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The Different Girl

3.12 of 5 stars 3.12 · rating details · 385 ratings · 134 reviews

Four nearly identical girls on a desert island. An unexpected new arrival. A gently warped near future where nothing is quite as it seems.

Veronika. Caroline. Isobel. Eleanor. One blond, one brunette, one redhead, one with hair black as tar. Four otherwise identical girls who spend their days in sync, tasked to learn. But when May, a very different kind of girl—the lone sur...more

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published February 21st 2013 by Dutton Juvenile

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May 16, 2013 Alise (Readers in Wonderland) rated it 1 of 5 stars

_________________________________
The Different Girl Review
_________________________________
Full formatting of this review at link above.

Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Nope. Nope. Oh gosh, this was... pretty bad. I don't think I could write a real review on this but I still think it deserves to be talked about so you guys can avoid it. Here goes.

Everything I learned about storytelling is apparently wrong because this book has almost no plot, and definitely no resolution. No ending, not even a sad one. I...more

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Apr 25, 2013 Raya rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 23, 2013 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopia, c2c-2013-challlenge, favorites, science-fiction

Truly an imaginative and mysterious piece of storytelling. I was hooked from the beginning. I still have a lot of questions, but I feel satisfied.

(view spoiler)...more

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May 16, 2013 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, fiction, first-reads

Veronika is one of four identical girls, living on an island for as long as she can remember. She, Caroline, Isobel, and Eleanor, seem to spend each day doing everything alike, set to learn about their surroundings by their caretakers Irene and Robbert. This unvarying daily routine changes when a strange girl, May, washes on shore and forces the girls into contact with the outside world.

The Different Girl is a very quick read at only about 230 pages. Told through Veronika’s voice, it becomes qui...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Wandering Librarians rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, ya

Veronika has lived on an island for as long as she can remember, with three other girls, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor. Their teachers are Irene and Robbert. They observe thing. They are warned to never, ever go near the water. One day, pieces of a shipwreck wash up on shore, and along with them a girl, May. With May's coming, Veronika realizes just how different she and the other girls are, and how dangerous the outside world can be.

This was...whoa. There is no way to talk about this without lot...more Veronika has lived on an island for as long as she can remember, with three other girls, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor. Their teachers are Irene and Robbert. They observe thing. They are warned to never, ever go near the water. One day, pieces of a shipwreck wash up on shore, and along with them a girl, May. With May's coming, Veronika realizes just how different she and the other girls are, and how dangerous the outside world can be.

This was...whoa. There is no way to talk about this without lots of spoilers, so just be aware that there are lots of spoilers.

It doesn't take very long to figure out that Veronika, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor are not quite...normal. They are not regular girls. Their attention to detail is so focused. The questions that Irene and Robbert ask them are so specific. They take "naps," which seem to happen whenever Irene and Isobel and Robbert need to attend to other things. They don't eat.

What was interesting about the framing of the book is that as the reader, you never know more than Veronika does. Ever. Not even at the end. It is completely through Veronika's perspective, which is, of course, a very analytical one, devoid of unnecessary emotion. The term "robot" is never used. Neither is "artificial intelligence" or anything like that. It's not clear if Veronika is completely mechanical. I think so? We don't know how the girls were made, because Veronika does not know. We don't know how they function, because Veronika doesn't know. It was frustrating at times, not knowing. I wished for an omnipotent narrator who could answer my questions, but I never got one, and a lot of my questions didn't get answered at all.

The pace of the book is very slow. Veronika and the other girl's lives revolve around observing and telling others what they have observed. And that's what much of the book is. May shows up, and is frustrated with the slow pace of life. She doesn't have the patience to sit and observe and then explain in detail what she's seen for hours. The plot very, very slowly unfolds, and while there is a dramatic, and in many ways, unsatisfying conclusion, even that part felt slow, deliberate, like the lives of the girls.

Toward the end, Veronika is able to learn more about where she came from than she ever has known before, but even that information is sketchy and full of holes. And by the end of the book, there is no one to ask, and the girls must figure out how to carry on and care for themselves. And then it ends.

