Melanie Sumrow's "Girls Like Her"

Melanie Sumrow is the author of the novels The Inside Battle, a New York Public Library Best Pick, and The Prophet Calls, a Writers' League of Texas Award Finalist. Girls Like Her is her YA debut. Before becoming an author, she worked as a lawyer for more than 16 years, with many of her cases involving children and teens. She received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and lives in Dallas.

Here Sumrow dreamcasts an adaptation of Girls Like Her:

Girls Like Her is the story of a 15-year-old girl who is in jail awaiting trial for the murder of a wealthy businessman. But as you read Ruby’s story, you realize there is so much more to her than that. With the help of her assigned social worker, the layers of truth are peeled away to reveal what really happened the day Ruby met the man who would end up dead.

I relied heavily upon my experience as a lawyer to craft Ruby’s story and when I’m writing a new book, I often try to think of the stories that already exist in the space I’m working. In this case, if you liked books-turned-film series such as Defending Jacob, Orange is the New Black, Anatomy of a Scandal, and Monster, you will probably also enjoy Girls Like Her, which explores the truths so often lost in the American justice system and one girl’s fight to be heard.

I was recently asked who my dream casting would be if Ruby’s story was translated into film, which was something new for me. Typically as I’m writing, I think more of what’s on the inside of a character rather than their physical appearance. But after initially drawing a blank, I started to have fun with imagining what real people could play the characters that had lived in my head for so long.

Because Ruby is a teenager with an edge, an unreliable narrator who also has an unmistakable vulnerability, I would love to see what actors like Jenny Ortega, Abby Ryder Fortson or Sadie Sink could do to bring out that multi-dimensional part of her character.

For Ruby’s appointed defense lawyer, who is skilled and kind with the ability to see past Ruby’s tough shell, I thought Andrew Garfield, Chris Evans or Bradley Cooper would be natural choices.

Ruby’s dedicated caseworker, Cadence, has experienced hardship of her own and is one of the few people who truly understands everything Ruby has experienced. Thus, I would first look to Mira Sorvino to play Cadence, not only for her acute acting skills but also for her real-life role as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador to Combat Human Trafficking. Because trafficking is a huge part of Ruby’s story and is at the root of what brings her to a jail cell in Dallas, I believe an actor with an intricate understanding of that world would bring necessary depth to Cadence.

Of course there are other characters, but if I say too much more, it might give away spoilers which I would prefer to leave to my readers to discover on their own. Suffice it to say, it would be a dream of mine to witness a director take the raw material I have provided in Girls Like Her and see how they would translate Ruby’s story to the screen!

Visit Melanie Sumrow's website.

--Marshal Zeringue