Title: The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
Author: Lauren James
Publication Date: July 3, 2018
Publisher: Walker Books
Pages: 290
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Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never met, never even spoken to – someone who is light years away?
Romy Silvers is the only surviving crew-member of a spaceship travelling to a new planet, on a mission to establish a second home for humanity amongst the stars. Alone in space, she is the loneliest girl in the universe until she hears about a new ship which has launched from Earth – with a single passenger on board. A boy called J.
Their only communication with each other is via email – and due to the distance between them, their messages take months to transmit across space. And yet Romy finds herself falling in love.
But what does Romy really know about J? And what do the mysterious messages which have started arriving from Earth really mean?
Sometimes, there’s something worse than being alone…
I don’t read a ton of sci-fi, but I am a sucker for stories about people isolated from reality and this one sucked me right in as soon as I saw it. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is about a girl named Romy who has been stuck onboard a spaceship completely alone for most of her life and it is a wild ride.
First of all, Romy is an insanely strong but relatable character who is doing better than I ever could. I am an introvert of the highest order, sometimes going a few days without talking to anyone outside my house, but I truly don’t know how I’d survive years alone on a spaceship. I loved that Romy was able to keep things resembling normal with routines she’d stuck to all her life, but I could also understand how desperate she was for outside contact.
There are a couple important characters aside from Romy in this book. The first is the only person from Earth that Romy has remained in contact with. The second is J, a boy she’s received a message from and who also happens to be heading for her ship. This book is told as Romy counts down the days until J arrives and the tension slowly builds as the numbers diminish.
This book made me feel more suspense than any other book that I can remember reading recently. From the first page there was a feeling that something was a little off. Of course, a big part of this is picturing anyone in the void of space by themselves, but there was always something else nagging at me. The plot twists in The Loneliest Girl in the Universe had me going back and reevaluating what I knew and it was amazing! I even messaged the author (who was lovely, by the way) when I turned the last page.
There isn’t much else to say without giving away major plot points, but if you’re in the market for a sci-fi thriller, this is the one for you. This is a quick, unsettling read and I can’t wait to see what Lauren James writes next!
