Gr 10 Up—When Georgia's dreams of working at exclusive Aspera intersect with investigating the death of her
crush's little sister, she dives headfirst into a world of extravagance and secrecy that no one can survive unscathed.
An unflinching look at the myriad dangers facing teenage girls that is at once jarring and deeply resonant, tender,
and furious.

Courtney Summers’ novels always manage to destroy me, and I’m the Girl is no different. All Georgia Avis wants is for others not just to recognize but also to reward her beauty. After all, beautiful people run the world; it is something we all know because we see it daily in the news. At seventeen, Georgia is impatient and ready to do what it takes to reap those rewards owed to her. What she endures with no complaint and, even worse, no idea about its heinousness hits you in the gut. Georgia does understand the world even though she appears naive and innocent, but what strikes the reader the most is her belief that there is no other way to obtain what you want. It is as heartbreaking an idea as it is repugnant. Watching Georgia maneuver not only a murder investigation but also the life of the highly wealthy as she tries to obtain everything she wants is Ms. Summers at her finest. ( )

teen/adult suspense-mystery CW/TW: rape, assault, attempted rape, drugging, aggressive police captain, home invasion.
16 y.o. Georgia is the cliched girl who is naive enough to believe the 'talent scout' who tells her she can be a model-- if she ponies up thousands for the photographer AND also lets him take some clothing-optional pictures. She survives that mistake only to next end up at the town's resort for the ultra-rich, asking for a job that she thinks is like a model/maid, but which everyone else knows is more like a call girl/servant more likely to get raped and discarded than elevated to fame and fortune. At the heart of the story is the mystery surrounding the murder of the police captain's 13 y.o. daughter (herself drugged and raped), whose body Georgia discovers dumped by the road, and whose older sister is Georgia's long-time unanswered crush.

I guess I was hoping this story could end with fewer rapes? or maybe the two queer girls could surprise everyone by solving the case and staying on top of the bad guys in a really kickass way, but this isn't that kind of story. It is super suspenseful and a quick read, sort of a slow-motion train-wreck you can't look away from. ( )

One thing that I've always admired about Courtney Summers is her ability to tackle abuse in many different ways while never glamorizing it.

That being said, unlike Sadie and The Project, this story was much harder to follow and maybe I wasn't in the correct mindset to read this, but it just didn't have the same impact for me that her previous releases have had.

I'm sure that this book will be for a lot of people, but I just don't think it is for me.

Arc provided by NetGalley ( )

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley. Trigger warning for violence against women, including rape and murder.)

“It wasn’t her inevitability,” I say. “It was his.”
“Yeah? That’s what you think?”
“If it hadn’t been her, it would’ve been any other girl.”
It was almost me.

***

“You said a whole world would open up for me.”
“And it will, but you have to remember it’s still their world.”

***

Courtney Summers is one of a few dozen authors who's an insta-read for me, and her latest does not disappoint. The book description pitches I'M THE GIRL as "a spiritual successor to the 2018 breakout hit, SADIE," which is true - but I also found a lot of THE PROJECT in here: mostly in the way that I wasn't sure which direction the story was headed, and worried that the wrong characters (and their problematic world views) would prevail, right up until the very end, making for a rather uncomfortable read.

Thankfully, the warped, jaded, and ultimately misogynistic mindset of the story's female antagonist (and, by extension, the world that made her) doesn't prevail - but neither are we treated to a happy (or even particularly hopeful) ending. I'M THE GIRL is as bleak as it is suspenseful; it interrogates rape culture, patriarchy, capitalism, and privilege, but only offers the tiniest grain of sugar to help the medicine go down. Actually, that's a terrible comparison, because there is no clear cure here.

It's certainly a twisty and harrowing read, but to what end? I actually felt more despondent over the state of the world after I turned the final page.

Love Nora + Avis though, and some of Nora's grief-related stuff is super-relatable, especially in these dystopian pandemic times. ( )