Nov 23, 2014

A Thousand Pieces of You By: Claudia Gray Review

A Thousand Pieces of You
Author: Claudia Gray
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 357
Rating: 4/5
A copy was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.                                                                    
Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.                                                                                
A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

     A Thousand Pieces of You has been on my radar ever since I first saw its stunning, vibrant, take-me-home-please cover (seriously, I can't stop looking at it)!  Although I don't typically gravitate towards sci-fi, there was something about this book that piqued my interest.  I finished it within a day  of starting it and, ladies and gents, my mind has been blown! 

     One thing you have to know before going into this book is that things can get crazy!  The frequent travelling to parallel universes makes this world Claudia Gray has chosen to set the story in very intricate.  Although each universe is different, they can also be very similar; for example, Marguerite's father is dead in her universe but alive in others.  It was neat to see Marguerite travel to these other worlds and take over the bodies of her alternate selves.  Each world brings not only a change in setting, but also a change in relationships that cause the lines between reality and someone else's reality to be blurred....as you can see, there's lots of opportunity for confusion.

     Despite the fact A Thousand Pieces of You is classified as a sci-fi novel, it sure does have TONS of romance in it...which, now that I think about it, may be the reason why I enjoyed this book so much, haha!  There's two romantic interests in this book-- well, maybe three, but number three is pretty closely related to number two so....yeah, I said things could get confusing.  First we have Theo, the flirtatious assistant who's helping Marguerite travel to these parallel worlds to find and kill her father's murderer.  On the other side we have Paul, the quiet assistant who betrayed her father and killed him.  Obviously the plot is not as black and white as that,  but this is definitely the set-up we see at the beginning of the novel.  The love triangle itself didn't bother me as much as the mini-love triangle--within a love triangle-thingy did.  The main love triangle is pretty much wrapped up by the end, however I'm not sure about that mini one....Needless to say, I'm interested to see how it plays out in book two.

     The pacing of A Thousand Pieces of You was perfect!   It was just quick enough to add to the intensity of unraveling the mystery, but slow enough to have the opportunity to explore each universe.  The last 100 pages in particular really kick it up a notch to oh-my-bookish-goodness levels.  Although I wasn't extremely surprised by any of the major revelations, there were aspects of them that I wasn't expecting.  The only thing I think this book was missing was a good cliffhanger.  There's definitely an opening left for book two but I feel like a cliffhanger maybe would have given us a better idea of what direction book two will be taking.

Overall...
     Overall, A Thousand Pieces of You is a sci-fi novel that brings in romance and mystery to create a world where reality can be manipulated and characters' loyalty are questioned.  I found it be be a solid start to a trilogy that is unlike anything I've ever read before....bring on book two!  Have you read A Thousand Pieces of You?  Are you as in love with the cover as I am?  Be sure to let me know in the comments below!  Keep Reading!

Your Y.A. Bookworm,
Caitlin <3
     

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