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.

Review: Lights Out in Wonderland

Lights Out In Wonderland by D.B.C. Pierre

Pages: 320, hardcover

ISBN: 9780571228904

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Release Date: September 2nd, 2010


Genre: literary / contemporary

Source: library


Premise:

Gabriel Brockwell, aesthete, poet, philosopher, disaffected twenty-something decadent, is thinking terminal. His philosophical enquiries, the abstractions he indulges, and how these relate to a life lived, all point in the same direction. His destination is Wonderland. The nature and style of the journey is all that's to be decided. Taking in London, Tokyo, Berlin and the Galapagos Islands, Lights Out In Wonderland documents Gabriel Brockwell's remarkable global odyssey. Committed to the pursuit of pleasure and in search of the Bacchanal to obliterate all previous parties, Gabriel's adventure takes in a spell in rehab, a near-death experience with fugu ovaries, a sexual encounter with an octopus, and finally an orgiastic feast in the bowels of Berlin's majestic Tempelhof Airport. Along the way we see a character disintegrate and re-shape before our eyes. Lights Out In Wonderland carries you through its many corridors of delight and horror on the back of Gabriel's voice, which is at once skeptical, idealistic, broken and optimistic. An allegorical banquet and a sly commentary on these End Times and the march towards insensate banality, DBC Pierre's third novel completes a loose trilogy of fictions, each of which stands alone as a joyful expression of the human spirit.
(Taken from Goodreads)

Buy it From: Book Depository / Amazon

This book is a DNF for me. I dropped it about 65 pages in, but even when I was a dozen pages in, I had felt the incredible urge to just put it down and never look at it again. So this review is my thoughts on the first 65 pages.

The main character, Gabriel, is, in short, a twat. He was placed in rehab by his father, and comments constantly about capitalism. You know how Chuck Palahniuk can be so deep, dark, and witty about materialism, consumerism, individuality, whatever? Pierre seems to try to imitate that, and does it poorly. For the most part, it's an anti-communist whine-fest. Every page had non-stop bitching about politics. I just thought it was a bit over-the-top. We don't need it shoved in our faces that capitalism is bad, and that capitalism ruins society and such. Subtlety is the key.


The story is basically Gabriel's adventures before he kills himself. But I find his reasons for wanting to kill himself to be a tad bit offensive and absurd. He doesn't really explain any reasons as to why he wants to end his life, except for the fact that we live in a capitalist society. Yep, he wants to kill himself because of capitalism.

The writing was so fantastic, which is a shame. Most of the time, I was drooling at how well Pierre strung his words together. Sadly, the beautiful writing wasn't enough for me to keep on reading.

I do, however, feel that I perhaps wasn't in the right mindset or some such to read this book, and will be trying it again in the future. If my opinions change, then I'll post up a review. We'll see.

10 Second Review: Beautiful writing, only to be tarnished by an anti-capitalist whine-fest. Dropped after 65 pages. Enter at your own risk.

Cover Art: 4
Plot: 1
Characters: 0
Writing: 3 (loses 2 marks for the political rants)
Level of Interest: 1

Total Rating: 2.5 stars