Saturday, August 6, 2016

A Thousand Pieces Of You by Claudia Gray

Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black in this epic dimension-bending trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray about a girl who must chase her father's killer through multiple dimensions.

Marguerite Caine's physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes—and promises to revolutionize science forever. But then Marguerite's father is murdered, and the killer—her parent's handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul— escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of the people she knows—including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul's guilt—as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father's death is far more sinister than she expected.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores an amazingly intricate multi-universe where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all.



Rating: 1,5/5 Stars

"How could I have been such a fool? How could I have questioned for one second that Paul was dangerous? He killed my father and I still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'm never going to let a guy make me this stupid ever again."



description


I swear, this could have been the funniest thing I read if it weren't so fucking sad.

I feel the need to clarify, I was actually having a lot of fun with this until Russia happened, at which point I lost all respect and joy I had for this book. However, I’ve read several reviews and so far, nobody’s pointed out my big issue as their problem, soit might be just me. If you were planning on reading this book, by all means don’t let this rabid rant stop you.

Because MY GOD will I fucking rant.

Now, I know that a lot of people had problems with the romance in the story. I mean, after all the synopsis promises us “Orphan Black meets Cloud Atlas” as a girl travels through dimensions to avenge her father’s death (I’m still waiting for my Orphan Black, BTW). But do we get awesome dimensions? Do we get action and revenge???! Nope, but we do get a lot bunch of romantic angst, and I mean A GOOD FUCKING BUNCH of romantic angst in the form of a love pentagon and annoying characters making dumb decisions.
However, I had read reviews complaining about that so I was prepared for it, knowing this beforehand really helped me because I wasn’t disappointed or anything.

The story was kind of silly, but it was right around what I was expecting.

The basic premise is this; Marguerite’s parents are geniuses who invented the Firebird, a device that allows for a person (just their conscious) to travel in between dimensions. But just when they had finally succeeded one of her parents assistants, Paul, steals the Firebird, deletes all the data and kills Marguerite’s dad. So now Marguerite and her parent’s other student, Theo, will use the remaining prototypes to follow Paul and… well, get plain old revenge.

The concept was VERY promising, but like I said you’ll be happier if you expect less revenge and more “dumb-ass heroine who confuses her hormones with actual facts”.

As a main character, Marguerite left a lot to be desired. That being said, God, I really fucking hated her. There’s no other way to say it, really. I can’t think of one nice thing to say about her, but I CAN think of a thousand shits to complain about, so let’s start with that.

Marguerite was dumb, mind-numbing, makes-you-want-to-bash-your-head-against-a-wall-until-you-die, dumb. Even during the first chapters when I liked where the story was heading, I had trouble connecting with her. She’s rash, she’s dumb (I’m never going to stop saying that, so you better get used to it), she’s whinny.
She’s your typical YA heroine who is praised as “different” and “especial” when in reality she’s just your average selfish asshole who can’t stop going “Boohooo me!”.

description

You see, Marguerite is not like her parents, she is not a scientist, she’s an artist. So of course that just makes her absolutely stupid and ugly (don’t ask me how). Hardly a chapter went by without Marguerite comparing herself to her family both in intellect and in appearance (having curly hair instantly makes you hideous, FYI).

It was annoying, her constantly putting herself down so readers would feel sympathy for her while having all the characters (especially the guys, the only other females in the story were related to Marguerite) shower praises all over her.


And then, there's her being dumb (just like she wouldn't shut up about her being ugly or artsy, I won't shut up about her being a FREAKING IDIOT!!!).
Look, right from the beginning we knew that Paul wasn't really guilty; it was obvious. If you present a plot like that and then say in the very summarythat Marguerite starts doubing his guilt... you know for sure something else was up. The fun thing would be to find out what. Was he being framed? Was it an accident and things got out of hands? Was it foulplay??

Dunno! But it was something else to look forward to. However, we knew it was going to be difficult (whatever it was) because all evidence pointed towards Paul, so it's not like Marguerite would believe him out of the blue, RIGHT?!

"Tha astonishment and pain I see are very real. Some people are good enough actors to feign shoc, but shy, uncertain Paul Markov has never had that kind of game.There's no way he could fake this kind of horror, or the tears I can see welling in his eyes."


Paul:

 description

I mean, SERIOUSLY??! And then,

"It hits me then, a blow more stupefying than sharp: Paul didn't kill my father."


Let's clarify something, when they discovered that her father had died and all evidences pointed towards Paul nobody cool believe it because he was the sweetest guy ever. But the evidence was irrefutable (even though we never saw it but whatever), so Marguerite was CONVINCED that Paul was some kind of evil mastermind, a psychopath and a monster that played them all for fools, that gained their trust and love in a whole year, all the while he was planning to doing something so awful. In her mind, Paul was a master manipulator and liar... BUT he seems kind of surprised when she sees him, so he OBVIOUSLY couldn't be the bad guy?!

description

IT WAS MORONIC and a cheap way to solve the main conflict way too easily. How to make Paul and Marguerite team up? Make Marguerite a BLOODY IDIOT who can think only with her hormones, and have her believe evil masterminds because they look/sound kind of honest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111!!!!!


The world building was, honestly, a bit disappointing. You have the chance to create infinite parallel worlds and all you come up are like, four? And none of them is very much explained since the action is always focused on the romance.

Speaking off, the romance was unbearable. Again, what happened in Russia was related to that and it was TERRIBLE, so bad it ruined the book for me. But the rest before hadn’t been much better, Marguerite’s dad just died and all she can think about is Theo being hot, or Paul who betrayed them all (but it’s still hot).


To sum up, A Thousand Pieces Of You was a romance with a love triangle (quasi pentagon), an insufferable heroine who was dumb as f*ck… and some dimensions here and there

No comments:

Post a Comment