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A review by megsbookishtwins
What Kind of Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel
4.0
Disclaimer: I received a copy free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
It all started when a girl showed up to school one day with a bruise on her face. She decides enough is enough and she accuses the golden boy – Mike Parker – of hitting her, and it wasn’t the first time. Soon, everyone is taking sides. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone wants the truth. Everyone is asking, why did she stay so long if he was hurting her? Should he be expelled? Is it actually true? Some people believe her, some people don’t. But everyone does agree on one thing – someone has to face the consequences.
Trigger warnings: abuse, drug use, bulimia, anxiety, graphic depictions of self-harm.
What Kind of Girl had a very interesting and powerful narrative format. It packed a heavier punch than I was expecting in all honesty. It was raw, emotional, and a little jarring. We followed numerous unnamed narrators – ‘the abused girlfriend’, ‘the bulimic’, ‘the popular girl’, ‘the cool girl’, ‘the burnout’, ‘the anxious girl’. We follow these girls as they attempt to navigate the fall-out from the abuse allegation.
“We may suffer alone, but we survive together.”
What Kind of Girl delved deep into abuse. It explored societal reaction to abuse allegations, but I think it what it did best was exploring how some abuse victims feel. Constantly questioning herself, whether she viewed the situation right, whether she ‘deserved’ it, whether she being too harsh or too dramatic, whether he still loves her, whether she still loves him. But ultimately it ends on a positive note, and it handled abuse and the aftermath in a powerful but sensitive way.
“Plenty of women never tell. They don’t come forward and say their boyfriends are hitting them. They find thicker cover-up and better cover stories. They opened a cabinet and a mug fell on their faces. They walked into a doorknob in the middle of the night. Sure, it’s completely implausible-why would anyone be eye-level with a doorknob?-but that’s what women in the movies say. They cover for the men in their lives, at least at first. Eventually, the woman stands up for herself and says: Enough.“
What Kind of Girl doesn’t just explore abuse, but it explores anxiety, self-harm, and bulimia as well. I, personally, really loved the anxiety rep in this one. To everyone, our anxious girl is viewed as the cool girl. She seems confident, capable, outspoken, and she seems as though she has everything together but really she suffers from extreme anxiety, she overthinks about every conversation, every interaction. She has to practice and rehearse everything she says. Everyone thinks everything comes easy to her but really everything is so so difficult. It’s a constant battle. I really appreciated this rep – I really related. For our character, this leads to quite bad self-harm and it can be quite graphic at times so if this is a trigger for you please proceed with caution.
Also, there is a f/f romance in What Kind of Girl, it is between one of the protagonists and a side character, it’s a small part of the book but it’s there!
What Kind of Girl is really about how we are more than what we show to the world. We are multifaceted. We all have secrets and insecurities and you never know what someone is truly going through because we don’t always live in a society or culture that is accepting of anyone different, or anyone struggling, or anyone who isn’t neurotypical.
It all started when a girl showed up to school one day with a bruise on her face. She decides enough is enough and she accuses the golden boy – Mike Parker – of hitting her, and it wasn’t the first time. Soon, everyone is taking sides. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone wants the truth. Everyone is asking, why did she stay so long if he was hurting her? Should he be expelled? Is it actually true? Some people believe her, some people don’t. But everyone does agree on one thing – someone has to face the consequences.
Trigger warnings: abuse, drug use, bulimia, anxiety, graphic depictions of self-harm.
What Kind of Girl had a very interesting and powerful narrative format. It packed a heavier punch than I was expecting in all honesty. It was raw, emotional, and a little jarring. We followed numerous unnamed narrators – ‘the abused girlfriend’, ‘the bulimic’, ‘the popular girl’, ‘the cool girl’, ‘the burnout’, ‘the anxious girl’. We follow these girls as they attempt to navigate the fall-out from the abuse allegation.
“We may suffer alone, but we survive together.”
What Kind of Girl delved deep into abuse. It explored societal reaction to abuse allegations, but I think it what it did best was exploring how some abuse victims feel. Constantly questioning herself, whether she viewed the situation right, whether she ‘deserved’ it, whether she being too harsh or too dramatic, whether he still loves her, whether she still loves him. But ultimately it ends on a positive note, and it handled abuse and the aftermath in a powerful but sensitive way.
“Plenty of women never tell. They don’t come forward and say their boyfriends are hitting them. They find thicker cover-up and better cover stories. They opened a cabinet and a mug fell on their faces. They walked into a doorknob in the middle of the night. Sure, it’s completely implausible-why would anyone be eye-level with a doorknob?-but that’s what women in the movies say. They cover for the men in their lives, at least at first. Eventually, the woman stands up for herself and says: Enough.“
What Kind of Girl doesn’t just explore abuse, but it explores anxiety, self-harm, and bulimia as well. I, personally, really loved the anxiety rep in this one. To everyone, our anxious girl is viewed as the cool girl. She seems confident, capable, outspoken, and she seems as though she has everything together but really she suffers from extreme anxiety, she overthinks about every conversation, every interaction. She has to practice and rehearse everything she says. Everyone thinks everything comes easy to her but really everything is so so difficult. It’s a constant battle. I really appreciated this rep – I really related. For our character, this leads to quite bad self-harm and it can be quite graphic at times so if this is a trigger for you please proceed with caution.
Also, there is a f/f romance in What Kind of Girl, it is between one of the protagonists and a side character, it’s a small part of the book but it’s there!
What Kind of Girl is really about how we are more than what we show to the world. We are multifaceted. We all have secrets and insecurities and you never know what someone is truly going through because we don’t always live in a society or culture that is accepting of anyone different, or anyone struggling, or anyone who isn’t neurotypical.