Girls Like Me by Lola StVil - ADVISABLE

Girls Like Me by Lola StVil, 310 pages. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. $8.99

Language: PG13 (22 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: HS – ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Shay feels rejected by everyone outside of her two friends—even her stepmom and her dead dad aren’t there for her. And then Shay meets him online. They laugh, they argue, they confess. But meeting in person will change everything—won’t it?

While the story is a little predictable and cliché, StVil highlights the issues of low self-esteem and thinking that we are the only ones dealing with hardships. I think it’s powerful that Shay is strong when she chooses to see herself through the eyes of someone other than the bullies. We don’t have to listen to the bullies. StVil writes Shay’s story as a collection of poems and texts, which makes the book a quick read and, I think, more interesting to read with its poetic imagery permeating everything. The mature content rating of PG13 is for mentions of fondling, masturbation, and sex.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen