Review: A Thousand Pieces of You

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You
Author: Claudia Gray
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Publication Date: November 4, 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

My Thoughts

I have to admit that one of the things that really drew me to A Thousand Pieces of You was its gorgeous cover! I was hoping that there would be an equally interesting story to match it, and I was not let down. The fact that it deals with parallel worlds was something new to me; I couldn’t help but wonder how the Claudia Gray was going to go about in explaining everything. I had high expectations for this one.

Maybe that’s why I was kind of disappointed when I actually read it. I don’t know if it’s just the part of me that is always looking for a deep explanation for everything, but I feel like there are areas of the plot that just aren’t convincing enough, like there are still so many blurry points of interworldly (?) travel that are never really tackled. I thought this was going to have a prominently sci-fi plot, but it turned out to be more of a romance novel than anything. Besides that, though, I think that the different worlds are designed quite nicely and creatively. The plot is pretty good; there are some revelations that already seem obvious early on, but I like that there is always this suspense to find out what will happen next.

I’m not too sure how I feel about Marguerite. She starts off okay, but I learned to like her a bit more by the end because of the independence and strength that she develops. I love her relationship with her family and how she would do anything to protect and save them. Theo and Paul are alright I guess, but I don’t really find myself all that connected to them. Honestly, I’m kind of against the whole love triangle between these three characters; there are scenes that just come out fairly cheesy and cliche for my taste. For me, they just somehow seem more like older brothers than love interests, and I would probably like it better that way.

So okay, this novel didn’t exactly blow me away like I thought it would, but I feel like the potential of the idea of parallel worlds is enough to make me want to read more of it. Despite its shortcomings, A Thousand Pieces of You remains a unique read that’s worth trying out.