A review by mlliu
Earth Girl by Janet Edwards

3.0

This was a sweet book with a true kick-ass heroine and an intriguing premise. I thought it was interesting that the book presented humans as advanced enough to have portal technology but having lost much too when so many people left Earth and allowed parts to go to ruin. And so they express surprise at the sight of high-rises (there's no need to build dense when there are other worlds to settle) and the idea that people could have traveled across land as fast as they did (as in auto racing; in their world, people just portal to a destination). I'm not sure it makes sense from a scientific standpoint. For example, wouldn't people have recognized the importance of redundancy in data storage, making it unlikely that all this knowledge would be lost? But I thought the mythology of Earth's future was well thought-out, like the fact that settlers on different planets have developed different cultures.

I describe this book as "sweet" because I never got a real sense of danger.

Spoiler

Everything works out in the end. I did think it was kind of a cheat (even lazy?) to have Fian reveal Jarra's origins to their class. Instead of seeing how her classmates reacted to her being "Handicapped," Jarra wakes up from her coma to find out everyone still likes her.

I also didn't think Jarra's mental break was very believable. It felt like a convenient way to shuffle the plot forward, though I'm glad she at least took responsibility for her lies once she realized what had happened.

The writing could have been tighter. There were long passages of dialogue where characters explain things in a way that felt awkward. Otherwise, I thought Earth Girl was a well-imagined debut novel with thoughtful characters and a lot of potential for future stories.