Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback!

I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers tells the heartbreaking story of Georgia Avis, a local sixteen-year-old girl who lives in a seemingly normal town, who finds the body of a young girl in the woods that has been killed. Unfortunately, Georgia came across the scene right as the perpetrator was leaving, and they hit her with their car, knocking her unconscious and unable to remember any events from the day.

As the town goes on high alert and the investigation begins, Georgia is working through her own trauma of finding the girl and the guilt she feels not being able to help law enforcement with her memory loss. She tries to get "back to normal" by taking a job at Aspera, a local elite club, where she has always dreamed of working. It's the perfect position for her, until it's not, and Georgia finds herself thrown into a world or money and greed and power at such a young age. As she tries to navigate this new world, Georgia realizes that the people at Aspera are more involved in the investigation than she thinks, and tries her best to help find out what's really going on behind closed doors.

This book is in the YA genre, but it had a ton of adult content in it that was difficult for me to read at age 30. I would recommend this one to readers 18&up for sure. This book involves grooming and sexual assault that you need to prepare yourself for before reading. It's difficult to get through, but books like these are necessary because we have to keep working towards a world where people believe sexual assault survivors and the perpetrators are brought to light and punished accordingly.

I had a hard time categorizing this book because I didn't think it was really a thriller or a romance. I'm honestly not sure what I would call it, but I do know there were very confusing parts where I would have to go back and read because there wouldn't be any indication of which character was speaking. I also thought that the conclusion and investigation ending were rushed and a little underwhelming. It was such a huge reveal and I wish there was more of a wrap-up at the end.

I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to a friend. Thank you again to NetGalley, Courtney Summers, and St. Martin's Press for letting me read it!

This was a decent read, I didn’t love it but didn’t hate it either. It did fall a little flat for me though.

Having read many of Courtney Summers' work, this one was perhaps my least favorite. I felt the story was so stretched out and vague that not many big things happened and then it sort of...ended. The ending was predictable and overall, the main character I found to be very naive, even for a young adult.

Nope nope nope.

From the description, it sounds like it is going be a mystery, but it's clear what is going on in this book very early, so much so that it is unbearably frustrating how willfully ignorant the main character is behaving. And I knew that this book would probably be dark, but it is GRAPHIC. It is supposed to feel uncomfortable, and I know the juxtaposition between how the reader sees the scenes vs the protagonist's interpretation is intentional, but it goes too far, to the point where it feels like the plot is reveling in the abuse of this young girl.

This book is marketed for teens, and I'm not ever one to advocate for censoring or restricting reading materials, but even I would not intentionally give this book to a teenager. Who was this written for?

To summarize: minimal plot, graphic sexual abuse, repetitive writing. Would not recommend.

Anyone who has read Summers' previous work know that she is not one to shy away from writing stories focusing on difficult subject matter. I'm The Girl is no exception.

This bold, hard hitting and timely thriller follows sixteen year old Georgia after she discovers the lifeless body of a young teen girl in the woods. She teams up with the victim's older sister to track down the killer before he strikes again.What Georgia finds out might reveal more than she's ready to confront.

A truly powerful story by a masterful storyteller giving a voice to those seldom heard. Summers' writing flows so effortlessly that you're pulled in from the start and are gasping for air until the very last page. I finished this one with tears streaming down my face so be warned that it may do the same for you.

Please be sure to check trigger warnings due to the subject matter in this one. If you are one that appreciates an atmospheric, boundary pushing female narrative, and stories that will stick with you long after you are finished reading be sure not to miss this!!

I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers is absolutely gripping and will have you flipping the pages at record speed. A book centered around one vicious world ruled by money and power. This book is so thought provoking.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, St Martin Press and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review in exchange for my honest review. My favorite reading experience is reading along with the audiobook. It truly brings the story to life for me and I couldn’t have binged this story any faster.

This book is full of hard topics. I suggest checking for trigger warnings before going into this one. Sexual assault and grooming being the BIGGEST of these. It was hard to read at times but beautifully written if that makes sense.
This book was painful but such a great powerful read.

DNF for me.

It took me a few chapters to realize I had no idea what was going on and it just didn't make sense to me.

I'll try to pick it up again soon.

I was thrilled to receive an advance copy of I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. WOW just WOW! This book surprised me and was REALLY good. I was totally pulled in from page one and had trouble figuring out what was going to happen. There were so many twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end. Can't wait to read more by this author.

I absolutely love Summers' writing and this story was no exception. It's gripping right from the beginning and keeps your attention the entire time! With the perfect balance of stressful drama to enhance the plot, I was not ready for this book to end. A couple things seemed a bit predictable to me, so I took a star away, but overall this was a really great read. I can't wait to add this to my classroom bookshelves.