In many ways, totally unsatisfying. In other ways, totally fascinating. Give it to your kids who like to think about things and ponder life's many questions.(less)

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Apr 03, 2013 Step Into Fiction rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sana

The Different Girl is well different. I'm not a big fan of sci fi, but the premise of this book really intrigued me. The first 50 pages of the book are a bit difficult to get through, but that's because you are given a look into the day in and day out life of the characters in the story.

The Different Girl centers around four identical androids who have different colored hair to differentiate between them. They are looked after by their caretakers Robbert and Irene. The androids are Veronika, Car...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Handan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-for-fun, ya

Summary
Narrated by Veronika, one of four who are exactly alike (except for their hair color). Veronika, Caroline, Isobel, and Eleanor live with Robbert and Irene on a small tropical island. A supply boat bring them what they need from the outside. Irene and Robbert are their teachers, mostly through long walks and many questions (and quite a few are meta in nature). Their world is disrupted and utterly shifted when Veronika discovers a shipwreck survivor on the beach, a young girl named May. May...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Robert Slaven rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, sci-fi

First off and as usual, it should be noted that I received this book free from GoodReads in a drawing. Despite that typical and abundantly kind consideration my candid feedback resides below.

Over the past 20 books or so I've tried with great assiduity to accentuate the positive aspects of the titles that GoodReads is so kind to provide. Until this most recent submission, that mindset has been fairly easy to adhere to. Even the worst book provides an entertaining diversion if looked at in the pro...more First off and as usual, it should be noted that I received this book free from GoodReads in a drawing. Despite that typical and abundantly kind consideration my candid feedback resides below.

Over the past 20 books or so I've tried with great assiduity to accentuate the positive aspects of the titles that GoodReads is so kind to provide. Until this most recent submission, that mindset has been fairly easy to adhere to. Even the worst book provides an entertaining diversion if looked at in the proper light. This book isn't really bad per se as much as it just seems to be missing something. Allow me to attempt to illuminate without unintentionally illuminating the actual plot. Or to put it more succinctly and more firmly in the vernacular, let me try to describe this without spoilers.

The nearest and simplest analogy I can draw for this book is to ask you to imagine an episode of the Twilight Zone, but limit yourself to only the middle third of it. "The Different Girl" lacks any real beginning as the reader is called upon to piece together what has come before through anecdote and implication. In general, this isn't a bad way for a book to go because readers love to figure things out as they read, unraveling the Gordian Knot of character history tidbit by tidbit. Unfortunately, the history isn't really all that surprising or unusual. Any fan of Serling or Bradbury or Bova or Asimov has read pretty much this plot already. If this had been written in 1954 it would have been marvelous but sadly we're all much too attuned to this sort of plotline to be at all surprised.

Flipping to the other periphery of the book, it doesn't really have much of a conclusion either. I found myself 10 pages from the end grumbling that things couldn't possibly be concluded satisfactorily in the time left. As it turns out I was right because we didn't actually reach any sort of wry twist. We just sort of.... well, ended. It was disappointing because the book has some real potential. In general, one can be happy with a book without a beginning. One can be happy with a book without an end. But one finds it difficult to enjoy a book which in fact lacks both.

On the positive side, the book is well written enough and does have a certain epistemological feel to it as our protagonists-four explore their world and try to unravel the mystery of their own existence. I (think) I can see where the author wants to go here. How do we learn to live in our world? How do we process divergent and contradictory inputs into some logical whole? How does our humanness shape those interpretations? There’s a great thread of philosophy here if you tease it out enough but it does take some teasing.

In summary, “The Different Girl” is fairly disappointing. I expected something fresh and got something stale and reminiscent of the 50s. Dahlquist’s skill as a writer is not to be doubted but there’s just a bit of something missing to make this into the mainstream. TDG is sure to inspire much thought and conversation but much of that will be somewhat disgruntled.
(less)

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Feb 05, 2013 Miss Literati rated it 5 of 5 stars

THE DIFFERENT GIRL by Gordon Dahlquist is a fantastically unique science fiction tale. The mystery that surrounds the entire story and its characters is addicting and we found ourselves unable to put the book down!

