A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Marguerite is the daughter of two brilliant scientists who have not only proven the existence of other dimensions, but have invented a way to travel between them. Soon after this breakthrough, Marguerite’s father is murdered by one of his own research assistants, Paul. Marguerite and Theo, the other research assistant, follow Paul through dimensions seeking to avenge Marguerite’s father’s death. In the midst of this betrayal, Marguerite will have to decide who she can really trust and how far she’ll go for revenge.

First, THAT COVER. It’s stunning and what drew me to the book in the first place. I love it. I feel like I could just study it for hours. Anyway, moving on. This is a book about inter-dimensional travel. Sometimes it might feel like time travel as some dimensions are not as technologically advanced as others, but it is important to remember that the date is always the same no matter what dimension they’re in. I read a review on this book the other day where the reviewer talked about how much they liked the time travel. IT’S NOT TIME TRAVEL. This is such an important point because time travel seems a little blah to me while inter-dimensional travel seems much more clever.

I liked pretty much all of the characters. They all felt complex and real. I like that Theo is portrayed kind of as an anti-hero. He is very protective of Marguerite and throughout the book I wanted to like him, but there was always something in the back of my mind that wouldn’t quite let me. Paul was a little flat for me. Lieutenant Markov was great, but for some reason that didn’t translate into Paul’s character. Which is a little weird now that I think about it since they’re basically the same person. Maybe that was the point? Marguerite was a great character though and I loved her parents and her older sister. In addition to well-developed characters, I thought the quality of the writing was great.

“Now I know grief is a whetstone. It sharpens all your love, all your happiest memories, into blades that tear you apart from within….They say ‘time heals’….What people really mean is that eventually you’ll get used to the pain. You’ll forget who you were without it; you’ll forget what you looked like without your scars.”

There were just some passages that I felt were really beautifully written. “You’ll forget what you looked like without your scars.” So good. I will DEFINITELY be on the lookout for the next book.

Overall Rating: 4
Violence: Mild
Sexual Content: Moderate. One scene in particular, but brief and very non-explicit.
Language: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate. Two scenes of brief drug use and some underage drinking.