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booktrunks 's review for:
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
by Wren James
I was in for the ride with this book, and had such a great experience.
So the thing is that I thought this was a YA romance for some reason, and I was like *aww that sounds like a super out there but possibly very fun concept for a romance." And then I was really feeling it for Romy and J, but thinking "I'm curious about his age, because I feel like NASA wouldn't have elected to send someone of her age category up there," and then he says he's 22 and I'm like "ok I'm starting to get concerned." So I reread the synopsis and realized that I'm stupid. Suddenly, every single thing that happened in the book was cast in a completely different light, and I was so in.
Romy is a character you can only care about. Her back story is so tragic and traumatizing, and I couldn't ever imagine being stuck all alone in the infinite depths of space after going through such a thing (especially when you find out mom is just sitting in a freezer! That poor child). I was really impressed by her continued resourcefulness, but I especially appreciated the definite superiority she had over J in her ability to operate in space. I think oftentimes, YA stories just showcase female leads who are successful for being scrappy and good at moving on the fly, so I found Romy's skill and knowledge to be really refreshing.
J was also such an intruiging character, but this was actually my one and only hesitation with this book. I thought James did such a good job of portraying him as innocently charming and magnetic to Romy, but letting the reader clearly see that he was grooming her. Where I struggled was his motivation for this whole act. I totally get a revenge storyline for dead parents, but I didn't really feel like it went deep enough/was complicated enough to justify everything he was doing to get to her. Like, instead of just killing her, he had to quote her fanfics, flirt with her, cut off all of her communication to earth, convince her that Earth was in a big war and the US no longer exists (jury's still out on that one actually), and literally *play scratching sounds in the ship after she told him about her nightmares*. It just all seems a bit theatrical for a revenge kill alone. However, I will say that this isn't an issue that I really focused on while reading, I was too interested in what all was happening! Upon reflection, I found myself wishing J's motive had been a little more developed.
Overall, I am so glad I found this book, and have never been happier to be wrong about the premise of a book! (Although, if someone wants to write a sappy romance about lonely people in space, I'm in)
So the thing is that I thought this was a YA romance for some reason, and I was like *aww that sounds like a super out there but possibly very fun concept for a romance." And then I was really feeling it for Romy and J, but thinking "I'm curious about his age, because I feel like NASA wouldn't have elected to send someone of her age category up there," and then he says he's 22 and I'm like "ok I'm starting to get concerned." So I reread the synopsis and realized that I'm stupid. Suddenly, every single thing that happened in the book was cast in a completely different light, and I was so in.
Romy is a character you can only care about. Her back story is so tragic and traumatizing, and I couldn't ever imagine being stuck all alone in the infinite depths of space after going through such a thing (especially when you find out mom is just sitting in a freezer! That poor child). I was really impressed by her continued resourcefulness, but I especially appreciated the definite superiority she had over J in her ability to operate in space. I think oftentimes, YA stories just showcase female leads who are successful for being scrappy and good at moving on the fly, so I found Romy's skill and knowledge to be really refreshing.
J was also such an intruiging character, but this was actually my one and only hesitation with this book. I thought James did such a good job of portraying him as innocently charming and magnetic to Romy, but letting the reader clearly see that he was grooming her. Where I struggled was his motivation for this whole act. I totally get a revenge storyline for dead parents, but I didn't really feel like it went deep enough/was complicated enough to justify everything he was doing to get to her. Like, instead of just killing her, he had to quote her fanfics, flirt with her, cut off all of her communication to earth, convince her that Earth was in a big war and the US no longer exists (jury's still out on that one actually), and literally *play scratching sounds in the ship after she told him about her nightmares*. It just all seems a bit theatrical for a revenge kill alone. However, I will say that this isn't an issue that I really focused on while reading, I was too interested in what all was happening! Upon reflection, I found myself wishing J's motive had been a little more developed.
Overall, I am so glad I found this book, and have never been happier to be wrong about the premise of a book! (Although, if someone wants to write a sappy romance about lonely people in space, I'm in)