This book is a slower pace than I'm used to but overall it was a very good read. It's a very dark read with some triggers.

3.25 stars.

I love Courtney Summers other works but this one was a lot to get through, the ick factor was strong (which I understand was the feel that it was supposed to have) but I almost never wanted to pick it up and continue but when I did I loved it. Always looking forward to more that Courtney writes.

This is the third book I have read from Courtney Summers. While I don't think this title was as good as Sadie, her most well-known piece, I did enjoy reading it. I'm The Girl was much darker than I was expecting and has graphic depictions of physical and sexual violence. If these topics are triggering for you, please be mindful of this before picking up the book. I ended up going with a three-star rating because I found the story to be a little slow at times and I don't think I would go out of my way to recommend this title to others unless they were already a fan of Summers' writing.

*1,5

I probably won’t be the only one who was excited to read this book after having read and loved Sadie. But sadly this book was a major letdown in every possible way.

Based on the synopsis I was expecting a completely different plot. I thought this would be a murder mystery, but the murder that happened in the book was merely a side plot that the main character did not care about at all.
The actual plot of this book was very boring and did not catch my attention at all. It felt repetitive and I got annoyed very quickly.

The characters were very unlikable but especially the main character was so annoying I did not care at all what happened to her. I was not invested in her or what was going on.

I get what the author was trying to do and I think it will work for many people but sadly I just did not vibe with this book at all.

I’m the Girl by Courtney Summers is a hard and uncomfortable read. It deals with Georgie who finds a 13 year old body and then gets hit by a car. She doesn’t remember much about that night but she teams up with Nora the older sister to find who the killer is. There are many triggers to this book so be advised before you get into this book and read it.

Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday books for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'M THE GIRL is one of those books that is just a gut punch of a read, which is something that Courtney Summers excels at. It isn't a book you're supposed to enjoy, but one of those books that is sure to anger, sadden and horrify you, and it's reflective of a subject in our world that should evoke the same in everyone. Reading Georgia's point of view was equal parts disturbing and compelling. Summers perfectly depicts the ways young girls fall prey to sexual abuse and how abusers groom their victims, especially young impressionable ones. It's something, while reading Georgia, that just breaks your heart. And it's so common in cases where children and teenagers, and even many adults, are set up to be abused by powerful people. The exclusivity of Aspera and it's members just reinforces the role that privilege, power and money make abuse possible and tends to provide a safe haven for abusers. Perhaps most disturbing was the role of women, especially the female role model that Georgia finds in Cleo and how complicit women can be in protecting sexual abusers. But yeah, this book is not your light read, but it is powerful. Shocking and feral, I'M THE GIRL is an excoriation of how girls are taken advantage of in a man's world and all the different factors that factor into it.

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

This was my worst read of 2022. It was slow, boring, uninteresting... I didn't like the MC. I didn't like any of the other characters.. for a thriller, it most definitely was not thrilling.

I disliked Sadie but this was worse.

I hope other people like it, but it was not for me.

2.5 stars - I know that the topic of this book is meant to make you feel sick, and shrunken down, and distressed. I expected that from the plot and what I assumed would be the larger conversation throughout the novel on the abuse of girls from men in power...however I didn't expect to be distressed by the MC so much. I can't believe the degree of lacking intelligence and common sense she was written with. She is one of the most entitled characters I've read and I hate that she was written like that given the severity of the topic (her motivations for what she did "I'm so beautiful", "I deserve to be THE girl", "No one knows me" felt so misplaced). The other thing that gets me is that she stayed quiet about the older scammers taking nude photos of her - after she hears that they did it to many other minors - out of sheer vain. She didn't want anyone to take the photos away from her. When in reality, so, so many girls/women stay quiet out of fear of being believed, hurt, threatened, etc. Not the book I thought Summers was going to write.

ANYWHO, I WOULD RECO 'SADIE' by Courtney Summers though, like for real that book is amazing and unbelievably impactful!

Intense and visceral, a searing indictment of these disturbing times. Summers has a way of cutting straight to the bone of the matter, not bothering to pretty it up. That's not to say she can't build a fantastic world, because she can and does. It just means her words are unapologetic, much like the titular girl of this novel. I can't say I loved this book, because it was extremely hard to read at times, but I appreciate it and feel it's important. 4 stars

This mind-blowing novel will keep you on the edge of your seat and will refuse to get out of your head. And in your head is where it should remain. Summers gives you a lot to think about and it should be required reading.