A review by allons_y8
The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. I came into it thinking it would be a lighthearted almost heist book but it is not that. It is a book about abuse and relationships and healing and hiding and running. This book had so many incredible and meaningful quotes I used up an entire colour of tabs to tab them. I love books with rich, complicated morally gray characters because they reflect real life and many of the characters in this for fill that with a few dark bad men. It was gripping with a very compelling storyline and structure with the flashbacks and my edition had grey pages for them which made it easier to follow. I think the fact that she had many different names and lives is something that everyone may be able to relate to in an abstract way with the different ways people knew you. I think as much as this book was brutal and shocking and horrible, it was also comforting in an odd way. She was alone yet she had her sister and her found family in the end and although her trauma made her try to estrange them, they held on and I think that is very important. I think as much as the premise is action packed, it is a deeply reflective book about the characters and therefore anyone who relates in anyway to the characters, but the way it is done as a bank robbery allows us to explore them much more. It is very literally making use of the saying that you will see the real person if you push them right to the edge. Although it is a very dark subject matter, it is punctuated with jokes and witty comments which I loved but also with love and friendship and fun which I think is very important because everyone deserves those things, even survivors, especially survivors. I think overall it is a jumbled story of human emotion which is beautiful and sad. It shows the very bad and the very good of humanity, but also the very in-between. I would recommend this book as a compelling but emotional look into abuse and the human condition however I would be careful of trigger warnings as it could be triggering for some people. 
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