Girltopia

Girltopia #1

by Hilary Rogers

Clara is the sort of girl who hates getting into trouble. She even hates it when others get into trouble. But when every single man and boy in the city are struck down by a mysterious illness, Clara realises this is no time to be worrying about being good.

It's time for a daring rescue mission!

Maybe the boys and men will just wake up, Clara thinks. Maybe everything will go back to normal.

Clara didn't know how wrong she was. Only one thing is for sure - the girls are in charge!

182 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2018

Reviews

[Julie Garner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an advanced reading copy of this book.
Set in Melbourne, a virus wreaks havoc on the men and boys within the city. Clara is front and centre to information as her mum is a lead doctor on solving the problem. Not keen on waiting for her mum and the other doctors for a solution, Clara is determined to step in and find her dad and see what can be done. She drags her best friend Arabella and family friend Izzy into her mission. Clara shows us what a strong minded girl with great support can achieve.

[whatbooknext · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clara Bloom and the girls at school think it’s a bit weird at first. Soapy the lollipop man isn’t on the crossing, when he’s always been there. The traffic is a lot thinner too. When they get to school, there’s not one boy in class or any class, and their teacher, Mr Jackman hasn’t arrived.

Thinking they all have called in sick, their favourite relief teacher arrives and they enjoy a boy free morning and recess. But it’s soon realised, there is something much more important happening. ALL the men and boys in Melbourne have been struck down by some sort of sleeping virus.

Clara’s dad left has recently left her and her mum, but she is immediately worried about him. When they can’t contact him, they believe he has gone on a fishing trip with a mate of his. But many men and boys have been moved to hospitals or emergency centres where they can be monitored. What if her dad is lying somewhere asleep and unprotected or dangerously dehydrating?

Clara and her friends come up with a plan, even if it is against the rules – both her mum’s and the police. Will her dad be okay? Will they even make it to the camping ground, and what difference could a few Instagram pictures make to the whole situation?

A great story for 10+ girls about all sorts of changes they may be experiencing. Parents arguing or even separating, liking a boy who she’s not sure likes her back, having a bestie who she relies on, breaking rules and the excitement of that, but the possible consequences showing themselves.
Clara’s road trip helps her work through these things, all with the perplexing problem of what’s happening to all the males of Melbourne.

[Ace · Rating 2 out of 5]

*mild spoilers, but nothing extremely important happens in this book, so read on!*

2 Stars

When I first saw this book it was in the YA section, so I immediately TBR'd it. The blurb was confusing - is this a dystopian or a middle grader book? The answer : both. And neither.

Clara is a 12 yr old struggling with her parents divorce, while acting like a bratty 3 yr old to her friends, her parents, but wait, criticize her crush and you dead to her.

This book does have mild dystopian themes : tbh, the concept is super dumb though. If a parent wanted a buffer between middle grade books and, say Hunger Games, that kid would be seriously disillusioned about dystopian themes.

This book is mainly a kid being pissed about her parents divorce and wants her family to be " happy " again. Clara does not have the emotional support she needs.

I will read the 2nd one cause I am vaguely curious about if this will go really dark, or become the fluff novel about the oncoming realization of a pre-teen that " shocker! " The divorce wasn't her fault and Jack is way too old for her for another 8 years. He's 18! I don't understand why that sort of crush in any book. I hate it. She should stop disillusioning herself. By the time she's old enough ( in my opinion ) he'll be married. That said, I am very single wondering why her friends started dating at age 7. Why?

Suggestion: don't read this book unless you are 9 years old and aren't reading proper, dystopian for another 2-3 years.

Well, this review was a train wreck.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really don’t like to do this.....but I think this book / series is a huge missed opportunity. The concept is great, really great......every single man and boy in Melbourne has a sleeping sickness. So the girls are in charge. How great an idea is that.....but somehow it just doesn’t work. I’m not sure whether the characters (12 year olds) are the wrong age to make the best use of this concept....or whether I just don’t like something else.....but I have to say it could have been a lot better.

A redeeming feature is that there are some good ‘girl messages’ within the pages....”I know I’m only 12 and I don’t understand everything about the world. But I do understand some things. No one else gets to decide how you should look. Or what you should wear. Or eat or whatever.”

I think this concept would have made a great adult novel.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should have been so good, such a good idea of a virus taking down the males, creating a female only society. But it didn’t work. Clara was a bit unlikeable and I got tired of the boy crush focus. Genre was muddy too, sometimes sci fi, comedy, realistic fiction, girl confidential? This book was a wasted opportunity.

[Tian Fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would rate this book 7/10, because whilst this book definitely did leave a lot of room for thought, it didn't seem quite as deep as I would expect from a book promoting feminism and looking deeply into gender inequality. Overall, I would recommend this book for people who are getting a grip with realistic fiction, and are looking for a consistently-paced series to keep them reading.

