Earth Girl

Edwards, Janet. Earth Girl. Harper Voyager, 2012. 

The year is 2788.  Humanity has expanded to many planets, but some humans are born with an inability to survive anywhere besides Earth.  These people, the handicapped, are often abandoned as infants and are raised exclusively on Earth. Jarra is one of the handicapped, but she wants to interact with "exos" (those who grow up off-planet), so she enrolls in an off-planet university whose courses are held on Earth.  She creates a fake identity for herself, until a tragedy causes her to mistake her fantasy for reality, with near-tragic consequences.

I liked the concept behind this book, and I liked getting to know Jarra and her classmates, especially since each planet/sector had its own personality quirks.  I was a bit confused about Jarra's confusion, because it wasn't clear to me that she was hallucinating until she decided to travel off-planet (which would have been a death sentence for her), but all was eventually explained.  I also enjoyed the excavation perspective, where people were digging up the ruins of New York City in hopes of shedding light on lost history.  There's a lot to like in this book, and it should be popular with my patrons who are fans of science fiction as well as those who like dystopia (and don't want to be reminded that dystopia is a subset of science fiction).

Recommended for: teens, tweens

Red Flags: none; there is some mild "cussing," but their swear words are different from those currently in use

Overall Rating: 4/5