Four girls, Veronkia, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor, live on an island with their caretakers, Robbert and Irene. The girls are seemingly identical in every aspect of their lives. They look the same – except for a drastic difference in their hair colors – do the same things, and think th...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Ami rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, science-fiction

Recently, I was lucky enough to receive a box full of advanced copy books from a local book store and this was among them. It was one of the first I chose to read because the premise intrigued me.

It didn't take much reading to discover that the girls were probably mechanized in some way although at first I wasn't sure if they were android or perhaps cyborg. This book did catch me and hold me (I read it in less than 24 hours) and I did enjoy it, but I was left with so many questions! I loved the...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Jenni French rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: age-4-grades-6-8, age-5-grades-9-12, genre-science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 22, 2013 Laura rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 11, 2013 Anna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy, young-adult

First of all, as far as I can tell, this is a stand-alone novel. I'm alway excited to come across a single title in young adult science fiction these days. There's definitely plenty of room for a sequel if the author should feel like it later, but it's also a totally fulfilling story all by itself. Four girls have lived on an island with just two adults to take care of them for as long as they can remember. They all do the same things, all together. There's a storm, and suddenly there's another...more

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Mar 05, 2013 De'Zsa rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1-star, read-2013, ya, 2013-publication, sci-fi-dystopian-fantasy, stopped-reading, laaaaaaawd

*rubs my temples*

Really?

YA?

Really?

Can I say something (with a few choice words)???

How the fuck is this YA? I know the four girls--
They're not girls. They're just the same, but different.
oh watch out.

Okay, so I know these four creations or whatever are androids, but they were so. damn. boring. I will never use the word 'boring' again unless the situation/book is exactly like The Different Girl. The freakin'...questions? Class time? The, the..what the hell is it even CALLED?

conversations between t...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Miss Remmers rated it 3 of 5 stars

What grabbed my attention about The Different Girl was definitely (and obviously) the cover. I was intrigued by the plot and I even grew to love the characters. At one point in the story (I won't say which), I couldn't help but gasp out loud (on an airplane) out of love for a character. Dahlquist did a great job of making the giving just enough information in regards to the characters and whether or not they could be trusted. I give him an A+ for character development for sure.

I will say that th...more

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Apr 27, 2013 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: baya-review

Mr. Dahlquist, a few tips from this humble reader:
1) If your book centers around a big, unstated mystery, don't let the cover art give away the solution. Also, you don't need to be quite so heavy-handed with your clues.
2) A limited narrator can be intriguing, but she should have some insight. An emotionless, inexperienced, constrained point of view may be appropriate for the character but is not so interesting for the reader.
3) Pacing! After two hundred pages of walks around the island with noth...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Bridget Mckinney rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was wonderful enough that I stayed up far, far past my bedtime last night so I could finish reading it.

I love that this story is told from the point of view of one of four identical girls. Veronika's journey is one of discovery--of who and what she is and where she and her sisters came from. Ultimately, this is a coming-of-age story, but it's complicated when you're a humanoid robot.

I also love that the ending isn't a traditionally "happy" one. Instead, it's a hopeful one that continue...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Kelly Woodward rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

My favorite thing about this book is the way information was presented. In many books, background information is doled out in generous helpings throughout the book, and the plot has to stop in order for the reader to be caught up to speed. It's like, "Hold on a second. Let me explain, because there's stuff you need to know in order to understand what's about to happen." Even if the story is good, I hate this. I can tell that I'm being informed, and it feels like a brief foray into nonfiction bef...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Aubrey rated it 1 of 5 stars

So I picked this book up for three different reasons:
1. The cover art
2. The interesting sounding plot
3. It looked short enough, I though I could finish it pretty quickly.

Boy was I wrong about that third one. This book was so frustrating and I could only read about a chapter or two at time because I kept putting it down. I could not read through it straight. There are so many questions through this book and none of them seemed to get answered. Obviously the girls are some sort of robot, but that...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

An intriguing YA book about four girls who live on an island with their two caretakers. From the cover you can tell that these girls are not just your typical girls. The book is through Veronika, one of the girls, point of view. The book follows their typical days of learning the very basic elements of the planet, and the caretakers challenge the each girl to think on their own. When Veronika finds a stranger, who is much different than them, washed up on the shore, their lives all change. Diffe...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Shay rated it 2 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book at ALA Midwinter 2013. All quotes are based on an uncorrected text.

