The Girl I Used To Be by April Henry: Book Review

Title:  The Girl I Used To Be
Author: April Henry
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Published Date: May 3rd 2016
Genre: YA, Mystery, Thriller
Page Count: 240
Format: Paperback

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
When Olivia's mother was killed, everyone suspected her father of murder. But his whereabouts remained a mystery. Fast forward fourteen years. New evidence now proves Olivia's father was actually murdered on the same fateful day her mother died. That means there's a killer still at large. It's up to Olivia to uncover who that may be. But can she do that before the killer tracks her down first?





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 My Review:

"My Name is Olivia Reinhart now. Ariel Benson- that girl doesn't exist anymore. But that doesn't mean she doesn't matter. That doesn't mean that she doesn't deserve justice, or that her parents don't deserve justice. And I'm the only one who can give it to her."

Olivia is a young woman who is living on her own, working and trying to save money to go to college. When new information comes out about her mother's murder, she decides to go back to her hometown and see if she can figure out exactly what happened. Once there she starts making friends with the locals and hiding her real identity until she can figure out who did it and why.

"Why did you have to leave me, why did they take you from me, why did they take everything, I miss you, I wish you were here, I love you, I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

I really liked most of the friendships she made along the way. As well as seeing things that she remembered from that night. The little information we got about what happened since her mother's murder and the age that the book starts, we get to see in bits and pieces throughout the book. We get to put together the pieces of what happened to her and we see that she is an incredible young woman who is trying to better her life and figure out what happened to those she loves.

I’ve loved so many of Henry’s other books that I was really excited when I heard the premise of this one. Sadly it seemed slightly rushed to me and I was never really scared for the main character. Yeah she had had a rough life since she was young, and I could see why she wanted a fresh start. But besides that the things that ended up falling into place for her and no one recognizing her besides one person didn’t seem realistic to me. I still want to read Henry’s future books as I have loved so many of her previous books.