not like other girls
young adult mystery
A girl risks everything to find her former best friend in this powerful debut mystery about trauma, girlhood, and what we deserve.
%20(1).png)
2025 William C. Morris Debut Award Winner
The Southern Book Prize Young Readers Winner
2025 Rise: A Feminist Book Project List Selection
Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction 2024
BookPage Best Young Adult Book of 2024
ABA May/June 2024 Kids' Indie Next List
SIBA 2024 March/April Kids Read This Next! Pick
Bookshop Best of YA 2024: Thrillers, Mysteries and Horror
Kirkus Most Anticipated Book of 2024
Indigo Best Book of 2024
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.
“A superbly crafted, timely, and enthralling mystery that unflinchingly examines the painful realities of being a teenage girl. Meredith Adamo's debut is a stunner.”
―Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of GIRL IN PIECES and THE AGATHAS
“Brave, witty, and razor-sharp, Not Like Other Girls is a gut-punch of a debut.”
―Jessica Goodman, New York Times bestselling author of THE LEGACIES and THE COUNSELORS
“Powerful, brilliantly plotted, voicey, gripping, beautiful, heart-wrenching, hilarious. . . . Not Like Other Girls is a blistering indictment of the numerous ways our society fails young women, wrapped in a twisting, gripping mystery about a missing girl. Read this book.”
―Liz Lawson, New York Times bestselling author of THE AGATHAS, THE NIGHT IN QUESTION, THE LUCKY ONES, and MURDER BETWEEN FRIENDS
“Occasionally you crack open a book to find yourself blown away by the searing honesty of the voice, the sharpness of the prose, and the authenticity of the characters. Not Like Other Girls is one of these rare finds; I am incredibly excited for readers to discover Meredith Adamo.”
―Kit Frick, author of THE REUNION and I KILLED ZOE SPANOS
“A deep dive into the complexities of being a girl . . . Heartbreakingly real, with a flawed narrator who attempts to untangle the braid of herself—the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
―Mindy McGinnis, author of A LONG STRETCH OF BAD DAYS and THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES