What started as an interesting idea, kind of petered out into a long, and somewhat, boring narrative. I would have loved it to be a bit more fast paced.

Girl One is so well written prose that kept me turning the pages.I was drawn right in to the story and stayed up late reading.Will be recommending the author and the book.#netgalley#fsg

This book definitely haunted me for a few weeks after i read it, i had a small crisis and i was SO eager to discuss it with others.
It's a book that asks a lot of questions, its main premise being "what if someone had figured out a way to procreate without male dna, back in the 70s?" and "what if there were some cultish undertones?" but also "what if it was destroyed by human fear?" and i'm excited to say that I found the answers brilliant. We follow josephine, the first girl born of those experiments as she attempts the finish what was interrupted by tragedy, but is herself interrupted by the sudden disappearance of her mother, with which she had a fraught relationship. Despite this, she takes it upon herself to find her in a quest that takes her across the us, at a thriller road trip pace, where she will learn difficult truths about her past and her mother's legacy.
It's also a coming of age story, josephine grows so much, and learns to see her mother as a whole woman. It's a novel that touches on reproductive issues, desire, progress etc in a way that feel relevant to the current age while sticking to its 70s-90s setting. Even if you expect some of the (multiple) plot twists, it's so satisfying to see it unfold and have all the pieces of the puzzle slot together.

I loved how cinematic it was, especially the ending, i easily visualised the different settings, and i could totally see a movie being made.

I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Girl One is a difficult book for me to rate and review.

The writing is beautiful, leaning heavily into the literary genre.

A small commune of women and one male scientist figuring out the secret to completely excluding men from reproduction is an intriguing premise that opens all sorts of possibilities.

The pace, though, is SLOW. The hardcover is listed as being 368 pages, but it feels twice that long. We have drawn out passages of introspection from Girl One, our narrator, which we revisit repetitively, greatly lessening the suspense and intensity. By the ¾ point, I was ready for the story to be over.

I would’ve liked more balance. We don’t get any real sense of how the general population feels about the scientific breakthrough or these unique women. It feels like, aside from a small group of angry men, society and the scientific community simply moved on as if these women and the science that created them never existed.

I listened to this on audio, which I think made a big difference in my experience. The narration is brilliant. Jesse Vilinsky perfectly captures the emotions, and she also manages to impart a small sense of urgency within the lagging pace.

What initially interested me about Girl One was a description that said it reflected elements of Orphan Black and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden. Well it does but that doesn't mean what you might think it means.

FIRST LINE: "April 24, 1972 My dearest Josephine: I've just taken a call from President Nixon, who asked me to pass on his fondest birthday regards to you."

The tale is told by Josephine Morrow (AKA Girl One) interspersed with letters, news reports, and magazine articles. It's set in, what has been referred to, as an alternative past. Part science fiction, part thriller, the story is uneven and doesn't really work in either genre. Rather than give up, I plodded through to the end. You'll find I am in the minority though as many reviewers loved this book. The writing is all right and there are some interesting and exciting scenes. Aspects of the book concern parthenogenesis (a method of self-reproduction in which the egg cells develop into offspring in the absence of a mate), which occurs in some animals.

Basically the story concerns Josie's mother disappearing and how a group begin traveling from place to place trying to find her. Of course, they are being followed by the bad guys who want to destroy them. It could make an exciting movie.

The book went on sale June 1, 2021.

DISCLAIMER: A copy of was provided to me by MCD/Net Galley for an honest review.

