The Girls I've Been

The Girls I've Been opens with an awkward trip to deposit a check at the bank. Nora is muddling through with her girlfriend Iris and her ex-boyfriend Wes. Thirty seconds later, they're hostages in a bank robbery. That's when we begin to find out who Nora really is. Or rather, who Nora has been. Nora's mom is a con artist. Throughout her childhood, Nora was involved in different cons orchestrated by her mom. In each of them, she was assigned a specific role to play. A new sense of style, a new personality, a new name. Eventually Nora managed to escape, but she is far from safe. But she also has a lot of experience doing what it takes to survive—defying the odds and making tough choices to make it out of horrible circumstances alive. And that is what Nora spends the book doing: trying again and again to survive.This will probably come as no surprise, but this book is dramatic and intense. It covers heavy topics such as sexual abuse, domestic violence, and endometriosis. It ends with a list of crisis line numbers, which I took as an indication that the author understands both the weight of these issues, and that sometimes young people are faced with trauma no kid should have to live through. The book does a good job at covering healing, therapy, and chosen/found family. It is a pretty unusual genre and premise for YA. I found the audiobook narrator grating and over the top at times, but I think I may just be getting old y'all.I'd recommend this to fans of [b:The Female of the Species 25812109 The Female of the Species Mindy McGinnis https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1455917180l/25812109.SY75.jpg 45668311] and [b:Sadie 34810320 Sadie Courtney Summers https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556559178l/34810320.SY75.jpg 56026767]—like The Girls I've Been, both are about fiercely loyal sisters. Also [b:No Exit 39938177 No Exit Taylor Adams https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1541624527l/39938177.SY75.jpg 56940541] and [a:Kristen Lepionka 15613182 Kristen Lepionka https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1480818152p2/15613182.jpg].