A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You

Author: Claudia Gray

Series: Firebird #1

Publisher: HarperTeen

Date Published: November 14th, 2014

Genre: Sci-Fi? Dystopian?

Pages: 368

Age Range: 13+





                                                                      Summary:

     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.

                                                                        Review:

     A Thousand Pieces of You just sounds like one of those cheap romance novels with the swooning girl on the cover in the arms of some handsome hunk with rippling muscles. Aaaand that's not far from the truth. This book was advertised as some amazing book about time travel, and kick buttery, but it fell way short of the mark. Instead of being focused on time traveling, the author forces a romance on the readers that I just wasn't feeling. Usually, if I like a romance, I don't mind it having a SLIGHTLY more prominent role than usual, but this book was a romance with a time traveling aspect (think Passion by Lauren Kate. Literally). This book is SO cliched, but it doesn't do anything to stand out, which was really aggravating because it was nothing special.
     Marguerite was insufferable. Every internal thought and action of hers had me gritting my teeth in frustration. She was whiny, weak, aggravating, and just stupid. I thought her reactions were either far too tame or far too lame, and there was no happy medium for me. Besides the protagonist being unbearable, her main love interest was too. I say main love interest, because, of course, there were two. Of the two, Paul was my least favorite. I didn't get to spend enough time with him to truly hate him, but I was able to develop a thorough dislike of him. My dislike is so hard to describe because half of the book was Paul being empty- headed, but I just hated that he was so stupid, and yet he was out biggest hope for the future, Ugh. All of that being said, I actually kinda liked Theo. First off, his name is stellar. I have thing for Theos (Theo James, anyone?). His character had some more depth than the others and he made me laugh.
     As for the plot, the time traveling was kind of weird, thrown in there to accent the romance. Honestly, the story didn't exactly benefit from the traveling aspect and, in my opinion, it could've survived without and maybe have been better. MAYBE. Marguerite traveled around, made out with Paul, made out with Theo, got separated, and got it on in Russia because... priorities!!! For a girl who lost her father, the girl sure got over it quickly. Any "twists" that were supposed to be in the book were obvious from miles away, and the pacing was off- really fast in some places, and dragging in others.
     There is a second book, but I can't see myself ever picking it up. Yet another disappointing hype machine book.