Review: A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray
368 Pages
Release Date: November 4th, 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: Sci-fi/Parallel Universes/Mystery
Source: Publisher via EW
Rating: 4 STARS

Goodreads Summary: 
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. 

It took me awhile to get into A Thousand Pieces of You surprisingly so. It wasn't until 30% of the book that I got hooked. I think it took me some time to get used to the writing style since the book literally dived right into the plot and then went back to the past to explain stuff and were Marguerite's memories essentially. But after they got to the Russian dimension (which was one of the main ones) that's when everything fit together and it became easier to read. There were some stuff that was quite predictable but the whole big idea and reason for everything took me by surprise. I loved seeing how the parallel dimensions differed and how their lives changed. I didn't expect how some of the dimensions could be a lot like the past, future, and present but it was presented really well and made sense. I LOVED how fate also played into the story in its own subtle way.

Determined and stubborn, Marguerite would do anything to find out the truth. I'm surprised that she would automatically accuse Paul of murdering her father. With her memories of Paul I assumed she would be the one to doubt it from the beginning. I loved seeing her get accustomed to herself in each dimension yet still remain as her. As for Theo, well I didn't love nor hate him. He kind of actually irritated me and his overconfidence irked me. In my opinion, he seemed pretty pointless to the story until the end where everything connected. And then there's Paul...oh I love him! I think it's funny that he's one of those built guys that's timid yet brilliant and it just worked well with him. He's literally always one step ahead of the game and he's just a guy that's easy to connect with.

I don't think the romance aspect of this story was overdone. Marguerite knew what her objective was and never over-thought where her heart stood in relation to the guys. And if she did ponder about it, it wasn't in a big scene where the romance was totally irrelevant. Everything that happened had perfect timing in accordance to the book. She also wasn't as conflicted with her feelings that it overwhelmed her to the point that it started getting annoying.

Intriguing although fast paced in the beginning, A Thousand Pieces of You is not a book to miss out on. It's kind of perfect for all genres since it does have sci-fi, mystery, historical fiction aspects to it but also a parnormal(ish) and contemporary feel for it as well. Happy Readings!