I absolutely loved this book! Loner is one of those timeless stories about growing up, identity and adjusting to the different changes life throws at us as we move from being naive teenagers to a young adulthood. The writing was eloquent and charming, and I absolutely loved how well developed all the characters were. Would definitely recommend this,

This was a relatable though sometimes hard to read coming of age story that I related to massively. Young does an amazing job of portraying young women, their thoughts, anxieties and struggles. The plot meandered and was confusing at times but I appreciate the reality of a young person's life often does twist and turn in strange ways - not everything is resolved or makes sense. Fabulous cover and writing that is easy and engaging.

**I received an ARC copy of Loner from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for a review.**

**May contain spoilers.**

Loner is a coming of age story (think Normal People) about a college dropout with no prospects, and no motivation to seek prospects, in regards to the next chapter of her life. The entire story is presented in a monologue format of Lona’s thoughts and conflicting emotions. Although this book was, at times, boring, I found the characters relatable and various aspects of the story to be interesting.

What I liked about the book:

-Relatable characters.
-Lona’s relationship for her grandfather.
-Lona’s (main character) rediscovery of her hobbies (mainly art).
-How Lona uses roller skating to decompress; I found it unique yet fitting to the age.

What I did not care for:

-Lona and Tab’s relationship as it began to fade about midway through the book when the beginning of the books projected a sort of “besties for the resties” situation...keep reading though if you are reading this and no finished!
-Although I enjoyed Lona’s relationship with her grandfather, I kept hoping they would open up to each other a little more.
-How there was minimal description of the end of George and Lona’s relationship.
-The very strange art party at the end of the book...
-I would have also liked to hear more from Lona’s parents in regards to thoughts they might have on what she should do with her future and/ or other parental guidance.

Overall, I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys YA; however, not to someone seeking to dabble in the genre.

I think that the topics explored in this book are incredibly important for young people to read about and have conversations about. This felt relatable and engaging throughout.

I really enjoyed this coming of age book, as a 30 something year old it was easy to look back on the anxious period where have left school and are just trying to work things out while feeling the pressures of those around you to take a certain path.
It took a while to get into it but I liked the simplistic, inner dialogue writing style which would be great to engage young readers.

This was received as an e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

Typically, this is not my kind of book – however, Young does a particularly good job at creating a realistic portrayal of young women and their anxieties. The writing style is simplistic but effective and does well to create a sense of aimlessness and loss of direction in Lona’s life.

There does seem to be some plot holes or ends which aren’t tied up, such as Lona’s relationships with her friends, though this could simply be put down to the book being entirely from her perspective. However, as the book’s ending was so enjoyable – and relatable – to read, with a sense of finality about it, it did bother me that these other aspects of her life and the story were not full idealised or explored.

The plot can seem haphazard and almost pointless at times, though I believe this is largely due to the atmosphere of confusion and aimlessness that Young looks to create and it does cause the reader to almost mimic Lona’s misdirection in life.

While Lona truly is a relatable character, the lack of real driving narrative can be offputting and, while it makes an enjoyable read, it is not a book which will stick out in memory a couple of months down the line. With that being said, it is a quick and enjoyable read and one that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys Young Adult, contemporary fiction.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Loner is a honest, raw and angsty exploration of new adulthood. Lona (see what the author did there?! I was hoping some character would address it at some point and they did!) is a college dropout and a DJ at Planet Skate (she works in a skate rink, I'm a beginner skater and I include skates on my Instagram posts, so I absolutely had to read this!!) and throughout the book we see her dealing with anxiety, love and the many sorrows of adulthood.

I loved this book, because I could relate so much to the main character. The fact that she felt like she had to wear a mask around others, because they would not understand her anxiety and the fact that she prefers a quiet night in watching TV shows rather than going out and partying, I felt THAT.

The writing is very real and fluid and all the characters are well-written and relatable. I recommend this to anyone who's in their 20s and struggling or who would like to know what it's like being a twentysomething with no idea what to do with their life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy!

I loved this book in my 30s and I would have love it even more in my teens. I really enjoyed this book, the characters were well written and lots of things really resonated with me, even now - why weren't there more books like this when I was younger?!

Recommended to young and older-er women alike!

3.75 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 5 February 2021 .


Lona has dropped out of uni, is living with her parents, and still working her high school job at the local skating rink. Meanwhile all her friends are still in uni and moving on with their lives. But Lona doesn’t care. She doesn’t really see the point in finishing her art degree. After all, what is she going to do but create art anyway.

