ARC Audio Review: Not Like Other Girls by Meredith Adamo

A girl risks everything to find her former best friend in this powerful debut mystery about trauma, girlhood, and what we deserve.

When Jo-Lynn Kirby’s former best friend—pretty, nice Maddie Price—comes to her claiming to be in trouble, Jo assumes it’s some kind of joke. After all, Jo has been an outcast ever since her nude photos were leaked—and since everyone decided she deserved it. There’s no way Maddie would actually come to her for help.

But then Maddie is gone.

Everyone is quick to write off Maddie as a runaway, but Jo can’t shake the feeling there’s more to the story. To find out the truth, Jo needs to get back in with the people who left her behind—and the only way back in is through Hudson Harper-Moore. An old fling of Jo’s with his own reasons for wanting to find Maddie, Hudson hatches a fake dating scheme to get Jo back into their clique. But being back on the inside means Jo must confront everything she’d rather forget: the boys who betrayed her, the whispers that she had it coming, and the secrets that tore her and Maddie apart. As Jo digs deeper into Maddie’s disappearance, she’s left to wonder who she’s really searching for: Maddie, or the girl she used to be.

Not Like Other Girls is a stunning debut that takes a hard look at how we treat young women and their trauma, through the lens of a missing girl and a girl trying to find herself again.⁴

Content warnings: rape (in the past, recounted on-page); sexual assault; sexual harassment; nonconsensual image sharing (more commonly known as revenge porn); victim blaming; slut shaming; physical assault; abduction; death (via car accident); references to blood and vomit; underage drinking and drug use. This book also features frank depictions of consensual sexual experiences.

My thoughts

Not Like Other Girls is more young adult fiction than a mystery or even a suspense thriller. Meredith Adamo doesn’t have Maddie go missing until Chapter Eight. The book mainly tells the story of Jo and how they got to where they are in their life. As you can see by the content warnings, she goes through some difficult times. She makes consensual choices for which her peers judge her for, but not the boys for in our patriarchal society.

Georgina Sadler does an excellent job narrating this story to include accents and tone. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to her as this is my first time listening to one of her reads.

I was anticipating a mystery and this part of Not Like Other Girls is disappointing. This unfortunately affects my review because I was expecting a mystery/suspense/thriller and what I got was a general fiction book with some romance thrown in. The story is too long and should have been edited to take out the filler.

I received an ARC of this book and I am writing a review without prejudice and voluntarily.

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Meet the Author

Meredith Adamo (she/her) is a YA author based in hot, humid North Carolina, but she’s originally from Rochester, New York, which is her favorite place on the planet. She likes to write about girls who can make you laugh and break your heart—ideally on the same page. Her non-writing interests include collecting vintage bakeware, crocheting the ugliest blankets you’ve ever seen, and grocery shopping.⁴

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