“I’m the Girl” by Courtney Summers

Description: “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?”

Review: This is one of the few thrillers I’ve read where the actual murder isn’t the main storyline of the book. The story mostly focuses on 16 year old Georgia, the girl who discovers the murdered body of a 13 year old girl. At the center of the story is Georgia’s tumultuous relationship with her deceased mother and her desire to be seen and wanted. Georgia wants to get out of her circumstances and thinks that using her beauty and body is the only way. Georgia dreams of being a model or an actress and believes any man who tells her she can. Georgia wants to be loved and paid attention to but she doesn’t always go about it the right away. Georgia finds herself in need of money and starts working at an exclusive club for the rich & famous. Georgia strives to be noticed no matter the cost.

I liked Georgia’s relationship with Nora. Their friendship stars off a little odd with Nora being the sister to the murdered girl but it quickly grew into a genuine, intimate relationship. I wish their relationship continued to grow but I understand why it couldn’t. Georgia doesn’t always live in reality and Nora helped to ground her.

Georgia has an interesting relationship with her sexuality. She knows she’s beautiful and she wants others to tell her so. She’s very aware that she’s attracted to women, not men, but she seeks out the attention and approval of men and women. There’s an underlying theme of grooming and it shows how the wealthy are able to manipulate things. All of the men are power hungry predators and Georgia is their pray. I had a hard time with Georgia’s physical relationships with men. She claims that since she’s attracted to women it doesn’t matter but of course it does. My heart broke for this teenage girl.

I did find myself getting annoyed by Georgia. I wanted to shake her and tell her to “wake up.” She did a lot of naïve, and even worse, degrading things just to feel wanted and beautiful. I wanted her to realized that she doesn’t need male attention to be beautiful.

At times the book was uncomfortable to read but that was the point. I believe that Courtney Summers is trying to make you feel uncomfortable and have you contemplate things outside of your normal life. It certainly evoked a lot of feelings in me. This book pushes the envelope in a good way.

Without giving away any spoilers, I didn’t 100% guess the ending but I had a general idea. I thought it was pretty obvious from the start where the book was headed but there were some twists that threw me off and kept me guessing.

Audiobook Review: I thought the audiobook was well done. I enjoyed the narrator’s tone, speed and inflections. I think the narrator, Lori Prince, did a great job of adding to the story.

*please note that I received an advanced copy of the audiobook from NetGalley and Macmillian Audio in exchange for an honest review.