A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird, #1)

by Claudia Gray

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

Rating: 3.5

Parallel universes are one of my favourite subject matters, so when I saw that A Thousand Pieces of You was about a girl who could travel through different universes to catch a murderer, I was thrilled. That, along with the beautiful cover, is what made me request the book. And I am so glad that I did because A Thousand Pieces of You is bloody good!

The action kicks off right away when Marguerite and her parents’ hot lab assistant go off in search of her parents’ other hot lab assistant, who allegedly killed Marguerite’s father. Straight away, the reader is thrown into a whole different dimension where things are very similar and yet very, very different. I was captivated throughout the book because I couldn’t wait to see what happened next with Marguerite’s quest.

I love the way Gray tackled parallel universes. It was a bit like dimension travel, with Marguerite and her hot lab friend using things called Firebirds – which her mother created – to jump between worlds and take over their parallel self’s body for a time. Once they leave, everything for that host goes back to normal. And the best part is that each different universe has developed differently. Some have been more slow to develop than others, which was great because it gave a sort of time travel feel to the book – another one of my favourite things!

The only thing that didn’t amaze me about this book was the characters. Marguerite was cool, but that’s the only word I can think of to describe her. Yes, she was a universe jumping badass, but she just didn’t interest me all that much. I didn’t feel a connection. And then there’s Hot Lab Assistant #1, whose name I can’t even remember because he meant absolutely nothing to me #burn. Their little romance grossed me out.

There was a ship that I shipped but I don’t even know why I shipped that ship in particular. I thought that the couple had good chemistry, but they didn’t have enough scenes! Or enough build up! I guess I liked them because they were there.

I did have an issue with one particular plot point in this book. It’s a very minor spoiler, so shield your eyes if you’re worried: Marguerite, whilst in a host’s body, has sex with someone. This was not okay to me because the host had no way of giving consent, and Marguerite was USING her host’s body to get what she wanted. It was violating and not consensual on the host’s part, and it really rubbed me the wrong way. I would hope that this gets addressed in the next book in the series, perhaps to go alongside Marguerite’s character development, but I don’t see that happening. Still, my fingers will be forever crossed.

A Thousand Pieces of You is a true thrill ride that manages to incorporate many of my favourite things: parallel universes, historical fiction, time travel (kind of), and more. I’m very interested in seeing where Gray takes this series and her characters, I just hope that she focusses on the important issues at hand rather than the love triangle that wheedled its way in there. Also, a message to the author: please make your plot twists more shocking. Please? *creepy grin*

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