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The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
Audiobook7 hours

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe

Written by Lauren James

Narrated by Lauren Ezzo

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

A surprising and gripping sci-fi thriller with a killer twist

The daughter of two astronauts, Romy Silvers is no stranger to life in space. But she never knew how isolating the universe could be until her parents’ tragic deaths left her alone on the Infinity, a spaceship speeding away from Earth.

Romy tries to make the best of her lonely situation, but with only brief messages from her therapist on Earth to keep her company, she can’t help but feel like something is missing. It seems like a dream come true when NASA alerts her that another ship, the Eternity, will be joining the Infinity.

Romy begins exchanging messages with J, the captain of the Eternity, and their friendship breathes new life into her world. But as the Eternity gets closer, Romy learns there’s more to J’s mission than she could have imagined. And suddenly, there are worse things than being alone….

Now nominated as a YALSA Quick Pick!

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateJul 3, 2018
ISBN9780062841728
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe
Author

Lauren James

Lauren James was born in 1992 and has a master’s degree from the University of Nottingham, UK, where she studied chemistry and physics. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe was inspired by a physics calculation she was assigned at university. She lives in the West Midlands, UK, and is an Arts Council grant recipient. You can find her at www.laurenejames.co.uk.

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Reviews for The Loneliest Girl in the Universe

Rating: 3.8890374331550803 out of 5 stars
4/5

374 ratings28 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really liked the narrator, she did an awesome job. On the other hand, the story itself? I saw everything coming

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Book was excellent but the narrator was extremely annoying sometimes. Especially when a character was upset or crying. I actually had to pause sometimes to get my nerves together how annoying it would get.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The woman reading the audiobook over acts and it makes it hard to listen to.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This is a first for me, a book, story, what have you, that is a literal 0/5. The narrator does an admirrably good job though!

    I do not recommend this book.
    I initially started reading it because i thought the premise was interesting, but as it goes on it devolves into an extremley poorly researched mess. Nothing related to mechanics, engineering or science in the book seems to have even been quickly googled to see whether it would be correct. The entire story feels like it has been written down as a train of thought, whatever the author fancied in the moment. There are continuity errors, characters personalities and traits change on the fly to fit the chapter, romance writing i've literally seen better on fanfic forums. Writing that i can only describe as devolving into romanticized stalker fetishism when the story dared to take a tiny breath away from DRAMA.

    One of the worst culprits in the story was this. Minor spoiler ahead. Story wise the mission/spaceship is the epitome of humanity's achievements and hopes for colonizing another planet. And there are ZERO redundancy protocols for this mission. The power went out to the genebank, instead of alerting the character in the book and maintaining the seals of what i can only assume would be an insulated chamber considering the contents are frozen. The system starts activley thawing the embryos so the character has to sprint around the ship and figure out how to fix it and reboot the computer where power failed, and while doing so delivers the best quote in the book "I urge the computer to go faster" delivered as if it were a horse.

