynamics, but I don’t think it quite gets there. The topic is presented, but without commentary or in-depth analysis.

**SPOILER RE: CONTENT WARNINGS***
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There are a few scenes in which Georgia’s adult male employer sexually assaults her. One in particular was troubling because he kept asking “Can I kiss you?” throughout and kind of implies Georgia, a minor, consented to this encounter. In my opinion, the book doesn’t address that power of power negates and her minority negates that “consent.”