3.5 rounded up because what I didn’t like about it (the obnoxiously edgy protagonist) is someone teens (the YA target audience) are likely to enjoy/empathize with. As an adult reader who normally avoids the genre because of this trope, it wouldn’t be fair to penalize the book for a genre convention I dislike.

Premise - Jo’s ex-best friend, Maddie, disappears after a humiliating college admissions snafu. While it starts out as a crime investigation, everyone soon believes she ran away. Everyone but Jo. Now Jo and her former (maybe not so former) crush, Hudson, set out to get to the bottom of things.

This is a heavy story - it deals with sexual assault, rape, revenge porn featuring minors, statutory rape, grooming, the dangers of seeking male approval, and the dangers of believing being ‘not like the other girls’ is a real thing and a good thing. It really drove home how unhealthy it is to isolate yourself from a group (in this case the protagonist leaning into her label as ‘not like other girls’ because of internalized misogyny).

The story executes what it sets out to do well, but it’s very high on the angst and is too much of a downer to read on a rainy day. I’d definitely recommend saving this for when you’re in the mood/space for a book that’s a bummer for a significant portion (a well-written bummer, to be fair, and it ends with hope).

Thanks, NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Audio / Bloomsbury YA for this ALC! 

5/5 ⭐️ 
Release Date: 30 Apr 2024

📖: Coming-of-age, fake dating, mystery
🎧: Georgina Sadler

Jo is a bit of a high school loner, but she wasn't always. She used to be a guy’s girl and had somewhat of a flirty personality. However, this all changed when her private photos leaked from a supposed friend. She now walks the hallways, hearing whispers and slut-shaming. One day, her ex-best friend Maddie approaches Jo for help, and then Maddie disappears overnight. Jo feels there is more to Maddie's disappearance and decides to team up with her former friend, Hudson, to discover the truth.

This was incredible! Not Like Other Girls explores the nuances of high school and life as a woman. Adamo dives into how views of women can flip on a dime, and blame usually shifts to them. After Jo’s leaked photos, peers made assumptions about her. She was labeled a slut, a whore, and other degrading names. 

Adamo’s portrayal of Jo made you feel for her and the treatment and support, or lack thereof, that she received. It made you root for her, which made it so enjoyable when she ultimately found herself and her voice. Georgina Sadler also did an amazing job enhancing this story. Not Like Other Girls was an amazing coming-of-age story, and I highly recommend it!

The trouble with girls like Jo is that they always ruin a good thing, they just want attention, that screwing up comes so easily… or at least that’s what she’s been told.

In the beginning of this book, I thought I’d be writing a review about how much I loved reading a thrilling mystery that had a fake-dating trope and kept me laughing, but as the story progressed, I realized I was reading a book that was going to impact me for the rest of my life. Now, no matter what I write in this review could truly do this book justice.

When we are introduced to Jo, she is described as being a troublesome girl with bad grades who has made some bad decisions that’s got her labeled as the school “slut”. As the story unravels, we learn that Jo’s life is not all what it seems & there were a lot of unsettling outside factors that have resulted in this reputation. While the story progresses, Jo's ex-bestie goes missing, and while it's labeled as a "runaway girl" to the media, there's actually a much bigger story behind it with multiple conspiracies. The end result was nothing I saw coming.

Far too many women are going to relate to Jo's overall story, including trying to get her parents attention, how much she doubts herself because of other people, and her just wanting to be liked.

Reading the author's note at the end was so special. I'm grateful to Meredith for sharing her story through Jo and feel an immense amount of healing from this.

I loved the audiobook for this. I had recently listened to the audiobook for "Begin Again" by Emma Lord that is done by the same narrator and she's quickly becoming a favorite.

I hate to say this is yet another prep-school experience gone wrong mystery, because while the focus of the story is solving the disappearance of Jo-Lynn's former BFF Maddie and the unraveling of her past, the real story is of Jo-Lynn coming to terms with things that happened TO her and finding her missing support system. This one feels like it's for all the girls who have had to change themselves just to protect themselves from the bad behavior of boys.

TW: Sexual assault, revenge porn

Great audio narration.