Dr. Bellanger has done the unbelievable - he was able to create "Virgin Births", where women are able to conceive without male DNA. Girl One - Josie, was the first to be born. After an unexpected fire destroyed their "home" and killed the doctor, all the women and their daughters spread across the country. Years later, Josie learns that her mother is missing from a news report and she knows something is wrong and has to go looking for her. Using whatever hints she can find, she and a reporter, an unexpected ally, join forces to go on a road trip, leading to the other mother-daughter pairs in search for Josie's mother.
I was very intrigued by the premise of this book especially since many were comparing it to Margaret Atwood type of books, and I am a huge fan of her. I was a little disappointed however. I was thinking this book was going to be more so focused on the Dystopia of a society of women created only by women. However, it was more so a chase of cat and mouse. People who did not agree with this "experiment" stalking Josie and her sisters, Josie looking for her mom, learning what actually happened in her past, and a realization of who she really is and acceptance of that. I enjoyed this but I was expecting something different; a case of high expectations or different expectations going into this book due to the comparison to Margaret Atwood.

The first half of the book I found very slow paced. I had a hard time keeping interest and it took longer than usual for me to read this book, but I stuck it out as I kept hoping for more. I am glad I did as it really did pick up in the second half. I started to get more invested in the characters lives, and how they were changing, especially in the relationship of Cate and Josie, and Josie and her mother. There were also some twists that I thought were really good! Some that I guessed, others that I did not see coming. I really enjoyed that there were so many different layers to this story. By the end I wanted more, I wanted to know where things would lead for the girls.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this story!
Thank you to the author, publishing company and NetGalley for this electronic review copy in exchange for my honest review!

TL;DR: Fast-paced feminist rage fun, but fans of Atwood and Alderman will be let down by the depth of social commentary. My rating: 3 of 5 stars.

I feel pretty conflicted about Girl One. I was drawn in by comparisons with Margaret Atwood and The Power by Naomi Alderman. The Handmaid’s Tale is one of my favorite books, and I found Alderman’s feminist speculative work gripping and thought-provoking. I go wild for most sci-fi that explores reproductive injustices and mother-daughter relationships. Girl One indeed delivered a solid feminist speculative fiction plot with strong female relationships, and for that, I enjoyed it. It had good pacing, action, and was fun to read. The bonds that develop between the vastly different young women as they are reunited is heartwarming, as is the respect that Josie gains for her mother as she learns more about her past.

But Girl One is not in the same league as Atwood or Alderman for the simple fact that it lacks the nuance that those writers bring to their characters, villain(ess) and hero(ine) alike. Alderman asks readers to imagine a world where women rather than men are able to physically overpower the other gender. And that world turns out not to be an inherently kinder, gentler one because women too are capable of great abuses of power. Where The Power problematizes assumptions about gender, Girl One tells a more simplistic story where the binary of good/evil neatly overlaps onto the binary of women/men.

Josie was born on a scientific experimental commune called the Homestead. She is one of nine daughters born to a mother parthenogenetically without male DNA. This unbelievable advance in reproductive science is credited to Dr. Bellanger, a quasi-father figure to Josie and the other Girls. However, when Josie is six, the Homesteaders' lives are upended by a tragic fire that kills Dr. Joseph Bellanger and the youngest Girl, Fiona. The living mother-daughter pairs spread out across the country--some capitalizing on their fame and others preferring to leave their past behind. When Josie’s mom goes missing she sets out to find her with the help of a journalist researching the Homestead. Without giving too much away, more and more damning information comes out about Dr. Bellanger as they travel across the country and meet the other girls. By the end, it’s revealed he’s downright sinister.

The takeaway from Girl One is essentially that all men are motivated by their need to control women, making them self-serving narcissists at best or murderers and rapists at worst. And thus, women would be happier and healthier living and procreating on lesbian communes. I won’t lie--I’m often in the mood for some good “FUCK all men” content. It feels good to indulge in feminist rage every now and then. But in the end, that’s what it is--indulgent. Binaristic thinking about gender that romanticizes and glorifies sisterhood and motherhood doesn’t offer much in the way of understanding how gender and power intersect. I wanted more complicated and multifaceted characters than I got from Girl One.

