Earth Girl

When I think about Young Adult books from Pyr, words that spring immediately to mind are "distinct", "unconventional" and "unique". I guess that's why I've been counting on this book to lift me out of my YA slump. I've been feeling rather burned out by the love triangles, broody heroes, and paranormal/fantasy settings in this category lately, and Earth Girl looked like the perfect cure to this particular malaise.

My instincts proved correct.

The story of Earth Girl takes place in the far-flung future, narrated by eighteen-year-old Jarra. There are many names for people like her. Handicapped. Throwback. Nean. Ape. All of them mean one thing: that she is among the one in a thousand born with an immune disorder that confines her to earth. Humans have developed portal technology at this point, using it to colonize a multitude of worlds, but Jarra can't visit any of them. If she traveled anywhere she would go into anaphylactic shock in seconds, and die if not returned immediately to earth's atmosphere.

But even in the year 2788, humanity has its bigoted attitudes. So when the time comes to enroll in university, Jarra chooses her preferred subject History, but decides to invent a fake military background for herself to apply at a school on another planet whose class of norms who would be on earth for the first year of practical studies. Jarra is sick and tired of being looked down on for being handicapped, and she's determined to show a bunch of stupid Exos just what an ape girl is capable of.

There is therefore nothing subtle about the social message in Earth Girl. This is a book infused with emotion and meaning. But even beyond this, there is so much more to love. While the plot may be a bit predictable at times, very little else about this novel falls prey to clichés, especially when it comes to the characters. You meet Lecturer Playdon, for example, and might immediately label him a hardball professor, bent on giving our protagonist a hard time – because adults obviously are in YA novels just to get in the way! Or take Dalmora Rostha, daughter of a rich, famous vid director. She's totally going to be the snooty, spoiled and annoyingly fake arch nemesis in this story, am I right? Now the lascivious pair of Betas though, surely they are there just to provide comic relief, cause trouble and flunk out?

Nope, nope, and nope, wrong on all counts. This book will surprise you at every turn, and I can't tell you how refreshing that is.

I also confess, I have another reason for loving this book. For you see, in the context of Earth Girl, Jarra's "practical prehistory studies" is just another word for Archaeology. And I love Archaeology. While studying it and going on digs in college, I'd always entertained thoughts of future archaeologists excavating our modern cities and wondered what they would make of our civilization from the things they find. It's like the author was reading my mind! When Jarra and her class dig up the ruins of New York, the methods and technology they use may be very different, but still the systematic methods are there and so is the culture and spirit of a dig site. World building is fantastic in terms of creating a great atmosphere.

My only quibbles are minor. The dialogue can be stunted at times, making Jarra and her friends sound and act like they are much younger than their eighteen years. Fian, the romantic interest, is probably the worst offender. Jarra also seems to be an expert at everything. A character even makes a joke about this at one point in the novel. As well, there is a tendency to tell instead of show and moments of overt info-dumping, but as many of these instances are worked into a classroom setting, they were easily forgivable. Other than that, as you can see from my rating, this book was close to perfect.

Thank you, Janet Edwards, for breathing some new life into YA for me. Earth Girl was a very enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to the next book.