I'm the Girl - Iridescent Reads for Aotearoa Bookwyrms

English language

Published July 23, 2022 by St. Martin's Press.

ISBN:: 9781250808370

(2 reviews)

All sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis wants is everything, but the poverty and hardship that defines her life has kept her from the beautiful and special things she knows she deserves. 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, and their investigation throws Georgia into a glittering world of unimaginable privilege and wealth--and all she's ever dreamed. But behind every dream lurks a nightmare, and Georgia must reconcile her heart's desires with what it really takes to survive. As Ashley's killer closes in and their feelings for one another grow, Georgia and Nora will discover when money, power, and beauty rule, it's not always a matter of who is guilty but who is guiltiest--and the only thing that might save them is each other.

I’m the Girl is a brutal and illuminating account …

All sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis wants is everything, but the poverty and hardship that defines her life has kept her from the beautiful and special things she knows she deserves. 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, and their investigation throws Georgia into a glittering world of unimaginable privilege and wealth--and all she's ever dreamed. But behind every dream lurks a nightmare, and Georgia must reconcile her heart's desires with what it really takes to survive. As Ashley's killer closes in and their feelings for one another grow, Georgia and Nora will discover when money, power, and beauty rule, it's not always a matter of who is guilty but who is guiltiest--and the only thing that might save them is each other.

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 while asking readers one question: if this is the way the world is, do you accept it?

3 editions

Catship reviewed I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers

Hard to stomach

No rating

Content warning Meta discussion of violence in the story

I think this is a good story. But I wish I hadn't read it, I wish I'd stopped listening when it became clear that this is another "it's abuse all the way down" kind of book. I've had too many of those recently, and it's not a great time for them. Almost all comfort in this is treacherous and almost all opportunities are traps waiting to close. There's tons of detailed descriptions of violence.

I appreciate Courtney Summers' stories, and I am perpetually surprised by the praise she gets for writing "unlikable" girls. Her characters navigate the violence they are surrounded by and subjected to in the ways they can, and I think there's a misogynist cruelty in even bringing likeability into the picture.

Alex Cabe reviewed I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers

More Plot Driven Than Most Courtney Summers Books

4 stars

This was kind of a slow start and I didn't find the protagonist as instantly likeable/relatable as most Summers books, but I thought it had a stronger plot and the best developed romantic relationship that she's written.

A really strong theme that ran through the book is that abusers will use vulnerable people's dreams and aspirations to exploit them, which is a good message that needs to be said.

In a way the ending isn't a surprise, but you're more along for the ride of how Georgia figures things out and reacts to them. The antagonists are pretty hateable, and you'll spend a good amount of time internally yelling at Georgia not to trust them.

Stick with this on and it pays off.