Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

64 reviews

micaelabrody's review

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

 read this serialized in "real time" via lauren james' substack from the summer sometime to now (i started late). i have no idea how i'd feel about it in book format but i know that the serialization made it drag a lot in places because of long gaps between entries, long periods of nothing much happening, etc. in a book that wouldn't be a problem since you'd just be able to turn the page. however, that long buildup did lend a strong sense of unease to the whole thing, yelling at romy through my screen to stop trusting j, etc etc - while the plot twists weren't groundbreaking they still had impact! had a good time with this, i'll definitely miss romy in my inbox every few days <3 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Grief

Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Murder, Gore, Blood, Violence, Medical trauma, Medical content, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, and Stalking

Minor: Colonisation, Cursing, Abortion, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, and Alcohol

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

So, I read this in one sitting (audiobooks ftw) and... it was not what I was expecting. 
I thought this would be a fluffy coming of age sci-fi romance that I would give 3 stars. And it definitely starts this way with some hints on a mystery in the past and resulting trauma for the protagonist. And then it changes course and goes some dark places. And I mean some really DARK places. I would recommend to check trigger warnings tbh. 
The atmosphere is definitely what stands out. It starts with this lonely every-day routine in space, but it gets really unsettling and creepy. I do like these kinds of plots, and for the most part it is done well. I think the author accomplished what she wanted to accomplish. I just think some reveals towards the end were a little cliché and unbelievable. Oh yeah, you really need to suspend your disbelief for this one because I don't think the space science was super accurate either. But it works well enough. 
Also, the ending drags a little, too. When I thought we're done, there was still an hour of the audiobook left, and it felt like the plot was just prolonged artificially. But maybe it just felt so jarring because the pacing had felt so natural up until that point. 
But yeah, I enjoyed it for the most part. I was surprised, and I liked the themes of isolation and what it does to your mental health. The author also explored some complicated family and relationship dynamics. But some of this was hard to read, so again, please check trigger warnings. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

jenny_d's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gaslighting, and Death of parent

avadear's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Death of parent, Vomit, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, and Medical trauma

teslis's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I don't know. This book was a real rollercoaster. 

I really liked the concept of a lonely girl stuck in space and her only connection to other humans is digitally over chat to earth. And that one day it change when an other spaceship reach out to talk to her. Without spoling why I disliked this book to much is to say that the main character is young and being used. I also feel that she is not written as a person who's been alone for a long time and that she is "to strong". 

So to explain it further: 

the first thing is that she is around 15/16, never been in love and starting to talk to the other spaceship. She finds out he is a 22 year old mail and "obviously" start to develop feelings. BUT thats not the problem, the problem I had was how he wrote back to her, like he was falling for her. There age gap felt so wrong and just no. The other parts are like I said earlier, I think she is "to strong". She has this big package of her parants dying and being left all alone out in space, that I think it would have given more to her feelings and how she handles stuff like the lights out. I also felt that it was un realistic for the other spaceship pilot to be the son of those other astronauts who died, and that he would take revenge. How could he be left alone awake when they were supost to always be two. Thats something thats drive me crazy. 

It was some time since i listen to this book, but all I remember is that I had big problems with it :(

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking, Sexual content, and Vomit

mdride's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Vomit, and Murder

tigtig686's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, and Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Alcohol

asiamd's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Holy shit this book was a little bit crazy and insane but I really loved it! First the beginning was a little slow to me, but it didn’t take away form the story at all. I loved the main character and how she truly acted like a teenager who had gone through extreme trauma and had to deal with it all by herself. The plot twists in the book were really good to me and I honestly didn’t see them coming, like I had to face time my best friend and explain everything that happened in the book just so I could talk about it. I do wish the ending was a little more fleshed out, it kinda felt too quick to me and I wish we would’ve gotten a little more of the main character and speaking to everyone she fell out of contact with during the book. Overall I’d give this a 10/10

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Death

tinyy's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Death of parent

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Stalking

Minor: Torture and Adult/minor relationship