I decided to read A Thousand Pieces of You because the blurb
immediately piqued my interest and I enjoyed the quandary: what would I do? What would I do if I 1) had
genius parents (ha, right), and 2) if my genius parents created a device used for interdimensional
travel, but then 3) my dad is killed by a trusted friend who 4) makes his
getaway by stealing said interdimensional travel device and escaping into alternate
universe? Well, I’d chase after him of course, just like our heroine did. And…
Then what? I had to find out.
So there’s the plotline in a nutshell. A Thousand Pieces of
you begins with our main character, Marguerite, outside in the rain, clearly in
distress, and thinking things the reader has no way of understanding until a
little further in the book. Odd things such as ‘the Firebird worked’ and
reminding herself to ‘kill Paul Markov.’ The confusing yet intense beginning hooked
me right into this book, and kept me turning the pages to find the answers to
my questions. Marguerite travels through dimension after dimension in search
for her father’s murder, bringing her best friend Theo on the chase with her.
The two of them travel as far as Russia, and to places as strange and eerie as
a futuristic London, with odd, advanced technology. One thing the book did
really well was describing these dimensions, and making me feel as though I was
right beside Marguerite for the whole journey.
This book was short and packed full of plot, which, while
good in some ways, detracted in others. As much as it kept me reading, it also
meant that there was little room for character development and character depth
itself. I barely learnt anything about Marguerite herself, and she was the main
character. She loves painting, her family, and is somewhat shy (until she
immediately and surprisingly has the courage to chase after her father’s
murderer into unknown dimensions), and that’s about all that I get from her.
None of the characters really had their own personal voice or feel to them,
which was quite a letdown as I really wanted to know Marguerite better and
therefore care more about her. I feel as though this book had a great plot, and
it had potential to be a brilliant book if the characters had been developed
more thoughtfully. Overall, if you enjoy interdimensional travel with a smidge
of murder and betrayal on the side, this book is for you, and I give it 3/5
stars.