    It is frankly astounding that this book has gotten published. It needs several rounds through editors to even be remotley publishable. I figured I would look up the author halfway through the story because to some extent I can see excusing a young adult romance story a lot of the science and technology misinformation. It is so damn dissapointing though finding out that the author is not only a S.T.E.M advocate but S.T.E.M educated and does not give a flying fuck about actually researching what they write.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Am I able to say the whole book was my favorite part, because it is. This book brought joy to my life, and it even made me smile so much that I had to cover my face. READ IT!!! It’s amazing!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    The book was good but scribd app and the audiobook quality was bad. Some chapters were getting skipped. I still am struggling to listen to last two chapters. Horrible app
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I think that the idea was good but the attitude of the main character was just a little whiny. I felt like she kept complaining about the same things over and over again. I understand that she was young and naive but the relationship that formed between the two main characters felt so forced and fake. It was alright but didn’t live up to what I expected.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So incredibly good! Surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. Definitely worth a read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    - I can't recommend this audiobook enough. The narration is engaging and it captures Romy's voice perfectly so that you feel like you're right with her on the spaceship, experiencing everything. 
    - So Romy immediately falls for J and at first, I found this kind of annoying because she idolizes him. She assumes that he's perfect and kind and handsome even though she doesn't actually know that much about him. But then I realized that A) I do the exact same things when I have a crush on someone and B) she's a romantic just like me! 
    - Romy's traumatic past haunts her at every step. There are little hints and references to what happened but nothing makes complete sense until Romy is finally forced to confront her past. This is part of the reason why the book is so suspenseful! You don't know UNTIL YOU DO KNOW and then you feel terrible.. 
    - At first, I got ~ slice of life on a spaceship ~ vibes (if that makes sense) because each chapter is a snapshot of Romy's day. She discusses maintenance of the spaceship or her desire to write fanfic for her favorite TV show or picking strawberries and making jam. 
    - Which brings me to my other favorite part of the book: THE FANFIC. I liked that it was kind of cliche but still oh so romantic. It made me want to watch the show and fangirl with Romy. 
    - The main reason I'm giving this one five stars is due to the major plot twist that makes the book 10X more interesting and completely wrecks Romy. I was listening to the audiobook while lying on my bed and when this happened, I just sat up because so many things were finally making sense and it was all starting to come together.
    - THAT ENDING JUST CAME OUT OUT OF NOWHERE. Never in a million years could I have predicted that things would turn out that way.
    - I can't think of anything I didn't like about this book honestly. IT'S PERFECTION. It lives up to all the hype!! Please go read it! 
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The audio book was great it's just the premise of the book and the writing wasnt the best. The plot didnt make much sense and it just left me feeling confused and wondering what was supposed to happen next.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book took me by surprise. Definitely give it a try!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really really good book and nice twist at the end
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Awesome, the end a little jarring and sad but sometimes that's just the way life is, here on earth or up in the sky.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Romy's character is not one I likes very much a lot of her action where annoying and all together not my favorite
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    The book was not written too well but I still hoped for a more interesting twist at the end. But it was absolutely crappy. Worst book in awhile
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was an incredible science fiction story about a young girl who is alone on a ship on its way to a far distant planet. It wasn't intended that she'd be alone. In fact, it wasn't intended that she would even be born. Her father and mother were supposed to be the first caretakers of the ship and stay awake for five years before waking the next pair of astronauts from torpor and entering torpor themselves until the many year journey is complete.After the torpor system failed and all the other astronauts died, Romy's mother entered a deep depression. When she began to violently destroy the stored embryos, Romy's father attempted to stop her and was accidentally killed. Then her mother put herself in torpor leaving Romy alone at age eleven. Her only contact for the last six years has been a therapist at NASA named Molly. When she is sixteen, Molly tells her that a newer faster ship has been launched with the intention of joining up with The Infinity. Romy is excited that she won't be alone but anxious about not being alone too. She begins sharing emails with the commander of the second ship. J seems like a wonderful person and Romy might be falling love with him.But then she loses contact with Molly, learns that NASA has fallen in a war, and that the new government wants to make some changes to her ship. Romy goes through all kinds of harrowing trials like power failures, limited access to light and water, and cooling temperatures. She is more and more eager for J and The Eternity to catch up to her.But all is not as it seems. Romy has to untangle the truth from the lies if she wants to stay alive. I couldn't put this one down. I was so caught up in Romy's story and the rising tension in the story. Fans of science fiction won't want to miss this terrific book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    2,8 stars

    Oh boy, what a wild ride. It started off with promise, which was steadily chipped away until the end. This is the kind of Young Adult that gives other Young Adult a bad name.

    Now, I didn't hate the book. I just didn't like it. The writing was mediocre at best, the characters were one dimensional, the plot was weak, and the plot twists weaker. This is the kind of story that could have been great if executed by someone else.

