REVIEW + GIVEAWAY | A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
November 4, 2014
HarperTeen
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*Courtesy of HarperTeen + Kaye Publicity

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.

First sentence: “My hand shakes as I brace myself  against the brick wall.”

It had me at “parallel universes.” (And the insanely gorgeous cover because holy cow! In love.) I was instantly convinced that I had to read this book or else. How am I to say no to parallel universes when it’s one of my favorite tropes? I don’t say no.

A Thousand Pieces of You follows Marguerite who traverses through parallel universes hunting for her father’s killer, Paul Markov (an assistant of her parents), with the help of Theo (another assistant) and a Firebird, a device that allows her to jump through universes. You get family, love, different universes, a bit of art and technology, body hopping, and a whole lot of running and danger.

Despite all the makings of an awesome story, I just felt sorely disappointed that it didn’t live up to the expectations I had for it. (And you can blame the romance.)

• Parallel universe speaks to me.

I can’t say no. And oh boy, we get to see the different universes Marguerite and the other characters travel to. It’s quite amazing to see how different each world is. It makes you wonder what your other self is doing in them. In A Thousand Pieces of You, you’ll find Marguerite in a futuristic London, where her father never moved to the United States; a Romanov Russia where the Romanov line was not murdered; and a world where everybody lived underwater. It was so amazing. I wanted to see more of the different worlds.

And how the characters travel to different universes is so interesting. A person who has a Firebird, like Marguerite, would essentially body-hop into their body in that universe, so it’s Marguerite jumping into the body of that universe’s Marguerite and controlling said body. It’s so weird, but fascinating.

• The beginning got my attention.

KILL PAUL MARKOV? DAMNNNNNNNNN. That’s how you start. Straight to the point. Marguerite has one mission in her life, and that is to avenge her father’s death. She sounds committed to her cause. I couldn’t help but imagine how she’d do it or wonder if she’ll go through it at all. It really sets up what you’d expect the book to give you.

• It was easy to understand all the explanations, theories, and technology about parallel universes and traveling to them.

I didn’t find myself with a big question mark over my head. It’s not like time travel where the explanations and theories hurt my head. Traveling through parallel universes made sense, and it was exciting to read about how it all worked. I actually wanted to read more about the science of parallel universes. I just wanted more.

• Character development was lacking for me.

That’s a big issue for me. I usually have a hard time connecting with the characters if there’s a lack of good character development, and unfortunately, the characters in this book had a lot to be desired. The characters didn’t really grow; they felt stagnant. Marguerite was too wishy-washy, continuing to flip back and forth on life-changing/threatening issues, and she trusted the words of people too easily (which is where her wishy-washy came to play). The guys never grew to be more than being opposites of each other. Marguerite’s family was briefly touched upon, but overall, they felt non-existent. I had a hard time liking or sympathizing for these characters because I just didn’t feel like I connected with them.

• The romance was cringeworthy and occurred too fast.

You don’t want instalove? Well, I’m sorry to say this book has it. This book doesn’t take the time to develop the romance. Once the book starts, you’re thrust into the weird love triangle, watching Marguerite being wishy washy about the men in her life. [spoiler]It went from Marguerite crushing on Paul Markov to not liking him (because he may have killed her dad), then to Marguerite thinking she loves Theo because there had always been “something between them” (which came out of left field), and then to her falling head over heels in love with Paul again, leaving Theo in the dust.[/spoiler] LIKE WHAT? THERE WASN’T ANY BREATHING ROOM. I couldn’t understand the appeal of any of them. I was just cringing every time the romance happened.

• The issue of consent when body-hopping/traveling through parallel universes.

When Marguerite travels through parallel universes, she is essentially body-hopping to that universe’s Marguerite. It’s cool and all, but it brings up the issue of whether it’s ethical or not because of the lack of consent. [spoiler]That universe’s Marguerite would no longer be in control of her body. I like that the characters are aware that these bodies aren’t their own, but in the case of the Romanov Russia universe, well, Marguerite forgets that. Marguerite has sex with Lieutenant Markov without the consent of Romanov Marguerite (the body Marguerite is inhabiting). Can we talk about how Romanov Marguerite has no choice in the matter? She didn’t agree to have sex with Lt. Markov. She won’t even remember that any of this happened.[/spoiler] This made me incredibly angry and uncomfortable. It made the whole romance even worse.

• The conflict felt forced.

It was too convenient, almost too comical the way that the conflict occurred. I found myself having to go, “of course that happened” and rolling my eyes because it wasn’t really subtle or natural. Yeah, you have to have conflict, but don’t make it so obvious that’s the twist that throws a wrench in the character’s path.

Overall, I felt incredibly disappointed and misled. Do I regret reading this book? Not at all. I really do love seeing the different parallel universes and everything about it. I just wish I connected with the characters better and that it wasn’t heavy on the romance. Otherwise, I would’ve loved it. Will I read the next book? Sure. I need to see the parallel universes and see how Marguerite defeats evil.

I will be receiving an extra copy of A Thousand Pieces of You from HarperCollins, and I thought, why not give that away? So, if you’ve been bouncing around in excitement for this book, you should really enter in the rafflecopter.

THE RULES

• This giveaway is only opened to the US. (Too broke to send it anywhere else.)
• It will run from November 4 to November 14, 2014.
• You must be 13 years (with your parent’s permission) or older.
• You will be disqualified if you pick up entries you haven’t done.
• If the winner does not respond to my e-mail within 48 hours, I will have to choose another winner.
• I am not responsible for any items lost in the mail.

Want to win A Thousand Pieces of You? Enter here!