[REVIEW] A Thousand Pieces of You

Series: Firebird #1
Author: Claudia Gray
Genre: young adult, science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, adventure, 
Published: October 7, 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins

A thousand lives. A thousand possibilities. One fate.

As the daughter of two brilliant physicists, Marguerite Caine grew up surrounded by wild scientific theories, always encouraged to imagine the improbable or even the impossible. But when her father is murdered, Marguerite's life is turned upside down. All the evidence points to one person - Paul, her parents' handsome, enigmatic protege. Before the law can touch him, though, Paul uses Marguerite's mother's latest invention -  a device called the Firebird, which allows people to leap into alternate dimensions - to escape.

With the help of another physics student, Theo, Marguerite chases Paul through various dimensions, determined to avenge her father. Her parents theorized that people who have met in one reality will be likely to meet in another... that key moments will happen over and over, in different ways. But when Marguerite leaps into each new world, she meets another version of Paul that has her doubting his guilt and questioning her heart. Before long she realizes that what happened to her father may be more complex, and more sinister, than she ever dreamed.

Marguerite is swept into an epic love affair that feels both dangerous and inevitable in New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray's glorious new trilogy.

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I was really, really, REALLY looking forward to this one. But then... I was disappointed. That beautiful, breathtaking cover... and the second book is already as beautiful as the first but then... after reading it, I was like: sorry second book, despite how beautiful you are... I'll most likely not bother getting you :(

While reading A Thousand Pieces of You, it reminded me of Steins;Gate for a bit as well as Hourglass by Myra McEntire. There's something obviously sinister going on... and sinister is really overdoing it. I'd say that there's a great invention and people wanted to use it for their own profit. Simple as that.

ATPOY isn't a really time travelling story though unlike those I mentioned. It's about parallel universe. It's Marguerite's adventure through parallel universe. It's supposed to be interesting. Steins;Gate was able to make it interesting despite all those annoying jargons and complicated explanations. ATPOY, on the other hand, tried to explained. It really did. It filled up pages of explanations with the occasional involvement of fate. It's boring, well at least for me it is...

The whole mystery and romance involving Paul Markov isn't really convincing. at all. First off, the story started with saying that Marguerite is chasing Paul then she goes on explaining whythefreak she's doing it. As the story progress, Marguerite suddenly finds herself believing the things Paul is telling her just because she feels that he's not the type of person who'd kill her father. Then I was like, WHATTHEFUCK?

THEN there's the romance... Marguerite is in love with Paul (or at least she likes him in some ways) even before he is accused of murdering her father. Flashbacks give hints of their relationship and how Marguerite sees Paul before things become messy. Yet, as much as I'd like the two of them, they just didn't work for me.

ATPOY tries to establish the whole dilemma of loving someone as well as his counterparts in other dimensions. There's the whole Marguerite likes this Paul but is her love for him the same love she feels for the Paul in this dimension? (those damn complications. does this make sense?). The romance between the two of them cheesy, not very interesting, and I ended up not really caring at all. The worse part of it is how the romance actually takes up over 70% of the book @__@

The climax was pretty intense but very predictable as well. I expected a huge part of it but there were also a couple of things that surprised me. The twist was good. But the ending kind of put me off. I really wish that instead of going with that happily ever after ending which felt like compromising the story for a... well... a happily ever after... It could have gone to a more heartbreaking ending or more intriguing ending (but after all that, I have no idea how to make things actually intriguing)...

OVERALL, A Thousand Pieces of You just wasn't for me. A lot of things just didn't work with me which I think could really work for other people such as Marguerite and Paul's romance, its own brand of parallel universe and how it works. While reading this, I was really wishing for it to do other things.

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What I Like: (1) the flashbacks (it tried to make a lot of things and relationships make sense), (2) the parallel universe idea,

What I Didn’t Like: (1) the romance between Marguerite and Paul, (2) so much talk on how the firebird works, it just takes so much space, (3) the whole travelling actually annoyed me, I mean why not just travel directly to where he [Paul] needs to go? seriously though, (could have made the story shorter and my agony lesser),

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