Lona’s mother disagrees. If Lona isn’t going to uni, she can find a real job and start paying rent. So Lona moves out with two friends from uni, living behind a curtain in the living room and paying a bit less. Her best friend Tab is still at uni and has a new boyfriend that she is smitten with. The boyfriend Nick is all about double dating, so they fix Lona up with George. Now Lona is smitten. George is a med student and in a band.

Still, with all this Lona is still happier being on her own reading or watching Buffy (yes, the vampire slayer.) Lona is on a dead end road working at the grocery store, not making art, and barely making ends meet. Until her grandpa is hospitalized. And somehow that is a turning point for Lona.

Melbourne, Australia is the setting for this novel. Lona is somewhat likeable, since in a lot of ways, I empathize with her. Staying home and reading or binge watching Netflix is part of our lives now. Lona also prefers her own company and finds being with others exhausting - the true sign of an introvert. Young definitely conveys Lona’s aimlessness, the aimlessness of a lot of recent high school grads. However, there was very little growth in Lona’s character during the book.

Still, I feel that it was an enjoyable read. The short, brief chapters were a nice change from the last book I read. I appreciated the quirkiness of both Lona and the other characters. Nothing rote about them at all.

In Loner, we follow lead character Lona as she navigates life in her early twenties living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. A university drop out, who appears to be struggling with the perceived concept of 'adulthood' and societal pressure.
From the outside this sounded like exactly my cup of tea, but I struggled to get into it much or make a connection with the characters. I was originally taken in by the Melbourne setting, as someone who has previously lived there. I really enjoyed the setting and Young did a good job of bringing the quirks and normality of living in Melbourne and its varied suburbs to life. Whilst this is something that I enjoyed, i'm not sure how well it would transfer to an international audience, or people who haven't experienced Melbourne, especially when I think it played a lot of grounding in who the characters were - in particular in reference to the areas they lived etc.
As this book is one that is essentially about transgressing through the end of teenage years into life in your 20s I was expecting a lot more in depth character development. I felt as though there was a little bit with Lona but it never really went anywhere. Whilst we see some of her insecurities and fears, they aren't deep dived and whilst on some occasions it appear as though conversations are going to happen, nothing ever truly emerges. I don't expect a perfect outcome, and everyone to be happy from then onwards, that's not real life but a couple of sentences unfortunately doesn't give us a great insight into why Lona feels the way she does. Essentially, I felt as though there was so much left unsaid from all of her relationships, both romantically and friendships - there were so many interesting support characters but they never fully bloomed.

At its core, this is a good book with a lot of potential. We're currently experiencing more and more novels addressing the 'normal' of everyday life and I am absolutely here for that - we all know its not rainbows and magic every day. But it is also this current trend in this type of novel that holds this one in particular back, we've seen some incredible examples of characterisation and inner turmoil that ultimately Loner sadly only brushes the edges on.

“It’s the simple fact that Lona has always done well, but doing well has done nothing for her.”

Wow what can I say? I love this book.
I was already drawn to it by the plot and the cover (which is lovely), but I was surely more impressed by the books itself after reading it.
First I liked how the title “Loner” resembles the name of the main character “Lona”.
The writing is not for everyone, it is very descriptive, short sentences with a few dialogues here and there, but the books is mostly based on describing things, surroundings, Lona’s state and feelings. Personally I loved how it was written, some sentences were written with such a simplicity that in my opinion gave them even more meaning, I really enjoyed Young’s writing style so if she will publish something else in the future I’m most likely going to buy it.
The book in its entirety reminded me of Normal People or Sally Rooney in general, so if you liked that one I suggest you to give a shot to Loner as well.
The book is so realistic that sometimes I felt like I was the one narrating everything.
I also felt really attached to Lona, she’s a pretty unique character with many facets that is basically impossibile to not feel like being her in at least on part of the book.
Lona is the perfect example of a 20 year old person going through the difficulties and anxieties of the pre adulthood. And as someone who felt confused and lost interested in things that I used to love, Lona somehow reminded me of myself, so I guess that’s a bonus.
I’m going to end this review with some quotes that I really liked from the book (please note that the quotes are taken from the ARC and are subject to change):

“Lona became someone who was interested in pretending not to be interested in boys.”

“Dad and Grandpa are at either end of the table due to the patriarchal structure of society.”

“But the getting out of the hose is the hard thing. The making herself the person she is for everyone else is the painful thing.”

