I'm the Girl by Courtney SummersMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The new groundbreaking queer thriller from New York Times bestselling and Edgar-award Winning author Courtney Summers.
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.
A spiritual successor to the 2018 breakout hit, Sadie, I'm the Girl is a masterfully written, bold, and unflinching 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?
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.
A spiritual successor to the 2018 breakout hit, Sadie, I'm the Girl is a masterfully written, bold, and unflinching 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?
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I am a massive fan of Courtney Summers, and this book is one I am also now a massive fan of.
It's dark, this one. And uncomfortable. Disturbing. Everything I 'like' from a dark contemporary YA read. But this one also hit differently. I'm normally fine reading disturbing content, but I was not fine after reading this. And that's how real this all felt.
Georgia's a great character. She's lost. She's angry. She's trying to work out why things are the way that they are. And she's looking for a mother figure as her mother recently passed away. And so when Cleo steps in, she wants to get close to her. Cleo and her husband run Aspera, and Georgia wants to be an 'Aspera girl'--a beautiful girl who works there--precisely because her mother said she wouldn't be one. Georgia is vain too, in an entirely normal teen girl way. Before the book begins she's had some nude photos taken by a 'professional' (who later turns out not to be a professional.)
And this is a story about grooming and child sexual abuse. We watch as Georgia becomes a victim of this, first being employed in small roles at Aspera, then seeing it turn more into what it actually is. There's graphic sexual content between Georgia (a sixteen-year-old) and Cleo's middle-aged husband Matthew. Cleo appears to be on board with this. And this all happens even though Georgia tells them she's a lesbian. She has in fact got a crush on Nora, who's the sister of Ashley--and the book starts with Georgia finding 13-year-old Ashley's body, so there is a lot packed in this.
It starts off as a murder mystery, but the actual murder mystery doesn't really control much of the plot. It's very much secondary to Georgia trying to become an Aspera girl.
One of the things I really liked was Georgia's relationship with Tyler, her brother. He's always looking out for her, and this, alongside Nora's relationship with Georgia, helped balance this book so it didn't feel like it was being devoured by all the slime. Because that's how I felt while reading a lot of this--slimy.
The language is also beautiful in this. So, so lyrical.
This is an important book to read. It's about beauty and appearance, privilege and wealth and poverty, truth and lies, policing and the cover-up of crimes by those with money.
Content warnings for: rape, child abuse, child sexual abuse, grooming, murder, implied incest (though I don't think that actually happened and was just set up to look like it had, by one of the characters, to set someone else up for murder).
View all my reviews
I am a massive fan of Courtney Summers, and this book is one I am also now a massive fan of.
It's dark, this one. And uncomfortable. Disturbing. Everything I 'like' from a dark contemporary YA read. But this one also hit differently. I'm normally fine reading disturbing content, but I was not fine after reading this. And that's how real this all felt.
Georgia's a great character. She's lost. She's angry. She's trying to work out why things are the way that they are. And she's looking for a mother figure as her mother recently passed away. And so when Cleo steps in, she wants to get close to her. Cleo and her husband run Aspera, and Georgia wants to be an 'Aspera girl'--a beautiful girl who works there--precisely because her mother said she wouldn't be one. Georgia is vain too, in an entirely normal teen girl way. Before the book begins she's had some nude photos taken by a 'professional' (who later turns out not to be a professional.)
And this is a story about grooming and child sexual abuse. We watch as Georgia becomes a victim of this, first being employed in small roles at Aspera, then seeing it turn more into what it actually is. There's graphic sexual content between Georgia (a sixteen-year-old) and Cleo's middle-aged husband Matthew. Cleo appears to be on board with this. And this all happens even though Georgia tells them she's a lesbian. She has in fact got a crush on Nora, who's the sister of Ashley--and the book starts with Georgia finding 13-year-old Ashley's body, so there is a lot packed in this.
It starts off as a murder mystery, but the actual murder mystery doesn't really control much of the plot. It's very much secondary to Georgia trying to become an Aspera girl.
One of the things I really liked was Georgia's relationship with Tyler, her brother. He's always looking out for her, and this, alongside Nora's relationship with Georgia, helped balance this book so it didn't feel like it was being devoured by all the slime. Because that's how I felt while reading a lot of this--slimy.
The language is also beautiful in this. So, so lyrical.
This is an important book to read. It's about beauty and appearance, privilege and wealth and poverty, truth and lies, policing and the cover-up of crimes by those with money.
Content warnings for: rape, child abuse, child sexual abuse, grooming, murder, implied incest (though I don't think that actually happened and was just set up to look like it had, by one of the characters, to set someone else up for murder).
View all my reviews
