13 April, 2015

REVIEW: A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU by Claudia Gray

SPOILERS ON THE DIMENSIONS!
 
Title: A Thousand Pieces of You
Author: Claudia Gray
Series: Firebird #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: ARC / Paperback
Pages: 357

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SYNOPSIS: Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black in this epic dimension-bending trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray about a girl who must chase her father's killer through multiple dimensions.

Marguerite Caine's physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes—and promises to revolutionize science forever. But then Marguerite's father is murdered, and the killer—her parent's handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul— escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of the people she knows—including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul's guilt—as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father's death is far more sinister than she expected.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores an amazingly intricate multi-universe where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all.

HANNAHCASSIE'S REVIEW
Let's start it with a confession. I picked this book because of its cover. But really, have you seen it? It's just one of these "I want this on my shelf and I want everybody to see it" type of cover. Somehow, I also think I'm not the only one who got seduced by such beauty!


Now, let's look at the book itself. I have never read anything of Claudia Gray before but I did see her books in various bookshops I visit on daily bases. I'm just one of these people who are most relaxed around books, guilty as charged. Anyways, the book. Yes, it is definitely THE book. I sorta knew what it was going to be about as I have seen many Youtube videos reviewing it but I did not, trust me, expected THAT.

WORLD AND CHARACTERS: So all in all, the story has a leading character Marguerite who is the artist in the family of extraordinary scientists. We also have two male figures introduced as PhD students. The story starts pretty much with a tragedy and taking up on revenge. Marguerite travels through dimensions to find a killer of her father. Now first dimension she ends up is pretty much what we expect: more advanced all-technology world. It was not dragging but it was not all that great either. The whole background story and technical part was pretty much explained here. After comes dimension number 2 and I have to admit, it's THE dimension that makes it THE book. Marguerite goes to the Russia where she is a daughter of Tsar and falls in love with a soldier. It might be just me and my weakness for such type of stories but my oh my, it was well amazing. And yes, it did have a sad ending which made me almost cry.
Next, Marguerite goes to dimension which is look alike to her own home dimension. There she find out most of the truth which I'm no going to tell you and after she moves to dimension where climate change happened much much faster than what we know.


PLUS: I like the idea of surviving Claudia Grey introduced in this part of the book and how she handled such issues like what exactly caused climate change. It makes you think about it but you do not feel like the author is forcing you to take up her point of view.

MINUS: So, obviously the book has to end at some point and well the ending of this one was rather simple. It even made me double check if it is really a series or just a stand alone, I'm happy to say it is a series or at least there is going to be more books.

OVERALL: Now, after I spoiled the book you would ask me why to read it? Well all I can tell you is that damn, just do it. You will definitely not regret it. Just trust me on that.
All in all, it was a great read and I am confident this book made to my top 10 of 2015 just like that. 





LAURA'S REVIEW
Alright so I had never read anything by Claudia Gray but this book started to be talked about a lot and specially Hannah (yo girl) loved it as much as she loved the cover, which is gorgeous by the way, so I felt like I was missing all the fun and I had to read it. Actually I directly bought it and it was a smart move.

THE WORLD: It is set in the "normal human world", our world, the one we live now but it adds the element of adding other "worlds" parallel to ours, aka other dimensions which we are unaware of but coexisting with ours. (I sense this is difficult to explain but I'm trying) so the thing is basically, with the right technology, people can travel/leap through the different dimensions but only the ones were you exist... obviously in some alternative dimensions some people may not exist or may be dead and the book sets on that notion.

THE CHARACTERS: The main character is Marguerite Caine, daughter of two brilliant scientist who invented the machine which allows people (actually their consciousness) to travel between dimensions with the money of a corporation called Triad. The story begins with a tragedy which pushes Marguerite to travel with Theo Beck, a brilliant research assistant of his parents whose not much older than her, to seek revenge and kill Paul Markov, the other research assistant and also around Marguerite's age who is the villain of the story or so they think. Those are the main characters of the story but the great thing about the book is that we get to see their "different" versions from the other dimensions and we see their development. Brilliant idea to be honest.

PLUS: The plot is very interesting! there are plot twists, gorgeous different dimensions each unique and weird and completely realistic in a way, there are traitors, spies, some romance... it has it all.

I have to mention the cover as a plus. Sorry not sorry but the cover is gorgeous and it adds points to the package. Always.

MINUS: Is not an important minus really but you are very confused when you start the book because it picks from "the middle" of the story and every page is like "what?" but around the middle of the book the pieces start to connect together although there was a certain plot twist I was not expecting...

OVERALL: 4.5 stars (pushing more towards 5 stars). I highly recommend it. It has mystery and action and of course the parallel dimensions... honestly I would recommend to read it only because of the dimensions. They're magnificent.


What do you guys think about A THOUSAND PIECES OF YOU?