Brief Introduction
Set in modern Melbourne, Australia, the Girltopia trilogy takes off with a strange event where a virus sweeps over the city and sends all the males to sleep. The book is exciting, and whilst the main characters take on the quest of lifting the fairy-tale-like curse off the city, the book does play with deeper meanings and thicker themes than the obvious story. The novel is a humorous saga, taking the main character - Clara Bloom - and all her friends on a journey to awaken the men and boys of Melbourne and uncover the person behind the crime.

Blurb
Clara Bloom is your average girl living in Melbourne, who wakes up one day, grumpy about her parent's recent divorce but, other than that, doesn't see anything different that day from any other day in her normal life. Until she arrives at school, of course. She realises that all the males in the city have fallen into a deep sleep, and soon headlines are bustling with this news.
Clara's mum, a doctor, is now busier than ever trying to find a cure for this disease which soon proves to be more complicated and obviously set up by somebody seeking revenge. Over the course of three thrilling, exciting novels, Clara journies through and even beyond the city, slipping in and out of jail, meeting new people, and all the while learning to accept the reality of her parent's divorce.
As the story progresses, Clara grows as a person, gaining crazy experiences she'd never thought she'd live to see.

[Miffy · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting premise - all boys and men get a sleeping virus on the same night, and the female population wake up in #girltopia. Sounds great, right? Not so much.
Some aspects of this book really hit the mark. Food shortages begin immediately because we have mostly male truck drivers. Clara (11) says to dieting Izzy (17), “No-one else gets to decide how you should look. Or what you should wear. Or eat or whatever.” The girls get to sit and play wherever they like at school. And the three girls step up and go to rescue the dads and Izzy’s brother, Jack.
But.
Clara’s crush on eighteen-year-old Jack is given way too much air time. And it’s creepy. “Funny,” said Izzy. “I always thought you two adored each other. You’re always joking around and playing that wrestling game. Isn’t it an excuse to cuddle without admitting you’re cuddling?”
What the actual....?! Jack’s an adult, Clara’s in primary school.
Nope nopey nope nope. No!

Many female characters, both adult and child, are described as ‘cute’. Year 5s and 6s have ‘crushes’, or are totally ‘in love’. Clara, who is the only one brave enough to state the bleeding obvious (no boys at school) is told she’s being ‘fanciful’, when anyone with eyes can see she’s right. There’s an inordinate amount of discussion about Clara and her ‘bestie’, Arabella, having seen each other naked, and they have a bath together - in itself not an issue but the constant talk about it not being ‘weird’ for an 11-year-old to bathe naked with others makes it frickin’ weird.

It’s unfortunate that the tone is just so off in this book. It could have been amazing. But, it’s really not.

[Travis Berketa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Coming off the Gone series by Michael Grant; which is also about people mysteriously disappearing and ending up with less populated world trying to solve the mystery; I was looking forward to reading Girltopia because it is based in Melbourne, Australia, and because I wanted to see how the author, Hilary Rogers, revealed her world of an all female city after a virus puts all the males to sleep. Sadly, the book did not live up to any ideas that I thought it might, leaving me a little deflated.

Firstly, I believe this book is for a younger audience, with the lead character, Clara, being 12-years-old and in Grade 6; but Clara came across as a much younger character at times and I found many of the characters were too unrealistic for their age. Being a teacher and having worked with many Grade 6 students throughout my teaching, I found many instances when I just thought: That wouldn't happen - a Grade 6 girl would not do that!

Beginning with Clara going to school and finding that no males have arrived at the school wouldn't have girls sitting around chatting about the benefits of having no males around. Most girls would be worried if their fathers or brothers were not getting up in the morning, like they usually do, because it is seen as out of the ordinary. And the staff at the school would certainly have picked up that there is something going on very early in the day, when the male staff don't show and there are no boys in the school yard... or even if their own husbands or boys do not get up in the morning! It's just not plausible that wives/mothers would go off to work after not being able to rouse the males in the house. I suspect that they would freak out, call the ambulance and then call in absent themselves, because they need to deal with this phenomenon.

The next thing I would question is Clara's relationship with her best friend, Arabella, is just plain weird. I would wager that no 12-year-old girl (in her right mind) would feel comfortable having a bubble bath with her best friend in the home of her best friend - no matter how good a friend that person is! If best friend said, "Let's have a bubble bath and talk", I think most 12-year-old girls would first think their friend is weird and secondly, as depicted in the book, they are going through puberty with everything changing; most girls would not feel comfortable exposing themselves in front of anyone - including best friends. [And I know I'm talking from a male perspective, but I have questioned many females about this and they all think it's weird... I'm sure many more would too.]

