Review: A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing

A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing by Jessie Tu
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am conflicted.

Essentially, this is a novel about emptiness. Jena is a professional violinist with a gaping hole of loneliness inside her which she fills with meaningless sex. That's pretty much the gist of it.

Fair warning: If you have an aversion to copious, graphic depictions of sexual activity, this one might not be for you.

Yet my own aversion to that wasn't a huge factor here, because it was so emotionless. There's no awkward exploding stars and suns and passion and ecstasy etc to cringe over. It's detached, and pitiful, and quite clearly this girl has some serious issues but getting attached too easily is not one of them.

The stunted writing style did make it a little hard to follow at times, but it worked well to portray Jena as this lost soul who just doesn't seem to feel anything, other than emptiness and the need to be noticed. Jena is not someone I liked, but I truly did pity her and how chronic her loneliness is. She made so many questionable decisions but I felt her pain so well that I forgave her for them. It's easy to see this is a broken girl trying to find a meaningful place in the world.

Still, hating most of the characters didn't make this too fun a read, and Jena's emotional detachment only worked for me I think because I understand her loneliness a little. I think people in healthy, meaningful relationships may find this one a little too hard to swallow, although hopefully Jena's need for approval and meaning is something we can all understand, if not empathise with.

I found the blurb was quite misleading - the story wasn't particularly strong, or compelling, on its own, and this is one where events referred to in the blurb took half the book to happen. This is a novel where the themes are overwhelming, and the plot takes a backseat. This is a story about how unpredictable and uncontrollable life is, and how difficult it can be to find a meaningful place in it. We're confronted repeatedly by Jena's detachment, and the conflict between her emotionlessness and her desperate need to be loved.

There's also a sense that this is a story that has no end in sight - just like life, it just continues on, whether we find our happy ending or not. There's that sense of life running away, and the inability to stretch out a hand and finally grab onto something meaningful before everything passes you by.

I can't say I enjoyed reading it, but I did enjoy the way it made me think, and it's a novel that encourages the reader to take more care in appreciating all the little moments of one's life. I can roll with that.

I will say, though, that I'm very keen to compare the last line of my uncorrected proof copy with the final version, and see if it differs. It left me feeling rather uncomfortable but I suspect that might have been the point.

A thought-provoking read for lonely souls, and people looking for a read that helps enforce the attitude of never taking anything in life for granted. I appreciate its realness, but I strongly suspect not everyone will feel the same.

With thanks to A&U for my uncorrected proof ARC

View all my reviews