Winner of the Golden Kite Award

A raw, gripping, authentic, and boldly original novel about a fifteen-year-old Texas girl set to stand trial for murder—and the one person who might be able to help her clear her name.

A wealthy businessman is dead, and fifteen-year-old Ruby Monroe is in a Dallas jail awaiting trial for his murder. Ruby has no one she can count on—no one, except her state-appointed caseworker, a woman named Cadence Ware. In Ruby’s experience, that’s not anyone she can trust.

Cadence is familiar with the cold reality of Ruby’s situation, even before Ruby was arrested. Angry and alone, homeless and hungry, breaking the law just to survive, she is the kind of girl no one wants to listen to, especially not the prosecutor who wants to put her away for life.

But no one knows the story—the real story—of what happened the day Ruby met the man who would end up dead. As the layers of truth are peeled away and time is running out, Ruby and Cadence will both have desperate choices to make—choices that could mean the difference between Ruby spending her life in prison or her name being cleared.

Told through a collection of letters, meeting notes, news articles, court transcripts, and more, Girls Like Her is a riveting and unflinching tale of the truths so often lost in the American justice system, and one girl’s fight to be heard.

But in a case this explosive, can the truth survive the trial?

Epistolary Novel: Experience Ruby’s story through her own letters, revealing court transcripts, and explosive news articles that piece together a case where everyone has a version of the truth.
Self-Defense or Murder?: Fifteen-year-old Ruby Monroe says she was protecting herself. The prosecutor is determined to paint her as a cold-blooded killer. The verdict will depend on who the jury believes.
Sex Trafficking: A gripping and honest look at the hidden realities of exploitation and the impossible choices a girl is forced to make when survival is the only option.
A Flawed Justice System: With only her caseworker Cadence Ware in her corner, Ruby must fight a system designed to ignore girls like her—homeless, alone, and without a voice.