I remember about 13 years ago when Ally Condie’s first big book was released and I was ecstatic. Matched, the beginning of a dystopian trilogy, was all the rage and I was there for it. Since then, she has finished out the trilogy and written several other popular stand-alone books that I enjoyed as well. The Only Girl in Town is her newest release, and although the cover is pretty simple, it caught my eye before the author’s name did and then and there I knew I had to read it.

This book is very different from the Matched trilogy. Although the premise of a teen girl, July, discovering everyone in her town but her and her beloved cat has seemingly disappeared may seem like a dystopian theme, I realized fairly quickly that this book was not set in an apocalyptic future. Rather, everyone July cares about has vanished and though she has no idea why or how, July is the only one who can see her story through to whatever the conclusion might be.

This is a creative book filled with metaphors, or at least that’s how I interpreted it. July is living in a proverbial ghost town, though her cat Yolo, the only other living being around, is a near constant companion. July can’t wrap her head around where her friends and neighbors and family could have all disappeared to, and especially can’t fathom why she was left all alone. Slowly, over the course of multiple chapters depicting July speaking to a therapist and a few chapters that show the dynamic of her friend group, it’s clear that something occurred that July blames herself for. Maybe somewhere in her subconscious she was afraid of losing everyone she loved because of a mistake she made.

Through short, sometimes choppy chapters, we get glimpses of what July’s life looked like before the disappearances. She was a fairly normal teenager, with a group of friends and a boy who could be more than a friend. She had a family and was enjoying a summer of freedom before her senior year. Now she is alone, left to try to decipher the meaning behind the only clue she has been given: GET TH3M BACK on a marquee in town.

The Only Girl in Town will not be a book that is for everyone. However, if you go into the story knowing that it’s sort of abstract and open to interpretation, then you might get more out of it than you bargained for.

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy from Dutton books for Young Readers/ Penguin Random House

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 3 religious exclamations; 7 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore: A girl is reported to break a window in a brief scene; kids are reported to dare each other to jump off of a cliff into water below in a sort of initiation ritual even though it is known to be dangerous; suicide is referred to in a brief mention; a mention is made about survival situations and how it’s not recommended to eat your companions’ bodies; a reference is made of how jumping from a local cliff is dangerous and possibly life-threatening, especially at night; a brief scene is reported to occur where a young girl and her mother are fighting and the girl locks herself in her room while the mom kicks at the locked door, breaking the mirror that is on the backside of the door- no injuries occur; some blood is mentioned in a brief scene where a girl falls and injures herself; some blood is mentioned to be visible on a wooden baseball bat in a brief scene; a pet runs off and the owner worries something bad has happened to it.

Sex/Nudity: A minor girl and boy share a brief kiss and are mentioned to touch each others skin under hem of shirts; making out is referred to; a brief comment is made about a girl checking out a boys butt; a girl thinks about the dream she had about kissing a boy; a comment is made about someone being hot in two incidents; a girl asks a boy who gave her a necklace as a gift to put it on her and thinks it is more intimate than kissing; a boy and girl kiss in a brief scene and the girl thinks about how she likes the feel of the boys chest against her back when he hugs her from behind (fully clothed); a boy and a girl jump into a body of water together and touch each others wet arms in a brief scene; a man is reported to make a derogatory/sexual comment about minor girls which makes them uncomfortable; a girl thinks about missing the boy she likes and his kisses.

Mature Subject Matter:

Peer pressure; bullying; mental health struggles, suicide (mention).

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Underage drinking is mentioned; booze is referred to; getting high off of Sharpie fumes is mentioned.