If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

If I Was Your Girl

by Meredith Russo

Selected as the launch title for the Zoella Book Club. Amanda Hardy is the new girl at school. Like everyone else, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is holding back. Even from Grant, the guy she's falling in love with. Amanda has a secret. At her old school, she used to be called Andrew. And secrets always have a way of getting out...

Reviewed by Leigha on

3 of 5 stars

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A young woman learns to embrace herself in this coming-of-age Young Adult novel.

Let's start with the major difference between this book and most other books in this category - the transgender protagonist. I really liked Amanda's story, particularly the snippets of her former life interspersed with the current timeline. As someone inexperienced with transgender people, the timeline helped to provide me details to better understand the character. The ending seemed genuine for the protagonist. Additionally, I appreciated the author's note at the end of the novel speaking specifically about the transgender experience being unique to each individual.

Other than an interesting protagonist, I found the rest of the novel disappointing. The setting was not well constructed. It very much felt like the town of Lambertville, TN didn't exist until Amanda arrived. I enjoyed most of the female friendships, although I would have preferred them to be more developed by the ending. Finally, I was not a fan of the love story. Grant, the love interest, didn't have much of a personality. The relationship between him and Amanda was the least interesting part of the novel.

tl;dr An interesting protagonist thrust into an uninteresting novel.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 26 December, 2016: Finished reading
  • 26 December, 2016: Reviewed