The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James (BEDM)

This is one of many books I’d been meaning to read for a long time, especially since most people I know who’ve read it think it’s amazing and would constantly recommend it (mainly looking at hardcore Lauren James fan, Lois! I love books set in space and this did not disappoint!

This was a slight impulse pick up – I wasn’t sure what I fancied reading and left it up to a poll on our Twitter to decide between three books and this got the highest amount of votes! I normally don’t do this because I want to actually be in the mood to read the books I choose but this was a rare time when I’m happy to let others pick for me.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe is about Romy, a 16 year old girl who is alone in space, Commander of a ship – The Infinity. She should never have had to be Commander but tragic events happened which led to her being alone. After being alone for years, she discovers that another ship has been sent to help her. We see the communication between her and J, Commander of The Eternity. I won’t go into detail about the plot because I don’t want to spoil it – especially not this book!

The idea of it is amazing. Being alone in space has been covered a few times but this was so different. It also didn’t feel too far-fetched. It is set in the future and Romy did have to run the ship as a child but this doesn’t feel like something completely unbelievable in this universe. The way she dealt with situations felt really human. She didn’t feel brave, strong or even clever. A lot of the things she did to keep the ship running she put down to NASA helping her and never gave herself credit.

Some days, she would do nothing practical for the ship and stay in bed worrying and distracting herself with TV shows and books so she didn’t have to face responsibility. I loved this as it felt very real. Of course she wouldn’t be super confident about everything. When J, the commander of the other ship, begins contacting her we see a new side to her which is really interesting. She’s never met anyone who wasn’t in her family so this was a huge thing for her to prepare to meet someone when his ship would finally arrive!

I truly adore this book and the twists and turns were excellent. The personalities built felt quite strong and characters who weren’t even featured had a heavy presence. I love books that convey that feeling – it’s such strong writing for a character who is dead or not there to have a very significant presence  in your mind whilst reading, even when they haven’t been mentioned for some time.

I highly recommend this! It’s got a great story and I didn’t expect so much of what happened! Let me know in the comments if you’ve read this or any other books set in space that you enjoy.