Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on a run, to never get a minute of rest, to constantly look over your shoulder, wondering if every breath will be your last? Nora, the main protagonist of The Girls I’ve Been, has exactly that life. After being born to a con woman who excelled at the ‘sweetheart’ con, Nora’s life was never going to be normal. She started running the cons with her mother as soon as she was able to, still a little kid when her mother first gave her a new name and reinvented her into someone sweeter, quieter, someone befitting her mark. Six years of dangerous cons, entangling with dangerous men, and shedding her former identities like last season’s fashion. Rebecca, Samantha, Haley, Katie, and Ashley; all girls who could keep her mother comfortable, each one teaching the girl inside something new.
“Girls like me, we prepare for the storm.”
After she finally escapes the endless cons with help from her estranged sister, she finally gets a chance to live, but in hiding, yet live nonetheless. But as Nora, the girl who was here to stay and to be safe in this new, mundane life with her sister, gets taken hostage in a bank robbery, and it seems that her cover might collapse. She would do anything to save the people in the bank with her, the people she loves most, her girlfriend Iris and her ex-boyfriend turned best friend Wes. Even if it’s by revealing who she really is to the dark underworld which knows the story of an escaped stepdaughter turned snitch of a powerful criminal. Can she keep her secrets and save the new reality she carved out for herself or will the past catch up with her yet?
The Girls I’ve Been is, at its core, a story of survival. It’s about going through the most horrible events and coming out battered and bruised, with memories that will plague your mind till your dying day, but surviving. Nora said it best in one of her many insightful moments, where we got to learn her story piece by piece:
“I hate the whole ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ saying. It’s bullshit. Sometimes what doesn’t kill you is worse. Sometimes what kills you is preferable. Sometimes what doesn’t kill you messes you up so bad it’s always a fight to make it through what you’re left with. What didn’t kill me didn’t make me stronger; what didn’t kill me made me a victim. But I made me stronger. I made me a survivor.”
Nora’s tale starts strong, with her and her friends being taken hostage, and the wild rollercoaster ride doesn’t let out until the very end. There are a lot of time jumps as we move from the bank robbery to Nora’s many past experiences and the cons she’s led with her mother, and this format works perfectly with the story. It reveals little bits and pieces of Nora’s life to the reader without being info dumpy or too heavy. Some small parts are kept a secret till the very last chapters, building up the anticipation and ending on just the twist this story needed for it to work as amazingly as it did.
The Girls I’ve Been presents us with a beautiful trio of friends that are a perfect example of a found family, all with their own scars (physical and metaphorical), but determined to stay by each other. Throughout this high-stakes robbery, the trio is forced to face the ugliest truths and deep-buried secrets, opening up little by little even if it hurts in order to work together as best they can and survive the predicament they’ve found themselves in. Through it all, the author kept a steady hand, dealing with the traumatic experiences of their pasts with sensitivity without minimising the extent of the influence they had on their lives and mental health. One of the most important things was the ease with which therapy was discussed because while we do live in a world that is more open to issues regarding mental health, getting help and going to therapy is still sometimes treated as taboo, and Nora and her older sister Lee having a therapist was written in as something completely ordinary, which it is.
This book is full of quotes and moments that will bring tears to your eyes, that will make you scream in rage at the unfairness of the world, that will make you question how our society still treats women. As Nora deals with her past, in tiny bursts of pain and acceptance, she gives the reader a chance to feel what she feels and see all she’s been through.
“I see the steel wrapped in fear that all little girls find on the spike-strewn road to womanhood.”
Sharpe masterfully told a story of survival while also weaving in beautiful friendships, a sapphic main relationship you will root for from the get-go, a medical condition (Iris’s endometriosis), and many witty remarks that will make you laugh out loud even in the direst of scenes. A beautiful ode to the strength and an elegy to the infinite struggles of women, The Girls I’ve Been will hook you from the start and make you think about Nora and her story long after you’ve closed the book.
Now, go do yourself a favour and pick up this heart-wrenching story about con artists, bank robbery, life on the run, and of course, hope and love, before the Netflix adaptation (with the talented Millie Bobby Brown as Nora) hits our little screens! You won’t want to miss it!
The Girls I’ve Been is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A slick, twisty YA page-turner about the daughter of a con artist who is taken hostage in a bank heist.
Nora O’Malley’s been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother’s protégé. But when mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape.
For five years Nora’s been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:
#1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they’re all friends, Wes didn’t know about her and Iris.
#2: The morning after Wes finds them kissing, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised at the bank. It’s a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly, because:
#3: Right after they enter bank, two guys start robbing it.
The bank robbers may be trouble, but Nora’s something else entirely. They have no idea who they’re really holding hostage…