“Her words were like islands, just the visible tips of mountains underneath.”

Veronika, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor live on a remote island with Irene and Robbert, their caretakers. They spend their repetitive days observing and learning about the island around them. It is clear that these four girls are unusual, but the true extent of their difference is only revealed by th...more Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book at ALA Midwinter 2013. All quotes are based on an uncorrected text.

“Her words were like islands, just the visible tips of mountains underneath.”

Veronika, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor live on a remote island with Irene and Robbert, their caretakers. They spend their repetitive days observing and learning about the island around them. It is clear that these four girls are unusual, but the true extent of their difference is only revealed by the arrival of May, who is stranded by a ship wreck. May has lived all her life on board a boat with her uncle, and has never been to school. Her uncle went to great efforts to hide her from the world, though it is not clear why he did so. Where Veronika, Caroline, Isobel and Eleanor are cautious and observant, May is reckless and impulsive. In addition to making the girls realize that they are not quite normal, May provides a window on the outside world, which they know so little about. While May’s arrival is an unprecedented learning opportunity for the girls, her presence also threatens to undo all of Irene and Robbert’s careful years of work.

Although the four girls are very similar, Veronika serves as our narrator. The directness and austerity of her first person narration allows the reader to inhabit the uniquely analytic perspective which makes the four girls so different from May. However, this perspective also handicaps the reader, as we are constrained by Veronika’s naïve world view. We quickly realize that Robbert and Irene are more than simply caretakers, but the slightly off-kilter details are only slowly revealed. In some ways, this story is a mystery, in which the reader must struggle to piece together the tiny details which we have only seen through the eyes of a character with a mind that is entirely unlike our own. By the midpoint of the book, the plot was still frustratingly vague, and the slow build led to a profoundly unsatisfying conclusion. Many, if not the majority, of questions raised by the book are left unanswered. Near the end of the book, Veronika comes into possession of Robbert’s notebook, in which he records everything about their work on this island. This was the perfect opportunity the let the reader in on more of the back story, but Dahlquist simply let it slip by. The Different Girl is in an interesting exercise in seeing the world from a unique perspective, but it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of plot development.

From: http://shayshortt.wordpress.com/2013/...(less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Ann Halligan rated it 2 of 5 stars

I received a galley copy of this story through Goodreads Giveaway...I was excited to have won something! I picked this up right after I finished a well-written book, which was a mistake as the simplistic tone of the writing in this book put me off immediately, so I put it down. I did pick it up the next day and was actually caught in the story, because the premise is good and I wanted to learn more. I finished this book in an afternoon and evening because I was intrigued and kept reading because...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Kim Kanofsky rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, dystopian

A rather odd little book. The back does say that you will have questions and get some answers, but I thought it would actually finish at the end. The end seems rather drawn out for a chapter or two and then suddenly it is done. I would have liked a little more information at the end (or a lot) and a lot more information on what the 4 alike girls looked like other than their hair. I also would have liked more information on Irene and Robbert at the end as well as "the head" that was found. Is thi...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, review-copy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There are four girls, who have lived all their lives on an isolated island under the attentive eyes of two adults who are their teachers and guardians. One girl is blond, one brunette, one redhead, and one, Veronika, the narrator of the story, has black hair, but otherwise, they seem identical. And they never question their routine--it is all they have ever known.

Then a fifth girl comes, the only survivor of a shipwreck. Veronika's world is forever changed by the differences of this girl, and th...more There are four girls, who have lived all their lives on an isolated island under the attentive eyes of two adults who are their teachers and guardians. One girl is blond, one brunette, one redhead, and one, Veronika, the narrator of the story, has black hair, but otherwise, they seem identical. And they never question their routine--it is all they have ever known.

Then a fifth girl comes, the only survivor of a shipwreck. Veronika's world is forever changed by the differences of this girl, and the questions that her presence brings. The world of the island is no longer safe--enemies are approaching, death becomes a real possibility-- and Veronika's assumptions about herself and the other three girls are shaken to their core.

