The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was one of my most anticipated reads of 2017… Only, I didn’t read it in 2017, because I AM RUBBISH at keeping on top of my TBR. But when I found out that Lauren James would be attending YALC 2018, I decided that it was about time that I started reading this book. I love a good science fiction novel, and after reading Lauren James’ The Next Together, I had fallen in love with James’ writing style.
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…
The thing with writing a review about this book is that it’s actually really hard because there are so many twists and turns throughout it, so I can’t give away spoilers. But then there are loads of spoilery things that happen throughout so… This is probably going to be a vague review and for that, I’m so sorry.
“Love takes so much energy, and it just leads to pain. I think it’s probably best for people to be self-sufficient. If I was strong enough to be independent, then I wouldn’t be so desperately lonely. I’m sure of it,”
― The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
Wow, I completely underestimated this book. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I did have slightly high expectations because of it being written by Lauren James, and because it had a premise that I knew I would enjoy. But the blurb was vague, so there was a bit of apprehension going into it. But yes, I underestimated this so much. It’s just… Wow.
At first, this is a book just about Romy as she navigates her way through space – on her own. She has no one else to talk to, just her psychologist back on Earth. The blurb makes this book sound like it’s a romance novel, and it is… in a way… in the beginning. BUT THEN EVERYTHING CHANGES AND OH MY GOD IT GETS SO SCARY. I was honestly so bloody scared for Romy and I think I was reading the pages faster than my brain could comprehend. But this is a real page-turner. You could feel how lonely Romy was, and even that was scary because she was just in the middle of space with no human interaction.
The tension in this book builds up so well that you don’t even realise that you’re clenching your jaw and that you’re knuckles are white from gripping the book too hard until you’ve finished the book and you can actually breathe. THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE BOOK! THIS. IS. A. THRILLER. BOOK. And you’re going to want to read it in one sitting/one day because I swear that you will not be able to put this down.
“My life is a gambling chip thrown carelessly across the universe in the hope it’ll land somewhere my descendants can survive.”
― The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
As for the characters, I immediately felt a connection to Romy and I have no idea why. I can’t relate to her in anyway way. She’s an astronaut, and I spend all my time holed up in my room (#goals). I think she’s written so well and she has such an amazing character development that’s great to watch. As for J… Well… I think his character was set up in an extraordinary way, and then his actual character is… yeah… I can’t say anything else about him because of spoilers.
The plot of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is NOT what I expected. I hadn’t heard anything about this book before I started reading it, and I hadn’t read any reviews, so I didn’t know anything about the twists and turns going in. But I highly recommend that people watch this because it’s so good, and I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SECOND BOOK BECAUSE I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS RIGHT NOW.
