A review by justinbaumann71
I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

3.0

This book was challenging to get through, primarily due to its heavy subject matter. I respect what Summers aimed to achieve with this novel, but as my third read from her, it was the toughest yet.

The story follows sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis, who dreams of escaping the poverty and hardship that define her life. When she stumbles upon the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James, Georgia teams up with Ashley's older sister, Nora, to find the killer before he strikes again. Their investigation propels Georgia into a glittering world of unimaginable privilege and wealth—everything she has ever dreamed of. However, behind every dream lurks a nightmare, and Georgia must reconcile her heart's desires with the harsh realities of survival.

The themes explored are intense, focusing on the struggles and ambitions of modern women in a male-dominated world. Georgia, as a 16-year-old girl, is placed in situations that even as a 30-year-old adult, I found difficult to digest. This disconnect made the book uncomfortable and somewhat unreal to me, despite knowing such events could indeed occur.

The narrative is split into two storylines: one inside the resort and another following the murder mystery investigation outside. Due to the novel's brevity, neither storyline is given sufficient time to develop fully, making it hard to connect with the characters or the plot. The themes are dark and complex, yet the fast pacing prevents them from being fully realized. The murder reveal happens around 70% into the book, followed by the aftermath, which felt abrupt and out of place. This clash between deep themes and rapid pacing didn't work as well as it has in Summers' other novels.

"I’m the Girl" is a brutal and illuminating account of how one young woman feels in her body as she struggles to navigate a deadly and predatory power structure. It asks readers one critical question: if this is the way the world is, do you accept it? Overall, the combination of dark themes and pacing issues made it difficult to enjoy, despite the book's intense subject matter.