Catship reviewed I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers
Hard to stomach
Content warning Meta discussion of violence in the story
I think this is a good story. But I wish I hadn't read it, I wish I'd stopped listening when it became clear that this is another "it's abuse all the way down" kind of book. I've had too many of those recently, and it's not a great time for them. Almost all comfort in this is treacherous and almost all opportunities are traps waiting to close. There's tons of detailed descriptions of violence.
I appreciate Courtney Summers' stories, and I am perpetually surprised by the praise she gets for writing "unlikable" girls. Her characters navigate the violence they are surrounded by and subjected to in the ways they can, and I think there's a misogynist cruelty in even bringing likeability into the picture.
