WARNING: The following blog posts contain spoilers for the novel under review, ranging from mild to heart wrenchingly major. If you have yet to read this novel and dislike being spoiled, leave now and return upon completion.
If you HAVE read this novel (or just don't give a crap about spoilers), then continue on.
But don't say I didn't warn you.
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HELLO, FRIENDS! Today we're going to be talking about A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray!
THE PLOT-Y BIT
Marguerite's parenst have changed the world; they've not only proved the theory of the multiverse, but created the Firebird, a device that allows the wearer to jump between the different universes. They are overjoyed, triumphant, and a shoo in for the next nobel prize.
But then Marguerite's father is murdered, the Firebird stolen, and all of the data they've accumulated over the last several years wiped. Gone. Destroyed. And with their trusted grad student assistant Paul missing, it's looking extremely likely that he's the one responsible.
Devastated and betrayed, Marguerite teams up with Theo, her parents' second assistant, and together they leap through the invisible barrier to follow Paul as he jumps through the different universes. From a futuristic London to a Tsarist Russia, Marguerite lives through different versions of her life as she fights to find her father's killer. As the details of her father's murder begin to come to light, however, she starts to doubt whether Paul is truly responsible.
THE REVIEW-Y BIT
THIS BOOK. THIS BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL BOOK. I really liked this book, in case you couldn't already tell.
I was both excited for this book, but also a little wary. The synopsis was intriguing and the cover is absolutely beautiful (seriously though check it out it's gorgeous), but I thought that story itself was going to be handled differently than it actually was, and I was pleasantly surprised.
First of all, I thought that Marguerite lived in the future, or a more futuristic version of our world, which I learned right off the bat wasn't true. She's from our world, in our time, which made it a whole lot easier to relate to her as she jumped to all of these unfamiliar universes. Not only that, but she wasn't some scientific genius--she was an artist, and in fact the only member of her family to not be super involved in the scientific world. The fact that she was just as clueless about how the Firebird worked as we, the readers, are, is not only a relief but also a pleasure as she struggles to understand the workings and thoughts of her peers.
Secondly, I thought that Marguerite and Theo would be jumping from realm to realm a lot faster than they actually did. Have any of you ever read Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn? That is the kind of pacing I was expecting. Although the stories are remarkably different, they follow a similar theme of jumping from lifetime to lifetime. Reincarnation moves at a slightly faster pace, tackling at least a dozen different worlds before the final page. A Thousand Pieces of You, on the other hand, takes the pacing a bit slower, with our main characters only travelling to a grand total of four alternate realities. This gave me a chance to get to know each of these different worlds and lives of our main character, without feeling too confused or out of the loop every time she jumped to a new one.
That Russian arc. Oh my sweet goodness. In the middle of the book, there was an arc spanning several chapters in which Marguerite breaks her Firebird and finds herself trapped in Tsarist Russia as a Grand Duchess. That entire arc was my favourite, with all of the romance between her and Russian-bodyguard-Paul, and her growing love for all of the new siblings that she had in this Royal life, and the excitement and suspense as someone tries to overthrow her "father" as the Tsar. I never wanted that arc to end, it was too great.
Not gonna lie: Theo's betrayal was kind of expected on my part. He seemed suspicious to me right from the get go, so when he revealed to be behind the conspiracy surrounding everything, I wasn't at all surprised. The reveal with Marguerite's father, on the other hand...that was extremely well done. Fantastically subtle foreshadowing throughout the book leading to that big reveal, so it didn't seem out of the blue while also not being expected or obvious. (Or unrealistic, either.) More than makes up for the slight Theo disappointment, if you ask me.
Finally, the flashbacks littered throughout the book to tell us of Marguerite's own life, and her relationships with both Paul and Theo were very well placed, so by the end I really felt that I knew Marguerite, the real Marguerite, even though she spent the majority of the book pretending to be different versions of herself. The way she was able to relate to each of her different alter egos, as well, was a pleasure--even in the most drastically different of worlds, Marguerite was still Marguerite, and that was just a really cool thing to see.
THE RATING-Y BIT
Five stars. Five stars, five stars, FIVE MILLION STARS to you, Claudia Gray! You did good. You did very very good.
Also would like to note that this book both wrapped up nicely and neatly enough to be a stand alone, but also leaves enough open for a sequel...which is coming. Ten Thousand Skies Above You is coming THIS NOVEMBER, which is much too far away for my liking.
Until later,
- Justyne
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