[Review] I'm the Girl - Courtney Summers

Summary: All sixteen-year-old Georgia Avis wants is everything, but the poverty and hardship that defines her life has kept her from the beautiful and special things she knows she deserves. When she stumbles upon the dead body of thirteen-year-old Ashley James, Georgia teams up with Ashley's older sister Nora, to find the killer before he strikes again, and their investigation throws Georgia into a glittering world of unimaginable privilege and wealth--and all she's ever dreamed. But behind every dream lurks a nightmare, and Georgia must reconcile her heart's desires with what it really takes to survive. As Ashley's killer closes in and their feelings for one another grow, Georgia and Nora will discover when money, power, and beauty rule, it's not always a matter of who is guilty but who is guiltiest--and the only thing that might save them is each other.

I’m the Girl is a brutal and illuminating 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? (Pub Date: Sep 13 2022)

 

I wanted to classify it as YA, but I think the themes are too dark. It's from the view of a teenager, her logic is very much like one, but I feel this is targeted at adults. 

The summary doesn't lie when it calls the account brutal. Georgia was in the middle of big trouble because of some photos she paid to take, giving her brother's money for it, when she finds the body of another girl. She's always been mesmerized by a fancy resort where her mother, a former and wronged employee never let her go, and the discovery of the body gives her the chance to get closer to the couple who owns the place.

This book tried to be too much. From the beginning, it makes us too many promises, but the delivery is underwhelming. It's hard to relate to Georgia because... how can she be so stupid? Even though I feel many teenagers are fooled into doing the things she ends up doing along the story, I still can't believe that is enough to fool her. But it wasn't just that or the lack of any character I really cheered for or against. I felt like the style of the book was trying to fool me as well. And it did in the beginning. Because it turned out to be just too shallow. The relationships seem forged, and you wonder: there'll be an explanation. Sometimes, the author attempts one, but it doesn't convince. But other times, there is nothing. The whole thing is just weird.

Summers's style does manage to put you in a different state, it transports you to the world of the book, of Georgia's mind. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to suspend my beliefs.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.