The Only Girl in Town was not what I expected. The book is composed of short chapters, is told in dual timelines, and moves quickly. The story follows July Fielding, for whom nothing has been the same since the summer before her senior year. It is difficult to review without major spoilers.
She finds herself alone in her town, all the people and animals gone. The story unfolds intensely, each twist and turn adding a piece to the puzzle. We know something happened that senior year, but it is not until the end that we understand. There are still many questions left for the reader at the end, but I think this may have been intentional. It certainly deserves to be re-read. The pacing is masterful, the writing lyrical and allegorical. The reading experience is utterly immersive. The Only Girl in Town is urgent, emotional, compelling and impossible to put down. Readers need to be aware of trigger warnings. ( )

In complete honesty I hadn’t considered picking up another novel by Condie as the last two-thirds of her [Matched] trilogy remains, to this day, two of the worst books I’ve read. But I came across this title on the popular tab of the KCLS page, and decided to take a little leap. Young adult literature is often a little more palatable than works of adult fiction, and I wanted something light and easy after dragging myself through a few translated works.

The title of the book is the premise: July, a girl clearly struggling in her relationships and sense of self, is suddenly all alone. One second, everything is normal, and the next, every single person and animal in the town has disappeared. The book follows her as she tries to figure out how to get her family and friends back, while also paralleling her current journey with chapters detailing her past and what could have led to the disappearances, and sessions with her therapist.

The novel grows progressively heavier, touching on the bond between pet and owner as July is forced to face her past. Condie misleads the reader in a crafty way; from early on she has the reader believing in an outcome that feels real and substantial, only to flip the book on its head and surprise the reader with a twist that makes sense, but also feels a little unfair, and a little unfinished. She took a book shaping up to be a thriller and turned it into commentary on social and emotional health at the last second.

I rated the book as two stars for that reason, because the conclusion lacked, leaving me a bit unsettled and still wondering about July’s progression. Condie’s writing is sound, though, and the book was engaging; I got through it in just a few hours. It was what I expected it to be, an easy read with an interesting story arc, though I will always prefer her exploration into the dystopian genre with [Matched]. ( )

The premise of this book is great. July wakes up to an empty town - everyone has disappeared and she believes it is something she has done. Then she sees a cryptic note on the school bulletin board " GET TH3M BACK" and manages to wish her cat back into existence. As she remembers what has happened in the past few months, she tries to work out the clues to what has happened and whether there is someone else in the empty town with her.
BUT! The ending left me for dead ....the author can't have it both ways ...it can't pretend to be a supernatural thriller and then turn out to be something entirely different - that is ripping off the readers! Oh well, apart from that it is very well written and the characters are believable and likeable but I just felt cheated when it ended. ( )

Intriguing

This book has so much about it that I really enjoyed, including well-drawn characters, authentic young adult point of view voice, an intriguing mystery, and a lovable cat with an ironic name.

I was able to suspend my belief without any problems or questions when everyone just disappears from July's world. The short chapters helped speed this mystery along and I often didn't want to stop reading. Twists and possible danger always caught me off guard and I loved that.

I thought the ending rushed in too quickly and left too much in question. It also seemed to be missing a big hunk of story and I still can't grasp what was needed for a satisfactory ending for my tastes--maybe an epilogue? Maybe another session with July and her therapist?

This novel gave me so much to think about and the abrupt changes in July's relationships with her friends broke my heart for her. I felt July's loneliness completely, so I know the writing is excellent. ( )

The writing style and the way the book is structured isn't going to be for everyone. At first it comes across as a little clunky and disjointed, especially with the dual timeline and short chapters. However, getting this story in pieces like that, and having everything slowly revealed to us was masterfully done. The way it all wrapped up in the end, with the story so woven together was beautiful. The author truly showed a mastery at pacing, especially toward the end of the book. The pacing matched the story and kept everything moving along. I really didn't want to put the book down.

However, I think a lot of people won't connect with the style, which is a shame. I think the style worked well with this type of story. Changing it would have made it too heavy for what the book was trying to do. It could have gone that direction and still been a good book. There was actually a lot of different directions this book could have taken. I do think the artistry allows different parts of the book to speak to different people. The story might be seen as too dark for some, I think it could use a trigger warning for suicide, loneliness, depression. I personally didn't think it leaned into those topics too much, but I can see some people struggling with it. Also, the ending was subtle, which I did really like, but it isn't as positive and meaningful as it could be. I think that is something that might be needed in this case, but I understand why it wasn't done like that. I'm actually not sure which I would prefer.

The story itself was really good. There were layers to it, I actually want to reread it now knowing the whole story because different things are going to stand out. The symbolism you can find in little things throughout the story was great. It played into the foreshadowing. I don't think I can explain how expertly done this was.

I wanted to give this 5 stars, but I went with 4 because some things could have been done a bit better. I would have loved to lean in to the ideas and themes behind this book. A little bit more development to really bring the point home could have happened toward the end. I would have loved to experience more of the relationships. I honestly could have read more. This could have been double the amount of pages and I still would have read it and enjoyed it.

I read an ARC of this book for free, and voluntarily left this honest review. ( )