Veronika. Caroline. Isobel. Eleanor. One blond, one brunette, one redhead, one with hair black as tar. Four otherwise identical girls who spend their days in sync, tasked to learn. But when May, a very different kind of girl - the lone survivor of a recent shipwreck - suddenly and mysteriously arrives on the island, an unsettling mirror is about to be held up to the life the girls have never before questioned.
Sly and unsettling, Gordon Dahlquist's timeless and evocative storytelling blurs the lines between contemporary and sci-fi with a story that is sure to linger in readers' minds long after the final page has been turned.
"Four nearly identical girls living with their teachers on a tropical island have difficulty getting along with a new girl who seems different from them in this unusual and enigmatic science-fiction outing ... The author never reveals why the girls are hidden away and what their purpose might be, leaving that to readers' imaginations. Most intriguing. Ages 12 & up." - Kirkus
This information about The Different Girl was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gordon Dahlquist is a graduate of Reed College and Columbia University's School of the Arts. He worked for several years writing and directing plays, including Messalina (Evidence Room, Los Angeles: SPF, New York), and Delirium Palace (Evidence Room, Los Angeles; published in Breaking Ground), both of which received a Garland Playwriting Award.

If you liked The Different Girl, try these:
by Fredrik Backman
Published 2026
#1 New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger's life twenty-five years later.
by Katie Kitamura
Published 2026
One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love.
by K-Ming Chang
Published 2024
An erotic, surreal novella from the author of Organ Meats and Bestiary.
I write to add to the beauty that now belongs to me
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.