The final point that had me gritting my teeth was the story itself; Clara, Arabella and Izzy (part-time babysitter to Clara) decide that they will try and find Clara's dad and Izzy's dad and brother, Jack, (who have gone out of the city for a camping trip); they use Instagram to trick police into getting them through a roadblock out of the city; find the dads and Jack; decide to return to Melbourne with them; Clara's dad gets taken by police (not sure what the crime was, maybe because he was running?); Izzy's dad gets the virus as they get closer to the city and crashes the car; Jack (apparently a little older than Clara) is all good about being dressed up as a girl to get into the city (he does not even protest at the suggestion, because that's what teenage boys would do); then as they enter the city via another roadblock, the girls and Jack get caught and thrown into prison. Clara has the mind to post a few things to Instagram and apparently that brings about a revolution of sorts, with females parading through the streets, chanting for Clara's release... and they claim that she is famous. What? [Now I know that some people believe that they are famous for doing nothing on social media, other than having people follow their posts; but Clara pretty much posted about how she had broken the law and was proud of her unlawful act, then became famous with a whole lot of girls rallying around her, not only from Melbourne, but apparently around the world!] This makes no sense at all - although I'm sure it could happen nowadays... for some reason.

I am going to read the second book; mainly because I now have the trilogy and because it is an Australian author; however I hope that the attempt at a coming of age novel will actually have Clara and Co. acting somewhat their age, rather than that of 7 - 8 year-olds.

[Ella W · Rating 1 out of 5]

i started this book with high expectations. woah, i’m all for a girls-only book, we need some of that female power am i right?!

oh boy, this book was as disappointing as a man.

I hated this book so I’m not going to write a detailed review since it isn’t worth my time.

- The book is incomplete. It doesn’t even end on a cliffhanger. It’s just like the author decided to go on a coffee break and accidentally published the book. I’m still bamboozled on how this got past editors.

- The whole concept of the virus isn’t even throughly explained. We get limited notes of the science-y aspect from the protagonist friend’s mother but only the bare minimum.

This book was fully just a 12 year old’s wattpad fantasy after she broke up with her boyfriend not-boyfriend and decided to take out her fury by writing a book where all men are in a dead-like state of sleep.

I wish I could get my time back that was spent reading this half baked book.

This is hands down, the WORST “book” I have ever read. This doesn’t even deserve to be called a book. I’ve read stories and fan fictions on wattpad that are a thousand times better than this.

Please save your money and DO NOT buy this for yourself or your daughter. It SUCKS.

On a side note. Why are we normalising two pre adolescent children bathing together? That part was gross.

Someone needs to unpublish this book immediately because what the heck is this failed concoction.

I am sorry to the author. But respectfully, what was going through your mind when you published this? The concept had SO much potential.

This book is a solid 1/5 stars.

[Kanako Okiron · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the only reviews not from BC (before Covid) I loved it when I read it in 2018 BC, and I love it even more now. Why? Because as we grapple with life two years since the Covid pandemic, this book trilogy about an epidemic that affects only men and boys was almost a lifeline. It should be made into a movie - if nobody else does, I’ll gladly do it because it would be really funny on screen to just see a hospital room full of men snoring. Anyway.
I find myself like Clara - not wanting to get into trouble but kind of wanting to at the same time. I was 11 when this book came out - I saw it on show at the school book fair and immediately bought it because the premise sounded extraordinary and like other 11 year olds not in a million years would I have predicted a real pandemic virus to sweep the world two years later. I can tell without having to meet her that Hilary Rogers sounds like a very entertaining person in the way she writes, it’s very much how twelve year olds talk, so well done to her for that.
Hilary, if you’re reading this - I do hope that you publish more books in the future - it’s been a few years!!

[Green Jazz Blues · Rating 4 out of 5]

What am I doing reading a girl story? Well, I must say the idea of how the feminine side of the human race copes when every male in Melbourne suddenly is the victim of a strange sleeping sickness virus is extremely intriguing.
In Hilary Rogers' "Thanks," she mentions certain persons backing her all the way (except for the rude bits.) I entirely agree. She should have remembered there might be some male readers who really don't need to read about periods, thanks very much. Period.
But having said that, this was a fascinating read and got me thinking why there isn't a counterpart story of what would happen if all the males were left to themselves...!!! Imagine the chaos! I'd have to admit that human beings need both males and females to survive.
There are one or two predictable factors in the story where the characters seem to be clueless. They'd better stop being so clueless before things get worse, because apparently, there will be a sequel and I think any reader will be curious to read what happens next.