That said, Girl One DOES successfully raise other important social questions. Parts of Girl One read like historical fiction. The details of Dr. Bellanger’s misdeeds may be fiction, but the gist of them rings true. Women have long been excluded from and under-represented in the scientific and medical fields that were studying their bodies and pioneering reproductive medicine. That said, given that Black and Brown women’s bodies historically had the most violence visited upon them as a result of men’s involvement in women’s reproduction, it didn’t feel quite right that all but one pair of the Mothers and Girls were white women. The exception is an Asian Mother and Daughter pair, and to be fair, there is a moment where it’s acknowledged that society’s fear of women reproducing at will without men is amplified when that woman is Asian. But still.

The Girls grow up surrounded by media retellings of the sordid details of their birth and early life. Even Tom, initially a friend to Josie, tries to take ownership of her past and tell it in a way that serves his own narrative. From history textbooks to news reporting to fiction, the question of who owns a story and gets to tell it is becoming a topic of debate more and more, as evidenced by greater efforts to diversify high school and college syllabi and hashtags like #OwnVoices. Girl One pushes readers to think about the identity, motivations, and perspectives that a writer brings to their subject matter.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for giving me advance access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a unique book and was pretty weird at times but I enjoyed it! It was something different and it kept my attention. I enjoyed the characters and the premise. Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book took me by surprise! The description led me to think that this was going to be science fiction, and it surely was. But, just as much, it was a mystery book, and that added another dimension to it.

Josie Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine girls conceived without male DNA. Dr. Bellanger was the scientist who worked on this, and spent much of his time at the commune, the Homestead, where the nine women and their daughters lived. Needless to say, there was an enormous amount of controversy and the commune was burned down, clearly arson. Dr. Bellanger and one of the women and daughters were killed in the fire, and the other women and daughters dispersed.

Years later, Josie is studying to be a doctor, planning to continue in her "father," Dr. Bellanger's, footsteps, taking his work even farther. She learns that her mother, Margaret, is missing, after another suspicious fire at their home. She sets out to find her mother.

From notes her mother left behind, Josie realized that Margaret was in touch with some of the other women and their daughters, so she starts to trace Margaret's steps.

The book becomes a fascinating mystery at this point, as Josie starts meeting the other "Miracle Babies" and their mothers, and learning more and more about what actually happened at the Homestead. She also begins to learn that all of the girls have surprising powers, and that her entire picture of her history is suspect. As some of the girls join forces, more information is gathered, and a whole new picture of the Homestead and the women who were there develops.

I really enjoyed this. I like science fiction, and I like mysteries, so it was a winning combination!

Thank you for advanced reader copy Net Galley for GIRL ONE. Exciting story about parthenogenesis. Really enjoyed the characters and the mystery around what was and will be in the future. Hard to put down and couldn’t wait to see how it ended. Highly recommend.

After reading a few disappointing books last month, I have to say I wasn’t really in a reading mood per se. And that didn’t really change after reading the first third of this novel. But it very quickly changed thereafter. The pages kept flying by as I needed to know what was going on. Before I knew it I was nearly done in a matter of days.

I liken this to Orphan Black meets X-Men (in a remote sense) but in its own unique storyline. The story follows a group of women conceived by “virgin birth.” Their scientist “father” having created a method to procreation without the need of men.

When we learn these girls are even more extraordinary than their birth itself is when the plot really picked up for me. I really liked this book and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction. I can see this being adapted as a tv series.

Thank you to NetGalley for an arc. Looking forward to reading other novels from this author.

I liked the beginning of this, but it got boring very quickly. It had a good plot, I just didn't like the execution.

This book kept me guessing until the very end. There was one twist I predicted fairly early on, but other than that I was fully engaged and along for the ride. It was very well-plotted and the concept was super interesting. I wish we'd had a little more about the Homestead, where the Girls came from, itself but it wasn't necessary for the story. I was just intrigued by that world and by who the other Mothers were. I will definitely be looking for more from this author!

GirI One by Sara Flannery Murphy was a great read. I thought the premise was very interesting. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I don't usually read science fiction or fantasy-type books, but this one was rooted in science (parthenogenesis), so seemed quite plausible. The suspense aspect of the novel was well-done and there were plenty of surprising twists and turns (although I did find that it dragged a bit at times during the second half).

