Thoughts on Pages #10: A Thousand Pieces of You

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How amazing is this cover?!

When a book keeps you guessing, then leaves you breathless at the very end...that's when you know it's a good one.

Storyline

The synopsis for the first book in the Firebird trilogy is as follows:

"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, the first book in the Firebird trilogy, explores an amazingly intricate multiverse where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all."

Let me summarize dimension travel before we go any further:

The firebird - a fancy, high-tech locket - gives the wearer the ability to travel between parallel dimensions to their bodies within those dimensions. If the wearer is without their Firebird for a long period of time, they forget themselves and lie dormant within their bodies in the dimension they traveled to. Sound complicated? Not to worry...it's explained well in the novel.

Characters

I adore the characters in this book. Especially the protagonist, Marguerite.

Here's why I absolutely love Marguerite as a character:

• How relatable she is. When dressed to the nines as the daughter of a Russian Tzar in one dimension, she wishes that she could take selfies and use at least one of the pictures as a profile picture for the rest of forever. At first I rolled my eyes, but then I thought, Wouldn't I want to do the same thing? This vein continues throughout the novel, sometimes on more serious tones. She's a believable 18-year-old, and I love that.
• She's homeschooled. She not only mentions that she's homeschooled, but also debunks the audience's perceived misconceptions of homeschooling, namely, social interactions and quality of the courses she was taught. For someone like me who was homeschooled for a good portion of her life (Kindergarten through 8th Grade), reading this was huge.

I can't go too much into the supporting cast, because spoilers, but I absolutely adore the supporting cast and villains as well. Everyone keeps you guessing as to their intentions right until the very last page. This got annoying at times, but at the end, it was exhilarating.

The only other annoying thing I found was how fast the romantic relationship progressed. It almost went too fast for Marguerite - and myself as a reader -  to process what was going on, but she grows as a character because of it, so it's only a minor blemish on an otherwise great story.

Setting

Setting? More like settings.

Marguerite travels to many parallel dimensions in different cities, like futuristic London and 1900's Russia, just to name a couple. The settings are very well-written and the world-building is believable for each respective place. How Marguerite interacts with each dimension is also believable, from her conversations with characters to having to learn languages to adapt to a foreign culture.

My Thoughts

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING.

It reminded me of Doctor Who, but also Inception. Like I mentioned earlier, it's an exhilarating ride from start to finish. I already can't wait for the next two books in the trilogy, and am so curious to see how the plot unfolds from here.

I give A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray five Firebirds out of five.

Hey, y'all! :) Want to see what I'm reading next and what books I've been loving lately? Check out my Goodreads!