Review: A Thousand Pieces of You

A Thousand Pieces of You
by Claudia Gray

Pages: 357, paperback

Publisher: Harper

Date Released:

Premise: 

Marguerite Caine's physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their more 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 can witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and as whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

I was hesitant about starting this book. The cover is so gorgeous, but I've learned enough times that sometimes the story isn't as lovely as the packaging.

It has such an interesting, promising premise: a murder mystery that spans not just our universe, but the multiverse--a universe for every single decision made. An infinite world of infinite possibilities. Marguerite Cain is on a mission to catch her father's killer, even if it means turning herself into "atomic soup".

Marguerite, I found, is a boring character. Even when she inhabits the bodies of the Marguerites from other worlds, she has no personality. She's just a blank slate hidden inside other blank slates.

All the plot is shoved aside to make room for a ridiculous romance that literally comes from out of nowhere. First Marguerite is so sure that this guy killed her father, and the next moment, she's pining away about his body heat and their almost touching. It made me want to gag, it was so sappy.
The discussion of fate--of things that happen in all universes, such as the love between two people--just makes the romance even more gag-worthy. It's just so forced.
It's such a shame about the lack of plot because it was such a unique concept that could have been fantastic under the right circumstances.

I found myself constantly bored by the story. Even when she's a grand duchess in Russia, the story manages to fall flat in lieu of the romance. All danger and consequences are thrown away for the sake of the romance. There was nothing at stake except for this true love.
In the end, I had to DNF this book. The contradictory nature of the multiuniverses verses fate just left me too frustrated to go on.
That's not to say it's bad. I was just expecting more sci-fi than romance. If you're in the mood for star-crossed lovers, then this is probably for you.

Total:

Cover Art: 4

Plot: 1 

Writing: 1

Characters: 1

Interest: 1

No stars, just one very sad cloud.