Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - I'm the Girl

There is one thing guaranteed from a Courtney Summers novel - it’s going to hurt.

I’M THE GIRL is no different. I actually had to take a few days before writing this review because I had a lot to think on. Honestly, I am not sure I have probably landed on what those thoughts are yet. Summers is never one to shy away from dark and difficult topics, and I love that about her work. In this latest release I knew it would be even more dark considering it is inspired by the exploitation and dangerous society young women live in (I believe this was inspired by the Jeffery Epstein case?) However, I am not sure I was prepared for just what awaited my reading experience.
Following teen Georgia as she steps into the world of Aspera and faces the darkness that lies there is hard. As a reader, I struggled to understand her actions - her dependence on needing to be see as beautiful and perfect and worthy at her own cost. And it was hard to watch her be let down by those who were supposed to protect her over and over.. My mind kept going back to an earlier review I saw that stated something along the lines of Georgia just being a girl. She was still so young. I just wished her all the peace that girls deserve to grow up with.

With themes of bodily autonomy and violence and the dangers of victim blaming I’M THE GIRL is a brutal, raw, and unflinching dive into the patriarchal society we live in

Note: Please be mindful of your personal triggers with this book. I know it is categorized as YA but it has some graphic sexual violence for the genre. It has A LOT of heavy content.

*ARC was given by Wednesday Press for review

Content Warnings

enchantressreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“What makes you decide to kill a girl? What makes you decide not to?”

This was a hard one. After reading Sadie a few years back, I knew I needed more Courtney Summers in my life. Until I saw the ARC for I’m the Girl, I kind of forgot all about it. I’m so glad I went and requested it. It was such a great read for the mood I was in, and I finished it in one sitting. (I definitely felt it the next day.)

Georgia Avis is riding her bike when she’s suddenly hit by a car. As she stumbles away, she sees someone in a ditch. Unfortunately, the young girl is dead, and she’s only thirteen. This sends the town, and Georgia, on a terrifying journey to see what money can really buy.

“You’re going to learn very, very fast that money can make anything happen.”

This is a very timely book. Georgia’s town is a normal one, except it is home to Aspera, an exclusive, members only resort for the rich and famous. Georgia wants nothing more than to be an Aspera girl. They’re beautiful, they’re talented, and they’re special. Coming from poverty, she wants to be part of their world.

This is a very sad, very bleak novel. It deals with some heavy topics, so please check content warnings at the end of this review. I kind of knew from the description how the novel might go, but I was still not prepared for the emotions I felt reading this book. In a world where so many people are just struggling to survive, there’s a real group of people who are paying money to be horrible people. This book is not listed as based on a true story, but we can definitely guess.

“Maybe it’s not how much time passes—it’s what it takes from you when it does.”

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for this advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

CW for death of a child, murder, rape, drugging, pedophilia, sexual assault/violence, suicide, incest, grooming, abuse of authority, and corruption

Content Warnings

lilythebibliophile's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader’s copy of this book!

2.5 stars

I was so excited to start I’m the Girl. Unfortunately, the important message of this story is hindered by its lackluster execution. There are aspects of this book that I loved, but I want to start by talking about why I’m rating it 2.5 stars.

The plot of this story is almost nonexistent until the very end, which does redeem the book somewhat. I like stories that are slow-paced, but I feel like I was just reading endless pages of description about what every character was wearing and random hand movements they were making rather than reading dialogue simmering with tension or about anything of import. There are other ways to convey the dichotomy between the rich and the poor besides painstakingly detailing characters' outfits. I feel like I barely know the characters as a result of this dull, repetitive description, and while I understand why Cleo and Matthew Hayes were mysterious figures, I shouldn’t feel that way about Georgia or Nora.

Georgia’s desire to be an Aspera girl was reiterated on practically every page in the first half of the book, yet we don’t really learn why she wants to be one. I’d rather have the motivations behind Georgia’s dreams be overstated than the dreams themselves. It says that Georgia wants to use that position as a way to escape poverty, and that she wants to prove to her mother that she can be an Aspera girl, but we didn’t get a real window into how Georgia’s economic standing and her relationship with her mother impacted her life. That would have been more interesting to read about than to read paragraphs upon paragraphs about how much Georgia wants to work at Aspera.

I know that I read a prepublication copy of this book, but the writing style of this book was clumsy and confusing at times. Some of the attempts at lyricism here defied the rules of grammar, and not in a necessary or inventive way. I had to read some sentences twice to make sure that I hadn’t misread anything. Also, certain words were taken out of the dialogue to make the dialogue sound more natural, but it read as clunky. For instance, instead of a character saying, “Are you working at Aspera?” they would say, “Working at Aspera?”. This isn’t a quote from the book, but an example so that you know what I’m talking about. That’s not a horrible writing choice, but it does make it harder for readers to figure out who is being spoken to or talked about. And yes, people talk casually in real life, but not in the way that I was reading. Like, someone I know might say, “You working at Aspera?” but they wouldn’t take out the “you”.

Also, I don’t want to police authors, but this is the third Courtney Summers book in a row that deals with avenging a sister after something has happened to her. I was actually excited to see that Georgia didn’t have a sister, and then Nora was introduced, and I was disappointed. I don’t have an issue with that subject matter; I just think that there are only so many different ways you can talk about being the sibling of someone who has been killed or sexually assaulted or abused in some manner. There are only so many nuances and different thoughts you can have about that. Plus, Courtney Summers' previous book, Sadie, expressed all of those thoughts succinctly and beautifully, and in a more expert way than in I’m the Girl.

Additionally, I was uncomfortable with how lesbianism was portrayed in this book. Every time Georgia sees a female character in this book (besides Liv and Ashley), she describes her breasts or her body or objectifies her in some manner. There is even a scene where Georgia peeps on Cleo, which is a complete boundary breach. I am upset to see that our lesbian main character (who we are supposed to root for) is depicted as a predator. This perpetuates negative stereotypes against the LGBTQIAP+ community.

Now, moving on to the aspects of this book that I loved. Refreshing, right?

Georgia’s refusal to admit that she was a victim was painfully real. Her journey of realization is one that a lot of victims go through, and to see it written in a non-judgmental way was lovely. Throughout the course of this book, Georgia keeps repeating that she looks beautiful, and then there’s a moment where she looks in the mirror and all she can say is that she looks young. She realized that she should not be seen as beautiful, not by grown adults. I loved that.

While the dramatic irony employed in I’m the Girl for readers that know that this book is based on the Epstein case does give away its plot, I loved how naive Georgia was. I’ve read some reviews saying, “How could she be so stupid?” or things along those lines, but there’s a reason why teen girls get groomed. It’s not because they’re stupid, it’s because they don’t want to believe that anything bad can happen to them, and because they are at the hands of master manipulators.

There was one small twist in this book that I did not see coming, and I appreciated that.

The whole tone of this book is monotonous until the last 10%, and while that makes the reading experience less than enjoyable, it does mean that the climax of this book surprised me and got my adrenaline flowing. I'm the Girl ends at the height of its action, and I loved that choice. It made me start to feel actual emotions about this book, and my heart was still pumping after reading the final page.

Content Warnings

mmikadze's review

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2.5

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