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“If you’re looking for a queer YA contemporary book with complex characters, loads of action to keep you reading WAY past your bedtime — and a story so well written I might have shed a tear over it — you need to read The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe. It will keep you captivated until the last page.” —Culturess
Nora O'Malley's been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother's protégé. But when her mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape.
For five years Nora's been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:
#1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they're all friends, Wes didn't know about her and Iris.
#2: The morning after Wes finds them kissing, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised at the bank. It's a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly, because:
#3: Right after they enter the bank, two guys start robbing it.
The bank robbers may be trouble, but Nora's something else entirely. They have no idea who they're really holding hostage . . .
A FORBES, BUZZFEED, BOOK RIOT AND KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 26, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593400401
- File size: 282481 KB
- Duration: 09:48:30
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Lexile® Measure: 670
- Text Difficulty: 3
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Reviews
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November 30, 2020
Ex-grifter Nora O’Malley, who’s 18 and bisexual, finds herself in an uncomfortable situation after her ex-boyfriend Wes walks in on her kissing their mutual friend and her girlfriend, Iris. Before the three can work things out, they’re taken hostage during a bank robbery in their small California town—and there’s no guarantee they’ll make it out alive. In order to save Wes and Iris, Nora must confront and make use of a past she’s tried to leave behind. The first-person narrative gracefully shifts between Nora’s childhood as her con artist mother’s apprentice and the present, a structure that reinforces how inextricably the two are intertwined. Nora is a survivor of domestic, psychological, and sexual abuse, and was forced by her mother to adopt multiple identities, leaving her relationship with herself unsteady, and Sharpe (Barbed Wire Heart) focuses as much on her trauma—and the systems of power that enable and excuse abuse—as on mystery and heart-pounding action. Pacing is off in the book’s final act, somewhat undermining an otherwise affecting conclusion, but the small, complex cast of characters and emotional core make this a poignant thriller. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
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