3.8 stars

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It had a great premise, but it just did not come through for me. It was a little too YA for me. However, I would still recommend.

Thank you to netgalley for this advance review copy. (For reference I read this during Covid 19 lockdown)

I enjoyed this character driven novel about the period after school, where you have to work out what to do with your life if you’re not the smart student at school anymore.

The comparison with Rooney's 'Normal People' might be a too far a stretch.
Not for me. Nothing wrong with the book, I simply didn't realise it'd be quite as YA as it is.
I'm sure this is a great title for someone who enjoys the genre, but the unaccustomed to YA (me), it wasn't engaging enough to read past a few pages.
Great cover, though.

Thank you Netgalley but this book wasn't my cup of tea.
I didn't finish it, couldn't get into it.
Think it was the use of the teenage language that I struggled with.

Such a funny and realistic portrayal of teenage life. There is something in this book that I’m sure everyone can relate too. Whether you’re a doctor who fan or a music lover everyone will love reading this book. I can’t remember the last time I loved a character so much. The honesty and insecurity in this book so perfectly defines teen of our time.

I found myself struggling to get through this book at times; mainly due to the amount of inner dialogue we got from Lona. For me personally, I prefer more interaction with other characters as opposed to the main character telling us everything through her inner dialogue, which at times was a bit clunky.

Lona was an interesting character. I found it so refreshing to read about a character who doesn’t know what they want to do in life. Most characters seem to have a fairly good idea about what they want their future to be like, which gets a bit boring after a while. I also felt that this made Lona a lot more relatable and realistic to me. I know so many people who don’t know what their doing with their life, I still feel that way at times and I think that’s why I related to Lona as much as I did. At times I would find myself being really annoyed with some of the choices Lona made and then I realised that it’s probably what I would do. You know how you never listen to your own advice.

There still seems to be a stigma around dropping out of university and I think this book did a really great job of showing why university isn’t all that it’s meant to be. Sometimes university isn’t for everyone and Young did a wonderful job of making Lona’s story so real that you understand more why it wasn’t for her.
I would have loved more interaction between characters, I wanted to know more about them than what we did get to see.

Having said that, I did enjoy this book. I don’t think I’d be in a hurry to pick it up again but I still enjoyed the story.

I did not finish this book, so I will not put a review on Goodreads (I don't like to leave comprehensive reviews unless I have read the whole thing). This book had a lot of elements that I thought I would like, but the very short, choppy chapters and the unique tone of the main character just did not work for me personally. I do believe this book would be great for a lot of readers.

Loner is a short yet meaningful coming of age story about a girl named Lona. There is not much of a plot, in fact there is not really a plot at all and it ends suddenly without any climax or resolution. The sentences are choppy and it changes topics abruptly. The complete lack of a plot was a bit boring and hard to get into at first, but the reason is because this book is a realistic life story. Real life doesn't have a plot, or a neat beginning and ending, and instead is a string of related events. Instead what is interesting about this book is in depth look into the main character Lona.

Lona is a unique yet highly relatable character. She is cynical about everything and a bit pretentious. She likes to be alone a lot but she cares very deeply for her best friend though she isn't the best at keeping up relationships. There were some moments when I couldn't even tell if we were supposed to like her - she was just so pretentious and self absorbed and overly stubborn about the stupidest things and some of the things she said just made me cringe internally. I definitely understand why someone might not like her, but I liked her regardless. Honestly she reminded me too much of myself in many ways, including the things I don't like about myself, which is an uncomfortable but strangely validating kind of character to read about. The writing style is very snappy and there is some witty comment or observation on nearly every page.

I also just love how Lona captured the feeling of being a young adult and being sort of lost in life. Lona has dropped out of art school and works at two crappy minimum wage jobs and lives behind a curtain in the living room with two roommates who she barely knows and is just generally directionless about her future. This is just such a genuine experience and it was written in a way that just really captured the whole vibe of total despair mixed with extreme apathy.

Not much changed from the beginning to end. If you want a story with a riveting plot, this is not the one, but if you are looking for a calm, quiet book about the life of a young girl with witty one-liners throughout, then Loner is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Text Publishing, and author Georgina Young for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was...depressing. It definitely does capture that "now what?" phase of life after college (or in this case, while college is on hold). However, it's SO frustrating, from an older perspective, to see the mistakes Lona makes, and the desperation she experiences. I'd recommend this for older readers, but would hesitate to hand this Ghost of Christmas Future of a novel to high schoolers.