The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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…

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I don’t want to say too much, but this book took me completely by surprise in the best possible way. I felt like I was there with Romy on her solitary journey towards the future. Not a lot happens for most of the book, yet there’s something about it that makes it impossible to put down.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

There’s a sense of vulnerability throughout the story. Romy is alone in interstellar space, millions of kilometers from the only planet humans have ever lived on. She’s so far from another living person that it takes two years to receive a message from earth, a planet she’s never been on. If you put that in perspective, the sun is only 8 light minutes from earth.

At one point it turned real scary, and I mean REAL FUCKING SCARY. It starts out as you would expect from the synopsis and then turns into a psychological thriller. It’s cute, fun and scary. I do wish it delved more into some of the aspects of the story only touched upon lightly at the end, but I still think it’s a great story.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe focuses on the fact that we’re only human. Even under extraordinary circumstances, Romy — the first person born in space — is quite ordinary. She’s a teenage girl, who obsesses over a TV show. She has experienced loss, grief and all kinds of terrible shit, yet she’s still just an ordinary teenager. Everything else in the story is great, but the ordinary elements really did it for me.

I devoured this book in just a couple of hours. It’s perfect for getting out of a reading slump, as the chapters are short. And, if you’re looking for a quick book for a readathon, this is a great option. I highly recommend it!