PENGUIN The Loneliest Girl in the Universe

Binge worthy book with mind blowing plots

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,”― Lauren James, The Loneliest Girl in the UniverseWow, 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.”― Lauren James, The Loneliest Girl in the UniverseAs 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 read this because it's so good, and I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SECOND BOOK BECAUSE I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS RIGHT NOW.

First off, please do not be fooled into thinking this is an epic space romance. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is a tense, gripping tale about love, loss and trust with a whole heap of thrill weaved in and is truly terrifying but seriously magnificent.The book begins with a news article which explains the background of the story and all about The Infinity, the first ever manned space-craft on a voyage to find another planet which is habitable for humans – this is also the setting of our story. I really enjoyed this introduction, as it provided lots of information in a format that isn’t very ‘info-dumpy’ as such. Lauren manages to paint such a vivid picture of the space ship and the story through her superb writing skills, meaning that the world building is second to none.The story is written in first person through diary entries, the first segment being “X days since The Infinity left Earth” which again is a really interesting format. Each chapter is fairly short, which really aided the pace at which I read the book and also helped to create tension. I couldn’t stop flipping the pages! The main character is super into a TV show which she writes her own fan fiction of, and we got to read snippets of this between every few chapters, kind of like a comic relief to ease the tension I would say, but also really enjoyable to read.Our main character is Romy Silvers, the first person to ever have been born in space, who is travelling in The Infinity alone. I found myself able to relate to Romy quite well; I could feel and understand her emotions and thought processes right along with her. On the first page alone Romy is reading fan fiction in her pjs, so I knew from the beginning we would get on! Romy also struggles with anxiety. As someone who has been through this too, it’s always refreshing to read about a main character who is going through similar situations to yourself. Throughout the story my respect for Romy definitely increased. She was strong and brave despite the shitty hand she had been dealt and while she did have her moments where things got too much (but hey, we all do, we’re only human) she picked herself up, dusted herself off and got on with it. I’m not sure I would be able to manage that so huge props to Romy.While there are a couple more characters in the story, we don’t hear much from them until towards the end and I’m definitely not saying any more because you know, spoilers.The more that the story progressed, the more uneasy I felt. It began with little things, such as the fact that whilst Romy can communicate with Earth, it can take literally years for the messages to reach her. The idea of being totally isolated and alone is terrifying in itself. I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t say much, but as the blurb states, Romy begins emailing back and forth with another passenger of a ship on the same voyage. At first, everything seems great and I was excited that Romy had someone to talk to, but the chapters grew more and more tense and I began to feel like I couldn’t trust any of the characters. I knew something wasn’t quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.The last several chapters of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe had me utterly enthralled. Lauren James threw in plot twist after plot twist and I definitely didn’t see the ending coming; I was genuinely shocked and seriously impressed. One on hand things seemed to go from 0 to 100 in about five pages, but through Lauren’s ingenious writing, I realised that the whole story had been building to this and it was very cleverly executed.The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is undoubtedly 4.5/5 stars for me, I couldn’t put the book down and read it in a matter of hours one lazy weekend morning. I hope that my review does the book justice; I didn’t want to say too much for fear of ruining it as I think it’s best to go into the book without knowing a lot so that you can be blown away. Lauren’s latest story is released today, so go get your hands on it! Promise you won’t be disappointed.

I enjoyed the story of Romy and the truly lonely life she leads on her voyage to Earth 2 on her empty ship.I loved the structure of the book with passages from Romys POV mixed in with the emails she sends and receives and also the fanfic she is writing.I personally would have preferred things to have gotten a bit darker and more disturbing at the reveal but I have to remind myself this is a YA novel not a horror!A really interesting idea with a very likable main character, overall a good read.Edited to add - the cover of this book is stunning 😍 I'm such a sucker for beautiful covers on books and this one is not only gorgeous it sets the tone so well.

A science fiction novel for young adult readers. It's complete and self contained in 289 pages, and thus not part of a series or trilogy.It would be best for those aged fourteen and up, thanks to one bit of strong language, and one adult moment, and some violence.It's divided into many short chapters, most no longer than three to four pages.Main character is a girl called Romy. Who narrates the whole thing in first person present tense. She is the last surviving crewmember of the starship Infinity, which is on a voyage to another star system to survey a possibly habitable world. There's no way to turn back. She's been alone for a long time after all the crew and then her parents died.She learns science. Writes fan fiction about her favourite tv show. And communicates with a therapist back on Earth. By E-mail. It can take a while to get a reply thanks to the distance.Then she learns another ship called the Eternity has been launched, and it's faster so it can catch hers up. When making communication with that ship, she gets into a regular correspondence with the commander, and they get to know each other very well. But then bad things start to happen. There are problems on the ship and Earth. Can she keep it together in time for the rendezvous with a man she is getting to know very well?...This is a very nice, quick - the pages turn very fast thanks to the short chapters so I read this easily in one go - and involving read. It has good clear prose and whilst it doesn't have much in the way of detail, it does fill you in with all you need to know when you need to know it. Romy is a convincing lead, coming across as a nice ordinary person from the off, and yet when things get darker it does portray that really well.This becomes a page turner by virtue of having things happen at just the right moment to add drama, and also a fair bit of doubt and paranoia, and thus you will be unable to put it down as you will be desperate to see how things will turn out for Romy.There are some excellent surprises to be had along the way, and a gripping resolution. It's not just about space travel and romance. It's about loneliness and self doubt and discovering what kind of person you can be. So ultimately its a pretty uplifting and inspiring read as well.A great little book, and one that's well worth a look.

Oh my lord, wow. This was an absolute pleasure to read. Such an easy style to read and despite it being based in space, I didn't feel overwhelmed with sci-fi stuff. I felt like it was just a normal teenage girl stranded light-years away in a small, old ship who is just trying to survive till she reaches Earth II. The emotions were raw and real. I really felt for poor Romy. This book is definitely a winner and I'll be recommending to all my friends!