A Thousand Pieces of You - Claudia Gray

At first, this novel just looked like another cliche dystopian book but I read it because I was intrigued by the unique concept. Unfortunately, in the end it was very similar to other novels I have read of the the same genre. In school, I was taught that when narrative writing to "show not tell" but I found that "A Thousand Pieces of You" used very basic language which told the story instead of using more adjectives and metaphors to depict events as they happened. The idea behind the novel was original and had the potential to create an awesome story, but a few things prevented me from really loving it.

Marguerite Caine is the daughter of two brilliant physicists who have made a discovery which will change the world forever. She is encouraged to imagine the impossible and is surrounded by wild, scientific theories until one day, her father is murdered. All of the evidence points towards Paul, one of Marguerite's parent's students who has used their latest invention to escape to another universe. With the help of another student, Theo, Marguerite embarks on a journey through universes in a race to bring justice and avenge her father's death. Not everything is as it seems and she finds herself second guessing those she loves and questioning her heart. It turns out that the murder of her father is part of something much more complex and sinister.

I had expected this novel to be more like a murder mystery than a dystopian or romance but I was wrong. There were elements of mystery but they weren't as prominent as I had expected. The idea of the existence of multiple universes is interesting to explore and Claudia Gray has developed it into a complex concept throughout the novel. Unfortunately, in order for the author's ideas to be clearly presented to the reader, a fair bit of explaining had to happen which took away some of the readers engagement and left it feeling less sophisticated and not well written. At times, the character's point of view seemed a bit pathetic since they had a lot of emotions to sort through. I like how the point of view allows the reader to realise things along side the character as the novel progresses and it is clear that the main character's mindset ends up very different from how it began which creates an interesting transformation and development of the plot line.

"A Thousand Pieces of You" is your typical Young Adult novel since it is an easy read with basic language a bit of romance and a cliche main character. The concept was unique with a tad of mystery which made it overall enjoyable to read.

~Inkpot Blogger