Review of 'A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird, #1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Marguerite’s parents are the physicists behind the Firebird; a device that makes travel between dimensions possible. When her father is murdered and the prime suspect disappears, Marguerite doesn’t hesitate to track him down. The only problem is, he’s no longer in their dimension.
I liked the concept of souls that span dimensions. We might be different people, but each version of us is has something that defies chance and chaos. Deep down, every version of ourselves is the same, no matter the circumstances. The prose often alludes to Marguerite's love of art and I felt there were some beautiful pieces of writing
The dimension jumping kept making me think of Quantum Leap. Although they only leap into themselves, but they have to learn quickly what kind of life they have landed in. We see a dimension that is ahead of us technologically and one that is behind, and another where …
Marguerite’s parents are the physicists behind the Firebird; a device that makes travel between dimensions possible. When her father is murdered and the prime suspect disappears, Marguerite doesn’t hesitate to track him down. The only problem is, he’s no longer in their dimension.
I liked the concept of souls that span dimensions. We might be different people, but each version of us is has something that defies chance and chaos. Deep down, every version of ourselves is the same, no matter the circumstances. The prose often alludes to Marguerite's love of art and I felt there were some beautiful pieces of writing
The dimension jumping kept making me think of Quantum Leap. Although they only leap into themselves, but they have to learn quickly what kind of life they have landed in. We see a dimension that is ahead of us technologically and one that is behind, and another where sea levels have rose, making the scientific struggle focus on the oceans.
A large portion of the book is set in a Russia where the industrial revolution is in its early stages (they have trains but not much else). It’s not time travel, but it’s interesting to highlight how easy our world could be different. It’s probably too much to ask for more world-building for each dimension. I wanted more back story. What was the event that made that dimension different from ours? For the idea to work, they can’t be too dissimilar as Marguerite needed to exist in each one.
I just felt A Thousand Pieces of You fell into a few too many young adult clichés. Theo would have been just as an effective character had he been a platonic friend. You can still love and want to protect someone you don’t want to have sex with. But instead, they nearly fall into bed at the beginning. If love spans dimensions, why do we need a love triangle?
Then there was special snowflake syndrome. Something makes Marguerite able to tolerate dimension jumping better than others. And there’s an evil corporation; OK not just a YA cliché there, and it’s a believable enough one, but it felt too thrown in there without much thought.
Review copy provided by publisher.
