A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird, #1)

by Claudia Gray

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 explores an amazingly intricate multi-universe where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all.

Reviewed by Angie on

2 of 5 stars

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A Thousand Pieces of You has a really great premise and a fun plot, but I was distracted by holes and questions! I love parallel universe tales, but there are things about this one that had me puzzled and distracted. The plot starts right away. There's no easing into it. Marguerite and Theo are traveling through the multiverse to kill their friend Paul who killed Meg's father. But things always seem to go wrong during their inter-dimensional travels, plans are thrown off, and secrets revealed.

One thing that kept me distracted about A Thousand Pieces of You from the very beginning was this revenge plot. I loved the idea of following a criminal through parallel universes, but in this case, there was no basis for it. Like I said, it jumps right in, so we have no idea what exactly happened. But then it turns out that Meg and Theo actually have no idea what exactly happened. They left on this mission the very next day. Paul had only been a suspect at that point, and Theo kept pushing that Meg, her sister, and mother are in danger from him. But...neither of you know that he did it? So how do you even know that he would come after anyone else? They didn't even stick around to see the body. Just grabbed their Firebirds and started universe hopping. I don't think so.

Then there's the matter of the actual multiverse travel. It's explained pretty well, in a few info-dumps at the beginning. I don't think there's any other way to present this information, and I thought it was very interesting. I liked that only energy was transferable. They hadn't gotten to matter yet, which makes a lot of sense. Except that for 300 pages(!!!) I was wonder what happened to Meg, Theo, and Paul's bodies. Were they just laying around where they left them? They certainly didn't come with.

Then we're told what happens, which was not interesting or believable at all, because they didn't develop a way to do that which is why their bodies were left behind in the first place! And then I had to wonder what happened to a certain character who was returned to their body which was in a very inconvenient and dangerous location, because their consciousness is returned to wherever it had been last. It's a quick, simple solution but it doesn't make sense given what we know about how this works.

Along those same thoughts, A Thousand Pieces of You makes it clear that time travel is not involved in moving between universes. You always appear in the new world at the exact time you left the old one. But does that mean the exact same time and date? Or the same "biological" time? If it's the former, what would happen if Meg went to a world where she was born ten years later? Would she inhabit her 8 year old self's body? We see a world where she has different siblings, so it's not much of a stretch to imagine her born at a different time. The story makes it seem like it's the latter, because she's always in her familiar body, as are Theo and Paul, which would imply that in the worlds where all three of them exist, they were still born at the same times. But it's also the former because it's always the same time of day. It seems unlikely that both events would always be in alignment, unless they're able to somehow choose worlds where this is so.

Which brings to me the fact that I had to roll my eyes at how Paul knew exactly which of the trillionbilliongillion universes to set his Firebird to. How can he possibly know how mathematically different the worlds he needed to end up in were? They could have been wildly different or super similar or anything inbetween! In fact, it's possible that the worlds he was going to didn't even have a version of him in them, and therefore he wouldn't even be able to get there! Same with the bad guy who's going from world to world. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but it all nagged at me.

Clearly, my brain was working overtime during A Thousand Pieces of You. There were too many pieces that simply didn't fit for me. I did love the middle portion of the book where Meg winds up in a world where the Industrial Revolution hadn't happened yet. That was super interesting! But then the traveling stuff started up again, and obvious reveals were obvious, and more questions.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

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  • Started reading
  • 5 November, 2015: Finished reading
  • 5 November, 2015: Reviewed