    I feel no great need to pick up anything else of James'.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Amazing narration, intriguing plot?Loved it.Highly recommended for scifi fans

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this book. A very unexpected story all around. Highly recommend.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    The premise of this story had so much potential! I wanted to love this book. But it ended up being barely a scifi. This story is some sort of fanfic turned into a book leaning closer to chick lit than scifi. Most of the book is our heroine writing fanfic. The story move slowly but would have been okay had the heroine confronted the enemy when she figured out who it was at anytime. There wasn't much of an arc and the ending felt thrown together. I want a scifif write to rewrite this base solely on the premise!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    That twist, though!

    So this was kind of a weird one for me. I wanted to love it. The time frame just made me so confused most of the time. It was like how you feel when you start thinking about the vastness of space, and just like what's after space? My kind cannot compute! HA.

    Overall, it was a good story! Was it entirely believable? Nah. Did it make me gasp a few times? Sure did! The ending was kind of a disappointment to me however. This could have benefitted from being made a full story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Teenage spaceship commander Romy Silvers is all alone on her craft, the Infinity, as it speeds through the galaxy looking for another planet like Earth. When a handsome young man on a similar spaceship gets in touch with her, it looks like Romy's long loneliness will finally come to an end. But, as could be predicted, everything is not as it seems. I don't typically read YA novels, but found that this book provided a quick, suspenseful read. Recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I get why people dislike this story, but judging it based on dislike of bait and switch or because it contains horror elements is disingenuous. James wrote this novel based on a time dilation equation she was given at University. If you approach this story as science fiction, and not as yet another fluff romantic YA (for which i can point you to many terrific choices) it fits well into the genre. As YA though, it does function didactically in asking you to challenge government lies and to not be ruled by fear. It's supposed to make you think critically about space/time and perception of reality. On that basis, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is definitely successful. Expecting all YA to be light beach read romance is doing it a disservice.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There's a lot that was good in this book-- a lot more than the blurb indicates, and I'd actually rate this almost a 4, but for the fact that the ending felt rushed. The suspense aspect was a nice touch. I had an inkling of what was coming, so it was interesting to see how it played out, and what angle the author chose to do it. What I liked best was how Romy learned about herself, and was able to use her strengths to face the challenges she did.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Awesome suspense sci-fi novel. Quick read, much like The Martian. Sixteen-year-old Romy is the first person born in space. Along with her parents, she is part of a NASA mission to colonize another planet. It will take decades to reach the new planet. One day something goes horribly wrong, and she is left all alone, except for audio messages from her therapist on Earth.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a mashup of science fiction and thriller and boy - was it fun! Definitely a page turner that will keep you reading until the very end.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Read this so I could beta a friend's Yuletide fic. It's the story of Romy , who is the last girl alive on a spaceship. I spent most of it enjoying it, but slightly wistful it was what it was, rather than what it could have been. She is a relatable normal teenager obsessed with boys and fanfic, whereas I would have thought her upbringing would have left her with more interesting pathologies (think of the boy in Room), and while it was refreshing that the Bad Guy turned out to be a Bad Guy, his motives were a bit cheesy and unlikely. Still, 10/10 for a female heroine who is casually a maths and physics genius.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sixteen-year-old Romy Silvers was born on a spaceship headed for a new planet. Her parents have died and the life support system keeping the rest of the crew in stasis malfunctioned so now she is all alone. Her only human contact is via seven-year-old voice mail messages from Molly at NASA. Then, one day she receives the news that another ship has been launched that will catch up to her ship in a year's time. Romy makes contact with the commander of the second ship - a young man called J. Gradually they become closer till Romy finds herself falling in love. But is J really who he seems to be?Lauren James does an excellent job of drawing you into Romy's world. In many ways she is a typical teenager and she often feels overwhelmed by the responsibility of avoiding asteroids, keeping the ship systems running and all that will be involved when she finally reaches Planet HT3485c. There is enough technical detail to make Romy's world believable but the main focus of the story is the very believable Romy and her growing relationship with J. Then, just when you think you know where the story is headed, there is a plot twist that turns it into a nail-biting thriller.