A Thousand Pieces of You

Firebird, Book 1

By: Claudia Gray

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

A thousand lives.

A thousand possibilities.

One fate.

Marguerite Caine grew up surrounded by cutting-edge scientific theories, thanks to her brilliant physicist parents. Yet nothing is more astounding than her mother's latest invention - a device called the Firebird, which allows people to leap into alternate dimensions.

When Marguerite's father is murdered, all the evidence points to one person - Paul, her parents' enigmatic star student. Before the law can touch him, Paul escapes into another dimension, having committed what seems like the perfect crime. But he didn't count on Marguerite. She doesn't know if she can kill a man, but she's going to find out.

With the help of another physics student, Theo, Marguerite chases Paul through various dimensions. In each new world Marguerite leaps to, she meets another version of Paul that has her doubting his guilt and questioning her heart. Is she doomed to repeat the same betrayal?

As Marguerite races through these wildly different lives - a grand duchess in a Tsarist Russia, a club-hopping orphan in a futuristic London, a refugee from worldwide flooding on a station in the heart of the ocean - she is swept into an epic love affair as dangerous as it is irresistible.

©2014 Amy Vincent (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers

Took a while to get into

Took a while to get into the characters. The voice was annoying. Interesting ending. While I don’t regret buying the book, I don’t have an interest in continuing on with these characters in the sequels.

AU!!

I love a good Alternate Universe book, and this really is a great one. The plot starts simple enough, jump to different Alternate Universes chasing down the MCs killer. But as we explore these vastly different versions of the similar, a deeper, dangerous plot begins to unravel and I loved every moment of it.

Amazing

Great story with twists and turns of drama and suspense... Great description, painting a perfect picture to pull the reader/listener into the story.

Love Triangle, not my thing!

Forced myself to finish this book. Too much love story nonsense. I thought this book would offer more of a scientific brain tease. Very dissatisfied.

On the Edge of My Seat!

Absolutely loved it! I picked up A Thousand Pieces of You thinking I’d read a few chapters, but it completely pulled me in—I ended up finishing it in a single sitting. The multiverse concept is fascinating and so well-executed, and every new world Marguerite travels to felt vivid and unique. I was constantly on the edge of my seat, wanting to know what twist or reveal was waiting in the next dimension.

What really struck me, though, was the balance between action, mystery, and romance. It’s rare to find a story that can weave all of those elements together without losing momentum, but Claudia Gray does it beautifully. Marguerite is such a compelling narrator, and her journey had me invested from page one.

I’ve already purchased the audio versions of the next two books and started diving right in, and I’ll definitely be adding a physical copies of this series to my personal library—it’s the kind of story I know I’ll want to revisit. Highly recommend to anyone who loves fast-paced, imaginative, and emotionally charged sci-fi!

Don't look at this review.

Don't look at this review. Just putting words in a line and not reviewing. Listening as I do this.

Not Sci-Fi. Mostly Rory Gilmore introspection.

Not going to point out an essay on the iPhone, but...

I thought this would be an updated version of Sliders from Sci-fi. Instead it's a book that too hard tries to make the tension from a love triangle last as long as possible. 80% of this book is introspective thought, usually about a boy, then the narrator, then family.

Parts are painful to get through. This girl accepts on faith a mission to kill the man she is in love with, doesn't understand half of the ideas involved, and doesn't really even direct her own narrative until the very end. In fact, I think she has two scenes of significance where she makes her own decisions and isn't being escorted by a lover (both times waiting for rescue). Ok, three (London, Russia, Waterworld). Rescued every time.

So if you want to feed some inner dialogue to the home-made robot girl you're tinkering with in the basement, this motherload is all the drama you'll need.

Kudos to the illustrator and voice actor. The russian and french accents are cringeworthy, but maybe they are in real life, too.

cool aspect

This was a different aspect of time travel that I'd not seen in a book before. While the timelines were complicated, the author describes them in a way that it believable and understandable. The love triangle is a good twist, too.

Speeches

This. Book. Is. Just. Amazing! I couldn't put it down! I'm obsessed with the world the writer created. Claudia Gray, well done!!!

Very cute

Such a fun story! I totally wanted there to be more when the book came to the end. A really great read :)