Oh goodness, this is a hard one to review, because the reader's assumptions, and the picture of the island that seems so simple at first, all becomes so much more tangled, and interesting, and beautifully thought-provoking, with the arrival of the different girl. And all these tangles aren't exactly explained, because everything the reader knows is filtered through the lens of Veronika's mind, and her mind is not exactly ordinary. So we don't see the big picture explaining all the whys of this particular world, because Veronika never finds many answers, but we do see her changing, as her peace, both of mind and of place, become progressively shattered.

Those who enjoy really quirky, occasionally frustrating, stories of what it means to be a thinking being may well enjoy it as much as I did. (Those who like stories about girls in orphanages/boarding schools might also like it for that aspect of it!). I myself found it a memorable and gripping character-driven mind-trip. That being said, those who like their world building actually built, with questions answered and things explained, who like books that have Plot front and central point (as opposed to a book like this, in which the central point is one character's experience of plot-like elements she doesn't understand), might well be frustrated.

For those who are curious about the spoilery part of it--it becomes clear pretty early in the book (which I appreciated--it let me in on the whole thought-experiment aspect of the story), and the cover actually shows a rather clever spoiler, and so I will tell what it is, because I think it really does make a difference in whether people might want to read it or not.

The four girls are robots. They are there on the island to be kept safe from those who wish to destroy them, while they are being taught how to be thinking beings.(less)

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Feb 24, 2013 Janeka rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, 2013, science-fiction, young-adult, released-in-bc

DISCLAIMER: I received this book free from the publisher through the GoodReads first-reads review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. All quotes are based on an uncorrected text.

Classification: 2,5 stars

First of all, I'm not a dystopia /science fiction kind of girl. I enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy and Divergent, but so far that's it for me.

In 'The Different girl' we are presented to 4 'robot' girls (one of them being Veronica, the...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Krissy Staffan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I received this book (advanced readers copy) for free through goodreads giveaways.
I enjoyed this book for the most part.
The beginning of the story isn't really a beginning, it just kind of jumps into the story with out any introductions. Which, really, is ok, as readers, we tend to like to figure things out, to guess the way things are going to go along the way.
Gordon Dahlquist did a great job describing the characters and the story was very well written. You felt like you were in the story with...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Michelle added it

Told through Veronika’s perspective, Gordon Dahlquist’s The Different Girl follows Veronika and her “sisters” as they work through their daily chores and teachings and as she makes the reader cognizant of their lifestyle. While a reader knows that something is not quite right about the four girls, one is slow to focus on their special nature due in part because the differences are not mentioned outright but also because they are not considered out of the ordinary from Veronika’s perspective. Hin...more Told through Veronika’s perspective, Gordon Dahlquist’s The Different Girl follows Veronika and her “sisters” as they work through their daily chores and teachings and as she makes the reader cognizant of their lifestyle. While a reader knows that something is not quite right about the four girls, one is slow to focus on their special nature due in part because the differences are not mentioned outright but also because they are not considered out of the ordinary from Veronika’s perspective. Hints are there but the truth does not occur until May’s arrival, at which time the differences between them become quite apparent. Again, the truth is not necessarily a surprise but the unspoken confirmation of the truth is quite satisfying.

In addition to the uniqueness of the narrator, The Different Girl is dissimilar from other dystopian novels because of the lack of explicit descriptions or explanations. The entire story is very clinical, with the descriptions less about the physical and more about the mental confusion Veronika suffers at the introduction of this foreign girl to her safe and orderly world. However, in spite of the lack of overt imagery, a reader can still envision the island the girls inhabit and can make sense of many of Veronika’s random thoughts. It is an unusual method of storytelling but very fitting given the narrator and quite effective.

