Thank you, Bloomsbury, for the opportunity to read this book! Unfortunately, this one wasn't for me.

~

So messy I couldn't enjoy it.

25% mystery // 75% other stuff

I feel like this book was trying to be so many different things at once, that it fell short of satisfying any one of them.. except for Jo and her story.

Take the "mystery" element out, and this could have actually been a really good emotional, teen drama.

But I came here for a mystery. Unfortunately, what I got was a frantic and overcrowded mix of trauma and drama with too-many-tropes-characters-and side stories-invited-to-the-party type thing.

*Twist mystery? Most of the book is spent on other things, so you will be forgiven for forgetting it's even a mystery.

When it does come back at the very end, it was so complicated and messy I couldn't enjoy it.

*Satisfying fake-dating? No, and also, whyyy? It was weird.
*Toxic friendship? No. We see almost none of it.
*Sizzling romance? No, but also, why is there meant to be any sizzling? What is this!?

So...many...characters. None who have any depth because how could they when they have to share the page time with so many others.

We have..

The older brother, the chef dad, the news anchor mum
The best, and only friend, Miles
The fake boyfriend, Hudson
The many used-to-be-friends, who were never really friends: Cody, Ben? I can't remember the others.
The Birds: Kathleen, Daniele, and whoever else
The flute player
The many teachers
The college program lady
The 2 journalists
The older guy

Oh yeah, and, the missing girl.. and her crazy mother.

The one thing it did do well was wading through Jo's past trauma. Jo made a good MC, she's sarcastic and snarky and full of self-deprecating thoughts, but does get tiring towards the end.

Jo-hyphen-Lynn is a funny and witty character that I genuinely found a lot of comfort in. Although I didn’t love the main plot of this story I still think all of the underlying sub plots are perfect.
•unfair treatment of young girls and their trauma
•Falling in love for the first time while learning how to be comfortable in your own skin
•Navigating toxic friendships and repairing relationships with your family
•over coming trauma and finding a healthy way to heal

After reading the authors notes I understand why
Jo-hyphen-Lynn’s trauma process feels real and raw. Meredith Adamo executed these plots with grace and I wish I had something like this to read at 17.

Overall this book was enjoyable and very easy to get into and I’m curious to see what else the author has in store.

In the authors note at the end of the story, she says that she's "never been very good at describing Not Like Other Girls" After reading it, I can honestly say that is a wildly true statement.
This is not my usual read at all. But was it still a winner? Abso-freaking-lutely!
This was an incredible read! It's classes as a young adult thriller and it absolutely is.
Layer after layer, the story kept unfolding. The characters layers kept going deeper and deeper. It was truly a shocking and captivating read.
I got sucked in so deep into the story I couldn't sit still. AMAZING READ.

I tried reading this book 3 times and each time never made it past 50 pages. It was just lacking the sucking me in from the start like I love.

This is a phenomenal debut. ‘Not Like Other Girls’ centres around Jo-Lynn who has withdrawn into herself after the leak of her nudes. Her grades plummet and she has one remaining friend. Then, her ex best friend goes missing. What follows is a series of discoveries, secrets, cover ups and lies, and a twisty mystery that just gets deeper and deeper.
The novel covers a lot of hard themes which are crucially important to young people and create a story of survival and of strength. For anyone who loves Karen McManus, this is such an exciting debut and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Meredith Adamo.