I really enjoyed the human relationships in the novel as well, as the protagonist reunited with and got to know some of her sisters. I could see this being made into a movie featuring strong female characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read Girl One in exchange for an honest review.

Young adult Josie's origins--specifically her immaculate conception--have overshadowed everything else in her life. Now she must delve into the darkness of her history to try to save her mother--and uncover her own true identity.

3.5 stars for me.

Young adult Josie is Girl One, the first of nine baby girls who were famously conceived without male sperm years ago on the now-dismantled commune The Homestead.

Josie has spent her life plagued by criticism, misogyny, obsessed fans, and the weight of the fascinating, unusual circumstances of her conception. Yet she embraces her past and aims to further the scientific work of her deceased father figure, the director of the scientific advancements achieved on the commune, Dr. Joseph Bellanger. Josie's studies and desire to learn more about her "virgin birth" drive a wedge between Josie and her mother, and Josie isn't sure exactly why.

When her mother disappears, Josie begins to track down the other Girls, and together the young women discover strange, unique powers as they rely on each other and attempt to unravel their shared history. They're learning to trust that the circumstances of their creation do not determine their full identities--or what they're capable of.

Murphy presents the Girls as they emerge in all of their feminist, powerful glory. The men in their world are cruel, powerful, and frequently evil, but when they band together, the girls' superhuman abilities repeatedly shield them from the most grave danger--and unlock remarkable freedom for each of the women long plagued by their complicated histories. The journey isn't too easy, there are some identity realizations, love connections, and plot twists, and the ending of Girl One satisfied me.

Girl One reminded me at times of Body of Stars, but this book held together more successfully for me, and I believed in the characters and their situations more completely.

I received a prepublication digital edition of this book through Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley.

I really liked this book and found it to be insanely original. A scientist creates a group of girls through a process called parthogenesis and now these same girls are in danger, The first girl seeks out the other girls when she finds her mother missing under mysterious circumstances because she feels that they are all in danger. I .liked the overall feel of the book and that it had such a unique premise and delivered on this well. It was definitely something that I will be recommending to others. I would like to read more from this author in the future. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

I really enjoyed this one! Weird in the best ways. Had a road trip (always love), some predictability, some surprises, a queer relationship, some action, some feminist commentary. I'd definitely recommend it!

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book and it’s feminist dystopian fantasy. The idea of woman procreating without men and how it would change the world is really only implied in the novel, but how it impacts the characters is thought provoking.

I didn’t expect this to be as much of a thriller as it was, and for me that was a disappointment. There are tons of lies and untruths that are slowly uncovered throughout the book, but for me it meant a lot of not really knowing what was going on, and changing my idea of what was going on all the time.

Overall the story is interesting, but at times I continued to read just to get to the end and the final reveal rather than a genuine interest in the story.

I thought that the premise of Girl One was super interesting. The concept of creating babies without male DNA and going against the natural order of things seemed like it would provide a suspenseful story with a lot of questions about morality and whether we could ever go too far with our scientific research. In addition to all the moral grayness, the missing person story and host of female characters are what initially drew me to this book. 

Overall, I enjoyed it. I think it definitely delivered a suspenseful mystery that had a few pretty good twists. Josephine was an interesting main character with a complex past that was entertaining to read about. I really enjoyed the cult-like themes of the commune where she grew up, as it made the story much more creepy. 

I do think that the beginning dragged a little bit in some places, but if you can power through, it’s absolutely worth it! Girl One was a nice change of pace from my usual Fantasy book. If you like stories that have some real-life creep factors, interesting and complex characters, as well as a mystery that keeps you guessing, I’d absolutely recommend Girl One.

It's a little bit Orphan Black, it's a little bit The Power, it's a little bit Margaret Atwood, but it's wholly original in and of itself. It's one that I think is best read with someone, so you can both scream at it together and work through what's happening.