The Girl Who Owned a City | Book Review

The Girl Who Owned a City

Author: O.T.Nelson

Pages: 216 

‘The Girl Who Owned a City’ by O.T. Nelson is a post-apocalyptic novel set in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. A dangerous virus has swept across the world and the only people who are not infected by this virus are kids who are 12 years old or younger. This has left the children all alone in a world without adults and they are having a difficult time with limited resources (limited food, no medicines) and to overcome the problem of limited resources some children have formed gangs and rob other children. The book revolves around Lisa and her brother Todd who are coping with the loss of their parents and are trying to overcome the shortage of food. There is no electricity supply, no hospitals and no means of transport. Hence, children are finding it difficult searching for food and day to day supplies like toothpaste, soap, etc. But our, protagonist Lisa is trying to overcome the problem and leaves every day in search of food while her younger brother Todd looks after the house and guards the food. While searching for food Lisa is always thinking of ways to find new places where she could get more food and how to overcome the problem of transportation. Lisa overcomes all these problems and even overcomes the problem of transportation by learning how to drive. There are kids walking all over the places stealing food from other kids. One day when Lisa is out looking for food, the kids from the other gangs attack Todd and steal all their food.  Lisa is having a hard time saving the food from the other gangs she comes up with an idea to form a militia and fight against the gangs and in return help the other kids with the food she gets from her secret places.  Finally, with the approval of other kids, she is successful in forming the militia and even comes with a place where all the people could live happily and will even have a strong defense system. Will Lisa be successful in finding and setting up a place where all the kids can stay together and fight against the other gangs?

I found Lisa a bit dictatorial and a bit too mature for her age. She is always ordering the other kids around and referring to things/places to be as her whereas there are other kids who are working for the same things as her even if she comes up with an idea there are others too who are trying to work as hard as her. I was a bit confused as to where all the dead bodies were? Children driving cars I mean Todd is just 5 years old how did he even manage to get to the brakes and control the car? There is a part wherein a kid (Jill) is appointed as a nurse and there is some kind of accident wherein she operates on Lisa just reading books from the nurse’s room which is not at all possible in real life. The idea was good but there were too many plot holes in the book. The beginning was very interesting to me. I loved how the adventures were overcome by Lisa and her brother but there are some things which are impossible for kids to do and which are shown as the kids could handle them easily. But the end could have been better.

Rating: 2/5