The Different Girl has tremendous potential but only if the book is a part of a series, something which was undetermined at the time of writing this review. The perspective of the story is fresh, while the action is exciting and surprising. It is an engaging story that flows smoothly and quickly. However, the main issues are the sheer amount of unanswered questions and total lack of a backstory to explain the current societal structure. A reader just does not know enough to contemplate the meaning behind May’s actions and cryptic comments or comprehend the changes in the world. While it does add to the overall tension of the story, it also increases a reader’s frustration because no answers are forthcoming. The end of the novel is just as nebulous as the beginning, if not more so because of the glimpses of a changed world seen but left unexplained. If The Different Girl really is a standalone novel, it is not worth the exasperation from the lack of answers, but if it is the first book in a series, there is enough to make it quite the intriguing story with enough closure to satisfy readers while creating plenty of plot potential for future stories.(less)

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Feb 23, 2013 Marie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, first-reads, sci-fi, dystopia

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Four orphaned girls live on an island after their parents died in a plane crash. The girls are identical in every way with the exception of their hair color: Veronika has red hair, Isobel is blonde, Caroline is a brunette and Eleanor has black hair. They are taught to observe, think, reason, and recognize abstract concepts while remaining obedient and dutiful to Robbert and Irene, their caretakers.

Their idyll and isolated lives are dist...more I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

Four orphaned girls live on an island after their parents died in a plane crash. The girls are identical in every way with the exception of their hair color: Veronika has red hair, Isobel is blonde, Caroline is a brunette and Eleanor has black hair. They are taught to observe, think, reason, and recognize abstract concepts while remaining obedient and dutiful to Robbert and Irene, their caretakers.

Their idyll and isolated lives are disturbed by Veronika's sudden discovery of another girl, May, who is the lone survivor of a shipwreck. May is different from the other girls in many ways. Her presence and subsequent actions cause Veronika to ask questions she never would otherwise. Though Veronika's behavior is a mild threat to Robbert and Irene's authority and the unity that she shares with the other girls, the real danger to their peaceful existence lurks elsewhere.

I haven't read other reviews for this book, but if I were to hazard a guess as to where some frustrations might lie, I would say it is due to Veronika's narration style. Without giving anything away (though one could easily guess the reason by looking at the cover art and the reason itself is given in the first chapter), Veronika's simplistic and straightforward outlook is that way on purpose. It is likely to annoy those who are expecting richer prose. I, however, found it challenging in a good way; her limited point of view made me appreciate the cognitive abilities that I have long taken for granted.

Also, don't expect mindblowing world building in this book. There is only one real place, the island, and there are a handful of locations that the four girls are allowed to go: the dock, the beach, the woods, and the cliffs. There are two buildings, which are a residence and a classroom. While this is only the girls' immediate environment, there are opposing factions described later in the story that will help the reader envision the true state of the outside world.

Though the ending was satisfactory, ultimately I was unhappy with the questions left unanswered. Why does Caroline sometimes dream and the other girls can't? What do the girls really look like? I'm guessing their appearance is left a mystery so the reader can fill in the blanks him/herself. Not that my imagination is lacking, but I suppose I wanted a bit more detail.

While the book falls short of excellent I would still recommend this for people who are looking for a stand-alone novel (gasp! It feels like everything is a trilogy or series nowadays) that is easy to read and doesn't require much emotional involvement. It is also good for those who are thinking of getting into sci-fi or even dystopia but don't want to be overwhelmed by unfamiliar worlds. (less)

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Nov 25, 2012 Karen Yingling rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 20, 2013 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is closer to 2.5 stars, because there are some good qualities about this book, but on the whole, I found it boring, and almost annoying. The author never comes out and says it, but the book is pretty clearly a treatise against judging people for being different, and the idea that it's okay to kill, maim or injure to protect what you believe. I applaud that, but the book itself, not really.

I think part of it was that the narrator's voice was almost grating. Even though it is never specifical...more

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The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand
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Control
by Lydia Kang

About Gordon Dahlquist

Gordon Dahlquist, also credited as G.W. Dahlquist, is a novelist and a playwright.

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Books by Gordon Dahlquist

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang, #1)

The Dark Volume (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang, #2)

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Volume Two (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang #1.2)

The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, Volume One (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang #1.1)

The Chemickal Marriage (Miss Temple, Doctor Svenson, and Cardinal Chang, #3)

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15721645-the-different-girl?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345115172l/15721645.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15721645-the-different-girl?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Different Girl by Gordon Dahlquist[/url]

The Different Girl

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