Monday, February 2, 2015

Topian Reviews on A Thousand Pieces Of You By Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird, #1)A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


With its reviews through other readers, beautiful cover and intriguing description, I'll admit I had my expectatios for A Thousand Pieces of You extremely high, but unfortunately, I can't say they were met. The concept for the story is there, but I can't say the execution was will thought out.

So basically, Marguerite's parents are famous physicists - known for their invention of the Firebird - a mechanism that allows anyone who wears it to transport into different dimensions. But then Marguerite's father supposedly murdered by his very own research assistant - a boy named Paul. But before the police can catch him, Paul jumps into a different dimension. In order to stop him, Marguerite has no choice but to jump after him...

The story starts incredibly slowly, and by page 30, I was actually thinking of giving up altogether. It's only once Marguerite makes the decision to follow Paul into another universe that the story truly begins to pick up in my opinion. The beginning is simply a ton of info-dumping and background on Marguerite's life, flash backs in her past- nothing that I found specifically interesting or noteworthy.

Also, I found the writing to be quite cumbrous and just stiff overall - especially in the beginning. There are so many quotes, but this one is just horrid:
"...As the only right-brained member of my family, I wound up perusing my passion for painting a whole lot more than I studied high-level science."
There are continual quotes like that - sentences that have nothing to do with the story or are simply face-palm-worthy; and, while the writing smooths out gradually over the course of the novel, I still felt a little more editing was necessary. I also felt that the characterization lacked as well. As a protagonist, Marguerite had huge potential, but, unfortunately, she spent the majority of the story complaining and whining about the situation she was stuck in; and she constantly relied on others to get her out of the (many) sticky situations she got herself into; which, after a while, became quite annoying.

The worst part though? The love triangle that could only be called destiny over exaggerated. Marguerite finds herself torn between two guys - Theo (her childhood crush) and Paul (the guy who killed her father), both being completly obvious. Not only were the love interests flat and underdeveloped, but I could never feel the chemistry between any of them, which made the romance quite hard to believe sadly. And the fact that love is destiny/fate even through dimensions is unoriginal and dull. I understand that people may be tethered to your life no matter what ie. father, mother, but to say that if is always the same people over and over is unrealistic.

Between the Damsel in Distress-like protagonist and the cringe-worthy love triangle, I can't say this is something I'd recommend despite the fantastic concept and beautiful cover.



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