Book Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Pages: 368

Genre: YA Fantasy/Sci-fi

Pub. Date: November 4, 2014

Source: Publisher for review

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Goodreads says, "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."

Marguerite Caine isn't your average teenager. She has been homeschool by her brilliant physicist parents and spends more time surrounded by graduate students than her own peers.  Her parents have invented the Firebird, a device that can allow people to travel into other dimensions. While in the other dimension, they can assume the role of themselves in that alternate universe. Unfortunately, her father was murdered, which obviously sends her family for a loop, especially when they find out the alleged murderer is none other than one of the graduate students, Paul, whom is practically family.  Paul escapes into another dimension and Margureite is determined to hunt him down, along with the help of another graduate student, Theo.  Traveling to other dimensions can be very dangerous though, but Margerite is determined.  Plus, while she is hunting down Paul with Theo she comes to learn about these two men in the other dimensions and things become a bit murky and unclear. Who really killed her father? Perhaps Paul isn't the murderer and things aren't what they seem? And to further complicate matters, Marguerite starts to have feelings for both men as she gets to know them more and more in the alternate worlds.  Claudia Gray's A Thousand Pieces of You is an imaginative story of other dimensions that kept me flipping the pages even though the romance part of the story left me feeling a little flat.

Marguerite is a fun heroine in A Thousand Pieces of You. I mean she has never even studied alternate dimensions and doesn't know how to use nor fix a Firebird device, but she's willing to risk it all in order to track down her father's killer.  This is the kind of heroine that makes things interesting and entertaining.  I liked her loyalty towards her family and her drive as well as the fact that with each "jump" to another dimension, she learns more and more about herself. So, this novel focuses a bit on Marguerite's journey, which I enjoyed. 

The driving force behind Marguerite is the justice she seeks for her father's murder. She wants so desperately to right the wrongs, but it isn't as simple as that in A Thousand Pieces of You. Things are most definitely complicated and in turn, I was pleasantly surprised to find out there's a bit of a murder mystery in this novel.

Regarding the love interests in A Thousand Pieces of You, I was a little turned off, because of the possible love triangle between Paul and Theo. I mean at first she is hunting down Paul and starts to have feelings for Theo as she spends more time with him. However, that changes when she encounters Paul in another dimension. I had some whiplash, especially because it wasn't too long ago she hated Paul for being an alleged murderer and wanted him dead.  So, anyway, without giving too much away regarding Paul and Theo, let's just say that I didn't really feel the angst or budding romance. It felt a little too forced for me.

However, please know that didn't stop me from enjoying the whole fast-paced time travel/alternature universe/adventure aspect of A Thousand Pieces of You. I mean who hasn't thought of the possibility of people existing in another realm or alternate dimension? Either way, the idea of time travel and alternate dimensions greatly intrigues me and Gray takes readers to such fascinating places, such as the House of Romanov (squee!) and a futuristic London.  This was, no doubt, my favorite aspect of the story.

Even though the romance didn't work for me in A Thousand Pieces of You, I enjoyed the familial aspect of the story, the mystery of the killer, the character of Marguerite and the whole time-travel vibe, so I will definitely be checking out book two in the Firebird series. I can't wait to see where Marguerite takes us next.