Title: A Thousand Pieces of You
Author: Claudia Gray
Series: Firebird
Rating: ★★★

There are a few book themes and topics that can end up making a book amazing or absolutely destroying it. Jumping between alternate realities is one of those. Not only does an author have to create one world where reality jumping is possible, but the other realities must be developed as well. Plus, the science behind the jumping has to at least make a little sense. I picked up A Thousand Pieces of You because I wanted to see if Gray was able to create a book that sounded as good as the book description. While I wished for a little more development in some areas, Gray was able to write a book I really enjoyed.

Marguerite has just lost her father. He’s been killed and she knows who the killer is. So she takes the technology her parents developed, the Firebird, along with Theo. Theo is one of her parents’ research assistants. Together, they take off through alternate realities in search of Paul, another research assistant and the killer.

First things first. The world building. We are dropped right in the middle of Marguerite’s mourning of her father. It’s a bit different from the norm, and in this case it just didn’t work. I wish I could have seen a little bit about Marguerite and her father’s relationship, so I knew where we were starting. I didn’t feel her grief as much as I would have liked. I think maybe dropping the story in a day before everything happened would have given me that connection.

As for the other worlds, I think they were sufficiently described and created. Would I have liked a little more in-depth building? Sure, but I also realize that would have made the book ridiculously long and wouldn’t have served the greater purpose.

I’m a little on the fence about Marguerite as a character. I think she’s incredibly brave for using untested technology to search for her father, but also a little unstable, understandably, for it as well. She also makes a few decisions that left me scratching my head. She believes people in certain situations that most people with common sense wouldn’t believe.

In the end, A Thousand Pieces of You was a good book. It handled the alternate reality well. I just found it a little difficult to fall into the story and connect with the main character. I enjoyed reading it, but it wasn’t the amazing book I’d hoped for.

If you’d like to purchase a copy of A Thousand Pieces of You, you can do so here
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Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.