Bibliographic Information:
Title: The Girls I’ve Been
Author / Narrator: Tess Sharpe
Copyright Date: January 2021
Publisher: Listening Library
Listening Length: 9 hrs 48 mins
Reading Level / Interest Level: Min/Max grade levels 9-12 (Novelist). Genre / Format: Mystery, Thriller, First-Person Narrative / Audiobook
Themes: swindlers, grifting; hostage, bank robbery; bisexuality, relationships; emotional/physical abuse
Awards or Honors: None as of the publishing of this post.
Plot Summary: Nora has lived multiple lives to survive. Raised by her controlling, manipulative mother, Nora learned to live for the con, casting aside a sense of identity for a fabricated persona in order to swindle men across the country. For a while, this was all Nora knew. After years of grifting, running and lying, Nora finally manages to break free from her mother’s control and begins to live her life as a “normal” teenage girl. But after living and dying multiple lies, Nora knows better than to trust normal…
Now Nora is a teenager living with her older sister, Lee. With her con-artist years behind her, Nora is able to let her guard down and begin to learn to be herself: she makes friends, falls in love, and her circle of trust slowly starts to widen. Things begin to get complicated when Nora’s boyfriend, Wes, finds out that she has been lying about her past the entire time. Just when they were patching things up, things get more complex when Nora’s now-ex, walks in on Nora and their mutual friend, Iris, making out.
With their friendships strained and awkwardness in the air, the three friends go to the bank to deposit some money they helped raise for a charity. Before the trio can clear the air over some donuts, two gunmen enter the bank and hold everyone hostage! As Nora’s lies begin to unravel before her closest friends, she must come to terms with the past she’s been trying to bury while trying to keep her friendship intact. Nora must use her quick wits, clever mind, and iron resilience to con the bank robbers and survive. Nora may not have all of the skills necessary to make it through, but all the girls she’s been in the past have some advice for her. Each of these girls taught Nora a lesson on survival: now it’s time to put everything into practice to save not only herself, but her new friends as well.
Author Background: Tess Sharpe is an award-winning author who grew up in rural California. She is an author and an anthology editor who has written for children, teens, and adults (Penguin Random House, n.d.). Her body of work is diverse and ranges from children DC picture books, a Jurassic Park prequel novel, to dark, gritty adult fiction like Barbed Wire Heart. She resides in the backwoods with her dogs and feral cats (Sharpe, n.d.).
Critical Evaluation: This is a fast-paced, exciting, non-linear twisty thriller that is narrated by the author herself. As soon as the inciting incident occurs, the pressure kicks in and does not subside until the very end of the novel. The main characters are forced to think on the spot and react to dangerous situations on the fly. This kind of tension can be a bit exhausting for the listener, but the story is so captivating that you want to get to the end of the story to better understand why Nora is the way she is (conniving, witty, distrustful). The pace slows down a bit during the flashback chapters, giving the reader a bit of a break and providing the necessary context to empathize with Nora and her difficult upbringing.
You become so engrossed in the story partly because of how well it’s narrated by Tess Sharpe. I can totally visualize the flashback sequences where Nora and her mother are trying to con rich, powerful men. There is an uneasiness that comes through in the narrator's voice, because she knows how these interactions end. Tess Sharpe seamlessly switches from character to character, personality to personality. Even though the majority of the story takes place inside a bank, the world feels a lot more expansive. Because there aren’t many characters to keep track of, you get to know the different personalities that Nora has to adopt during her con-artist days. Tess Sharpe does a really good job of giving them all distinct voices and personalities while simultaneously weaving them all into the same person.
Overall, this is a great audiobook that is incredibly well-narrated by the author, who does a great job of making Nora feel like a real, complex person yearning for a genuine connection.
Creative Use for a Library Program:
Activity 1: All About Lists: The chapters in The Girls I’ve Been begin with a list of items that Nora has within reach at the start of a scenario. Throughout the chapter, she utilizes the items in various ways to plan her escape. On the theme of lists, teens will be asked to create a list of “the essential” items they must have with them at all times (think GQs “10 Things [insert celebrity name] Can’t Live Without”).
Activity 2: Library Escape Room: The library will convert the meeting room into an “escape room” in which a group of teens must work together to find clues to escape.
Activity 3: Food: Alligator Po’ Boys: In the novel, Nora’s criminal stepfather likes to chop the fingers off of his enemies and feeds them to the alligators. At the end of the escape room activity, teens will be treated to alligator po’boys to celebrate their escape!
Speed-Round Book Talk or Short Book Trailer:
Nora…
After dancing so long on tilted ground, Nora finally experiences a slice of normalcy: she falls in love, breaks up, falls in love again, and begins to finally find herself.
Ashley, Nora…
But normal doesn’t last very long. Nora’s newfound happiness begins to unravel as her lies fall apart and her persona begins to crack. Before she could hold all the pieces in place and maintain the lie, Nora, her ex, and her new girlfriend are held hostage at a bank robbery.
Haley, Katie, Ashley, Nora…
Now Nora must dig through the past she was trying to bury, the names she was trying to forget, to find a way out of certain death. The two gunmen may be dangerous, but Nora is a survivor and this is not her first time coming face to face with evil men.
Rebecca, Samantha, Haley, Katie, Ashley, Nora…
And Nora knows evil men don’t have much patience, so she’s ready to use everything at her disposal, including her past selves, to save her friends.
Potential Challenge Issues and Defense Preparation: The Girls I’ve Been is a story of a girl overcoming her trauma. A good portion of the novel revolves around the main character surviving abuse: physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Some parents may not like the fact that books covering these sensitive topics are made available to young readers. I would argue that the story’s message is empowering: abuse is never the victim’s fault and the abuse does not define them. With time, support, and love the healing process can begin and one can continue living their life, free from the shadow of trauma.
Reason for Inclusion: This is a great listen; the author does a fantastic job of narrating the story and giving a slightly different voice to all the characters. Nora is clearly in charge but Tess Sharpe does a good job of expressing hints of doubt and frustration in Nora’s voice as she begins to lose control of the situation. The plot is fast-paced but the audiobook is high quality and incredibly easy to listen to; you have to find out how it ends!
The Girls I've Been is set to receive a film adaptation through Netflix, starring Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown as the lead (Kroll, 2020). There will likely be an uptick in interest in this novel when the film adaptation is released.
The Girls I've Been Official Book Trailer
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