Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

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I received this book for free from HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia GrayA Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
Series: Firebird #1
Published by HarperTeen on November 4, 2014
Genres: Sci-Fi, YA
Source: HarperTeen
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three-half-stars

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.

Don’t be fooled by my 3-star rating. Because despite all my problems with it, I actually… liked this book. O_O

First of all, you guys know me – anything with science and traveling through space/time, I’m 100% game for that. I like exploring all kinds of possibilities and going beyond what we deem as reality. There’s a kind of poetry in it, you know? The feeling that there are still so much out there that we need to understand and discover, that the universe is so much bigger and grander than we could possibly perceive, and that amazes me. It’s a romantic, philosophical, and awe-inspiring concept, so seeing it as the central concept in a book made me giddy with glee.

However, I didn’t expect that the book would largely be… romantic-driven. I expected a lot of science fiction action, a lot of dimension-leaping and uncovering of corporate conspiracies, but more than 50% of the book was simply about figuring who to trust and learning to love someone in a way that transcends both time and space.

Which isn’t a bad thing, because I found that both concepts worked hand in hand. Yes, you can have a sci-fi novel about leaping dimensions and have love behind it as the blinding force.

Because you know what the love portrayed in this book showed me? That love is universal. That love is eternal, omnipotent, and goes beyond time and space. It is not limited to the reality we know and that it is not bound and chained by anything.

Take for example the relationship between Margeurite and her father. The father who she has known, the father who raised her and cared for her and nurtured since she was born, was found dead in her home dimension. She finds him again – or at least a version of him – in another when she leaped into another dimension in search of answers. Despite not being the father who didn’t let her borrow her car, explored physics alongside her mom, or let her draw rainbows on their white boards, they still had feelings of familial love for one another – because even though they lived two different lives, they knew that they were connected by something that was beyond time and space. She still had her mother’s eyes, he still had his love for science; he recognized her as his daughter, and she recognized him as the dad who helped shape her be the person she was. They simply only had different circumstances, but that didn’t stop love from finding them both and bringing them together.

This was the kind of love that I saw here, and honestly, it made me cry a bit, because it only shows how much powerful love can be. This was amplified even more by the science fiction aspect that helped drive the story forward.

However, that doesn’t mean there were things I didn’t like…

The thing with this book is, when a person jumps into another dimension, they don’t bring their body with them – only their consciousness. Their consciousness then invades the body of their equivalent in the next dimension, meaning I would still be in my body, only that the body I invade would have lived a completely different life. So, yes, Margeurite was still in Marguerite’s body, only that it wasn’t her life she was living – it was another Marguerite’s which could well be someone else because she will have had different experiences, different feelings, different circumstances, that differ from the original Marguerite.

There was one scene here that really pissed me off – when our original Margeurite decided to have sex using another Marguerite’s body, pretty much stealing the experience from her and not even giving her the chance to decide if she even wanted to do it. And take note – the other Marguerite was supposed to be the virgin bride to the Prince of Whales, so not only did she steal the power to choose when to have sex from the other Marguerite, she pretty much fucked her over politics-wise. To add insult to injury, when all has been said and done, she left the body to jump to another dimension, leaving the poor other Marguerite to pick up the pieces by herself.

Sigh, that was a douchebag move…

Another thing that I didn’t like here was the many times the book copped out of explaining certain things about how the world or the tools worked. Examples:

The devices have to be made out of specific materials that move much more easily than other forms of matter; they have to anchor the consciousness of the traveler, which is apparently very difficult; and about a million other technical considerations I’d have to get umpteen physics degrees to even understand. Long story short: the devices are REALLY hard to make.

LOL, thanks Einsteen, I feel really enlightened now.

“When people travel through dimensions,” he said, staring down at the prototypes, “they leave traces. Subatomic — okay, I’m gonna cut to the chase. The point is, I can go go after Paul.”

WOW, REALLY? YOU DON’T SAY!

Every time this happened, it pissed me a lot. Thankfully, there weren’t often, and there were still a lot of science-y stuff that I appreciated.

Overall, I liked this book a lot. There were some things that really rubbed me the wrong way, so of course, that’s going to affect my reading experience. But the message of family and love mixed with sci-fi awesomeness was really fantastic – this book was one part thrilling and one part poetic. The perfect combination, if you ask me.

three-half-stars

3.5 Hot Espressos

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Canadian blogger, wife, mother, coffee lover, and sarcastic at heart! She has had a love for all things bookish since before Amazon and eReaders existed *le gasp*. You can also find her organizing tours and other fun things at Xpresso Book Tours.

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11 Responses to “Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray”

  1. MIchelle @ Book Briefs

    Ha I love your disclaimer on the top of the review Faye. I know exactly what you mean, sometimes my reviews come across as if I didn’t like a book, when the bottom line is that I did.

    I have this one waiting on my TBR for me. Now that I know you enjoyed it Maybe that will encourage me to get to it faster. haha

    Great Review!

    Michelle @ Book Briefs

  2. Aimee @ Deadly Darlings

    I know how you feel, Faye! Sometimes there’s this book that has all these things that you’d normally hate, but then you actually end up feeling things for it… Gah.

    I am actually a shallow reader and don’t really realize messages that aren’t prominent, so I’m glad I read your review before I read the book! Now I can go into it thinking that it’s all about universal love and not just your regular romance. 🙂

    And the sex thing. What the fuck!? Who does that? :/

  3. Ksenia @ Ksenia's Book Blog

    I’ve seen this beautiful cover around. Glad you enjoyed it despite some qualms. It’s great when a book have such a message. Love is universal – I like it. I totally understand your feelings about what Margeurite’ve done in another dimension.

    • SERIESous Book Reviews

      I felt the same way! It wasn’t the greatest book ever but I really, really enjoyed it! It kept my attention and I loved the concept. It was one of the more easier to follow time travelling/alternate dimensions books I’ve read recently.

      I totally agree with you Faye that this book focused more on the romance than I was expecting; but it was balanced out really well with the rest of the plot. I never felt like it dwelled too long on one aspect or the other when it easily could have.

      Great review!

  4. Hannah

    Ack, those things you mentioned would really piss me off, but it sounds like the rest of the book makes up for it. Also, this series has been blessed by the cover gods. seriously – have you seen the cover of the sequel?!

  5. Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

    I’m glad to hear that you ended up loving this book despite some qualms with it Faye! I really loved it, I thought it dealt with the time travel in a unique and interesting way that wasn’t too hard to follow. Despite being focused on the romance and that weird sex scene, it was still captivating. Lovely review!

  6. Cynthia

    I have had this one on my TBR, but those explanations (or rather lack thereof) seem REALLY annoying. Thanks for the great review.

  7. Amanda @ Vivalabooks

    I was interested by the synopsis, and I was definitely expecting more sci-fi action than romance. Not sure if I’ll pick this one up, but it still sounds interesting. Thanks for the honest review.