The Girl Who by Andreina Cordani was published on January 14th by Atom Books and I have the pleasure of sharing my review for this fantastic YA psychological thriller as part of the blog tour.
About the book
The girl who… inspires
The girl who… has something to hide
People can’t bring themselves to say what happened to her. They just describe her as ‘the girl who… you know…’. But nobody really knows, no one sees the real Leah.
Leah is the perfect survivor. She was seven years old when she saw her mother and sister killed by a troubled gang member. Her case hit the headlines and her bravery made her a national sweetheart: strong, courageous and forgiving.
But Leah is hiding a secret about their deaths. And now, ten years later, all she can think of is revenge.
When Leah’s dad meets a new partner, stepsister Ellie moves in. Sensing Leah isn’t quite the sweet girl she pretends to be, Ellie discovers that Leah has a plan, one she has been putting together ever since that fateful day. Now that the killer – and the only one who knows the truth – is being released from prison, time is running out for Ellie to discover how far Leah will go to silence her anger .
My thoughts
I’ve not read a lot of ya books but the ones I have read have been very romance based so reading The Girl Who was a very pleasant surprise as it’s a psychological thriller that deals with some very serious issues with not a love heart in sight.
Told from three different perspectives we get to know the characters well. Boyd aka Crow is the teenager who is very mentally disturbed, so much so he kills a mother and her daughter.
Leah is the survivor, it’s her mother and younger sister who were brutally murdered when she was young and shes now known as ‘the girl who’ because no one knows how to finish that sentence.
Ellie is bright and bubbly, she wants to be famous and loves her glitter. She recently moved in with Leah as her Mum and Leah’s Dad are soon to be married.
I really enjoyed getting inside each characters mind, what you see on the surface is often not true and it’s easy to put a mask on and be what others want you to be, especially in Leah’s case. The author has done a fantastic job of really letting us get inside their minds and showing us their hidden feelings and thoughts and by doing so I felt a real sympathy for each of them, even Boyd. I would never condone what he did but he’s a very troubled teenager.
This was a quick read, I found I was totally hooked from the first page and although I wanted to get to a conclusion quickly I really didn’t want it to end. I said previously this is a ya book but I really think this would appeal to any age and the author has dealt with the serious issues with sensitivity.
It’s such a good read, it has suspense and a tension that builds and builds. I wasn’t sure how it would end and it could have went any number of ways but I was pleased it ended the way it did.
This is a fantastic debut and I’m super excited to see what Andreina Cordani has up her sleeve next. I’ll definitely be recommending The Girl Who, it’s a cracker.
time to write a book and dedicate it to her gym teacher. Sadly it took years of exercise-dodging before she was able to complete The Girl Who…, and she hasn’t been able to touch her toes since 2002.
In the following years, she pursued a career in journalism, working for women’s magazines including Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping. Specialising in ‘real life’ stories, she interviews seemingly ordinary people about their extraordinary lives – most of which you wouldn’t believe if you read it in a novel.
She lives on the Dorset coast with her family where she reads voraciously, watches YouTubers with increasing fascination and swims in the sea.
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