Saturday, January 17, 2015

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray Review


"Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.

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."

Oh, I need to get this done. 

A Thousand Pieces of You is a Sci-Fi/(Possible Historical Fiction and) Fantasy book in the YA genre. Wow, that is quite a mouthful. It goes through interesting worlds, and there are about five dimensions Marguerite goes through to find Paul, the target.

Before reading this book, I was looking at it. I was thinking... maybe I will get confused by all these dimensions and other such things. I got confused when time travel is involved. Dimensions are rather similar and fickle things. But A Thousand Pieces of You made it much easier. It wasn't hard, and I think it only goes through three or four dimensions. And yes, the Russian Royal Family (the ones who died around World War II) are still alive. 

(The cover is a bit of a clue. I was thinking that Russia had something to do with it, but I was like... Ehh, maybe not. Until I actually got to that part). 

I think it is most definitely obvious and not spoilers that Paul and Marguerite are practically soulmates. "Every one." Every version of those two. Yep, they are soulmates. And the romance is actually not that bad. It does get confusing, because there are multiple versions and each version of Paul is a bit... different and similar to the other. And there is a quite number of Pauls. But let's talk about the one Marguerite is really after.

So... Paul is most definitely not the murderer of her father's death. What? I think it is more than obvious. After all, the synopsis is pretty much screaming: MARGUERITE, YOU AND PAUL BELONG TO EACH OTHER. BTW, HE IS NOT A MURDERER! But he is definitely an interesting character who throws off Marguerite (which makes this book more interesting). He is quiet, and he is smart. He speaks more with body language than with words. 

(And he has to be read through subtext). 

Enough about characters (and my possible admiration for Paul). Let's talk about the plot. It goes by really fast, and the dimensions keep on shifting and shifting. I think the plot starts off with a huge bang (in words, not action). "Kill Paul" is definitely an awakening moment. For us and Marguerite. The flashbacks are a bit strange, because it comes at strange moments, but it isn't terrible at all. In fact, they help strengthen Marguerite's desire to "kill Paul." 

Overall, A Thousand Pieces of You is an excellent book. Science Fiction is usually a hard genre to understand when the books aren't written well. (And that previous sentence wasn't written well, so let's try again: Science in Sci-Fi books are hard to understand, especially if the books aren't written very well). You see the difference? And yes, the science is easy to understand.

Rating: Four out of Five

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