December 18, 2014 / Leslie

Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You
by Claudia Gray

Genre: YA / Science Fiction
Publisher: Harper | November 2014
Format: Hardcover | 368 pages
Rating: 4 of 5

From the Publisher

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

About the Story

Marguerite’s parents have invented a device – the Firebird – that allows travel throughout the multiverse. The multiverse is a possible set of hypothetical universes also known as parallel or alternate universes.

As the story opens, Marguerite’s father is murdered and the prime suspect is Paul, a physics graduate student and her father’s assistant. He steals the Firebird and jumps to another universe. With the help of friend Theo, Marguerite chases Paul through the multiverse and along the way learns much about herself, her relationship with Paul and Theo, and who really wants control of the Firebird.

My Thoughts

YA isn’t my usual scifi genre, but I’m a sucker for time-travel and alternate universe stories regardless of whether or not I’m the target audience. I picked this one up on a whim after gazing at the beautiful cover and was under the impression that it was primarily science fiction.

YA always has its share of teen angst, and that’s ok. What I wasn’t expecting in this book was a lot of romance. At first I was a little annoyed, but the writing was good and the underlying story was holding my interest. I enjoyed the world-building in the different universes, and it was enough for me to almost overlook the inclusion of a love triangle. As much as that device is overused in YA books, and it seemed unnecessary at first, it did work in the end due to a couple of plot twists.

The story is narrated by Marguerite and we view the different universes through her eyes. There aren’t a lot of technical details, and this is science fiction only because characters are able to jump to parallel universes. When they arrive in the new universe they temporarily take over the body of the person who actually belongs there but how the Firebird works isn’t explained.

This is the first book of a new trilogy, but it is a complete story with an ending and no cliffhanger. It was enjoyable, escapist reading that I liked a lot more than I expected to.

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Source: Review copy provided by the publisher through AmazonVine.
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