Katy Loutzenhiser

**An audio ARC of this book was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

This book has an amazing message. Sometimes, you put yourself in a box. You might not even realize that you’ve done it to yourself. You hit self-imposed limits and shut down when what you need to do is to learn to start questioning these limits. Do you really, truly, not like xyz thing? Or are you just scared of what could happen if you try it? Are you just scared about what could happen if it show more turns out that you like it?

In The Girl Least Likely, Gretchen learns so much about who she is and who she could be if she stopped controlling and judging herself. It was such a beautiful story to see Gretchen learn and grow, and I hope these lessons can become ones young girls can read and learn through Gretchen. You can be your own self-saboteur, so take a moment and think about what you might be holding yourself back from and why.

My favorite quote and life lesson:
“But I’m starting to think bravery isn’t some miraculous energy force I can hope will arrive one day. It might just be a decision. Honestly, a matter of saying ‘fuck it,’ or ‘why not,’ and then simply doing the thing.” show less

This one caught my attention from the moment I read the blurb. Your best friend moves away. But you still have phones, social media, etc, so it’s not like she’s disappearing off the face of the earth, right? But when Priya seems to do just that, breaking up with her boyfriend, telling her bestie Zan that she needs space and refusing to call, posting random social media pictures of trees and scenery that frankly anyone could have found and don’t exactly say “proof of life”, Zan show more starts to worry. What if something really is wrong?

The way this builds tension is really great, Zan and new guy in town Logan slowly sifting through clues, trying to figure out where Priya could be, even though they’re almost completely in the dark. You’re left imagining a host of possibilities, each more terrible than the last. This spins up with some great twists as it nears the end.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

I liked the use of strong female protagonists in this book. The story was told from Zan's POV. The author's use of words helped me as a reader really feel Zan's frustration, confusion, and despair of losing her best friend. The mystery itself was interesting. I liked the way the author used Social Media as a way to begin the mystery, along with her reference to CSI and how Zan builds a crime board to figure out if she's really being ghosted or not. The introduction of Logan as the love show more interest brought a sweetness to the story. If you like mysteries, this is one you should try. show less

"Voice galley," read by a synthetic voice, not whoever is the eventual narrator. The sound of the voice is pretty good, but intonation, emphasis, pronunciation are not always consistent. The real narrator will undoubtedly be much better.

Gretchen is a high school junior in Portland, Maine, the youngest of three siblings, and a generally quiet, somewhat withdrawn girl. She doesn't call attention to herself. She has only a few close friends, and not a large number of friendly acquaintances. show more She's a member of the yearbook club mainly because an extracurricular activity is required, and in her freshman and sophomore years, there were enough members that she as able to do only tasks that didn't require much interaction with anyone not a member of the yearbook club.

Becoming a standup comic is something that never crossed her mind.

This year, there are only four members of the yearbook club, and so she has to be actively involved with people. Her sister and her cousin convince her to go to a bar with them, with a fake ID originally created for her cousin's ex-girlfriend, and due to a series of events that don't quite make sense to her, she winds up doing a standup act in what she doesn't at first realize is a competition--and placing well enough that she's expected to return next week.

Oops.

It's not long before she is living a double life, and her standup comic alter ego is bleeding over into her "real" life. Her friends in the bar/comic world think she's of legal age, and a far more outgoing person than she has ever been, in addition to thinking she has a different name. But she's also using some of her "standup comic" personality to help her do the more challenging tasks she's stuck with in the yearbook club, asking questions of people involved in the various other school activities.

And her new best friend is the guy who's the photographer for the yearbook club, while her longtime best male friend whom she has a crush now, is suddenly more distant, and spending time with girls Gretchen knows she can't compete with.

She can't keep all these balls in the air forever, and things must inevitably come crashing down.

It's a lot of fun, and genuinely funny.

I received a free electronic "voice galley" of this audiobook from the publisher via NetGalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily. show less