[Judy Wollin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered what life would be like if the men and boys didn’t wake up one day? That’s what happened to Clara. To start with, the girls enjoyed it. School was fun without the boys teasing the girls about maths, and the teacher re-explaining fractions and the girls getting it.
It wasn’t so much fun when it was called an epidemic and Melbourne was locked down. Clara’s dad had moved to Sydney, and her parents had separated, but Clara couldn’t talk about it. She was so confused, not sure who to be angry with.
Clara’s mother was in charge of finding out the cause of the sleeping sickness; she was frantic and didn’t have much time for Clara. Clara’s father, his friend, and their sons had gone camping outside the designated range of the virus, but Clara wasn’t convinced, and she decided it was time to find them. This leads her and her friends into the unknown.
I enjoyed the humour of imagining a world without boys, but the realism of the epidemic and lockdown changed the humour to something more sinister.
Recommended for readers eight years and older.

[Dimity Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sluggish start to this MG novel diluted initial expectations despite its catchy premise. The notion of a major Australian city (Melbourne) suddenly suffering a mysterious virus which supposedly only affects XY humans (boys and men) leaving females to search for an answer and manage a full-scale epidemic has strong tween appeal. Thankfully once Clara and her girl friends launched into their unapproved rescue plan to find and retrieve their missing fathers, things picked up enough to make me really really want to know why and how this was all happening (to the boys and not the girls). Imagine the horror (and slight disappointment) experienced when I reached the last page and all Clara had really achieved was a 98% increase in Insta followers. No doubt some young readers will be scrambling for the next instalment, Boss Girl, to continue the adventure but the danger of not delivering anything of real substance at the end may not be enough to retain interest.

[Wendy Bamber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea and will probably go well with the Babysitters Club, Drama, Sisters type readers. The girls get to school and start to realise that all of the men and boys in their lives are missing - turns out they all have some weird sleeping sickness. Clara’s parents have split up and so her Dad is not in the area - or is he? Some of the juvenile language (use of the word bestie for example) will put off year 7/8s I think, but then talk of developing and periods may make this unsuitable for year 3/4s, so this is cornered with the 5/6 girls in my opinion. Was recommended to me by a year 5 girl so will have its audience.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can (kind of???) see the appeal of this. Maybe. It's so completely aimed at younger readers that I struggled with the characters and the plot (the plot!!!). I can, however, see why some young girls would be enamoured of this, and fully realise that I am not the intended audience. This had some good messages, but they were rather lost in the murky world- and plot-building.

Side note: I'm pretty confused by some of the other reviews - I'm fairly certain that Jack was 13, not 18 like a lot of people are saying???

[Sharlene Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s so strange reading a dystopian type novel in the worlds current climate, especially when the lockdown situation in the book happens in Melbourne. The way of the world has changed and how we live in it has had to adapt too. Without giving away the ending, it is important to note that some things are irreversible. We cannot wait to return to ‘normal’ but we must start adapting to the ‘new normal’. Looking forward to reading the next book :)

[Katelyn Productions · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lovelovelovelovelove this book!!! One of my friends got it for me as a birthday gift and I had it sitting in the back of my shelf for a few weeks- I regret not reading it sooner! The suspense was amazing and it was very hard to put down! After countless reads ithas not gotten old. Clara and Anabella are #goals and I see so many similarities in other friendships. Highly recomended

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting premise. Suitable for Year 6 & 7. Didn't enjoy the preoccupation with the girls appearance, clothes and hairstyles especially when such a complex situation has developed and needs to be solved.

[Anna Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting premise for a story; all the boys and men in Melbourne have been struck down with a sickness. Part adventure, part dystopian, I’m really sure what to make of this book, so am keen to hear some young readers’ thoughts.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

First in a trilogy. Set in Melbourne the city has been gripped by a virus which only affects the males. Clara and her friends set out to rescue her dad but end up more famous than they could ever imagine.

[Mafalda Vieira Nunes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic middle grade book and something I’ll keep for my future children! It’s special because it is also set in Melbourne where I’ve lived for a while. The story is so amusing and unique and I love the main characters and their interactions!

[Kerri Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of promise, this YA novel aimed at younger readers doesn’t quite deliver. However it is part of a trilogy so I’m eager to see where we get taken on this unusual dystopian novel set in Melbourne!

[Lila Gilchrist · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and loved the way that everyone hides Jack the only boy in the city that is not sick with the virus in Clara’s attic.

[Anastasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because the girls are in charge! I wish I could be Clara the main character

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this with my 11 year old. She really enjoyed it. We found the similarities to coronavirus intersting, especially since the book was written in 2018.

[saskia♡ (taylor’s version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Gypsy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it could be better but I did not like it even if I'm a girl.

[Eliza Woodhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

was so good.
i loved it.

[Lorelai Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love it

[Nillah Singaram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a real mind twister with the BEST plot holes!!