Friday 7 November 2014

Review: A Thousand Pieces of You (AKA: Can I stab it with a basilisk fang?)



 A Thousand Pieces of You
Author: 
Publication Date: November 4th 2014        
Publisher: Harper Teen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure



I'll let you into a little secret, I'm not an optimist. I look for the bad in books first before looking for the good,  so when I love a book despite its faults, that's when I know I truly love a book. Even if I do dislike it or have some issues with it, I usually can find redeemable qualities. Now, this isn't like with debuts where it can go either way, I wasn't worried about A Thousand Pieces of You at all, it's Claudia Gray, you guys, I had no doubt I would love it. I haven't finished the Evernight series, I've read up until the third I think, but I liked them, I read Fateful and loved that-because hello, Titanic-and I've started the Spellcaster series and loved the way the magic is represented, so A Thousand Pieces of You was a must read. Which is why I'm so disappointed that I absolutely hated it. The only redeemable quality I can find is the fact we jump to different times and different countries dimensions, but even then, I was too pissed off with the characters and their actions to actually enjoy it, and for most of it, it just felt like we were just given the run around.

I wanted it to be like All Our Yesterdays, even though that's more of a time travelling past/future/present thing and a whole different amount of jargon and A Thousand Pieces of You is dimension travelling, but I was expecting to love the characters as much as I loved Em and Finn. This is where it went wrong for me, straight from the off, because of the characters, and mainly our lovely Marguerite, and by lovely I mean, I wanted to hit her in the face, a lot. For a ton of different reasons that just add up to I want to hit her in the face. For the first 50% mainly for superficial things that irked me, like these.

"Maybe the technology is different, but the shallowness of the scene is probably universal. So this is the life my father escaped when he chose to go into science, to leave Great Britain and join Mom in California. He was even smarter than I knew."


That quote is set in a  scene from London, I'm not from London, but as someone whose from Great Britain, yeah... I'm offended. A lot. But it's an ironic quote really, because Marguerite's too shallow to understand her own shallowness. But I carried on.

To this quote.

"At home, I refuse to wear fur because I think it's disgusting, but I'm grateful for its warmth now. Sorry, little sables. I swear this time you gave your life in a good cause."

This just shows how lovely our character really is, it may seem minor, but added upon other quotes, too much to mention, added up to a whole lot of pretentious bullshit. I thought maybe the things she was experiencing once hitting Russia would help her character to grow, and in a way she did, but for me, I began to like her less, which brings us to a scene that entirely made me angry. This is a minor spoiler-it doesn't reveal anything about the plot or anything-but I'll lighten it anyway, so...
Our Marguerite falls in love with the Russian dimension Paul, and shortly after quote two, they sleep together. Now, here's my problem. The original Marguerite is in the Russian dimension version of herself, the original Marguerite has sex with Russian Paul without any thought-only after- that that was wrong. I don't care if the Russian version of Marguerite is still technically her but with differences, and that she too, was in love with Paul. I don't care because that was nobody else's decision but Russian Marguerite's, and that was taken from her by our Marguerite. It's essentially rape, not traditionally, but the essence is still the same. Russian Marguerite had no choice in the matter, and even our Marguerite decides that, she's pretty sure Russian Marguerite would've done the same thing. She takes that decision from her. No, just no.


 

Am I the only person who finds that inexcusably wrong?
That was the last straw for me, the twists were predictable, and the only reason I finished it was because I wanted to see if it was worth it.

Spoiler: I wish I had a firebird to travel to a dimension where I never read A Thousand Pieces of You, sorry.



 


Rating: 1/5


24 comments:

  1. Oh, dear. I've been hearing a lot of the same about this book everywhere and from a lot of people. I don't think I'm going to like this book. Some of the things you're talking about seem like the exact opposite of a book I recently read and loved. I ordered a copy of this and I'm beginning to regret it. It was the stupid pretty cover that got me. I have so much to read, I'm wondering if it's worth wasting my time with right now. I normally love Claudia Gray, but I've heard so much about this book that bothers me. Ugh.

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    1. The cover got me too, but it was Claudia Gray, and she's pretty much an auto-buy for me (I did pre-order it, cancelled it after I read it) which is why it's such a disappointment because I really wanted to love it, I tried, just wasn't happening. :(

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  2. oh my!! I'd heard lots of great things about this book with the occasionally "meh" about that sex scene but overall it's been positive. It's quite refreshing to see a different opinion! Thanks for the honest review :)

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    1. I haven't read many reviews so far, since I try not to before reading and reviewing, did check the ratings though, which was why I had high expectations, and that probably didn't help either. :)

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  3. Oh I'm sorry you were offended and disappointed by this one. It's sad because I heard great things about it but well never tried a book by the author. I think I'll pass in the end, I understand with the quote what happenned. It would have annoyed me as well I think.

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    1. :) Exactly, it wouldn't be so bad if it was just that one thing, but yeah, there was a lot of little things that annoyed me that stopped me enjoying the rest of it. :(

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  4. A lot of people have mentioned they have a problem with that particular situation. Sorry to hear you disliked it so much :(

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    1. Haven't read many reviews so far, so will have to check them out. :)

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  5. I so wished this one to be amazing. I really don't know what to say, but that I'm just soooo disappointed. I always find the wrong books to be excited about. I it happens almost every single time. I really wanted to read this one, but now, I'm not so sure anymore. Thanks for your honest review Kirsty!

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  6. This book is new to me. Sorry to hear that it was a big disappointment.
    Sharon @ Sharon's Book Nook!

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  7. "AKA: Can I stab it with a basilisk fang?" LOL. Too bad about this one though, I was looking forward to it too. Plus that cover *-* Anyways, I can tell that the main character and I would not get along just through that one quote. What the heck with the sex scene, that would have bothered me too.

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    1. It was just ridiculous, whoever thought that was a good idea to keep in...:/

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  8. This is bumming me out. A lot. I had planned to start it tonight. Now I am scared. Do we remember what happened the last time you warned me and I didn't listen? Yeah, Frozen happened, and I had to read about people snacking on clothing in a sea of garbage.

    Also, London is awesome, and California is shallow (and I am saying this as an American, so yeah) so that quote doesn't even make sense! I have to read it because I spent money on it (even preorded!) but I am scared. And it may end up not being my next book, I don't know. I am too afraid of the disappointment!

    Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight

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    1. Haha, I still can't get over the clothes eating though, mad.

      I've only been to London a few times, and I didn't like it that much (only because it's just so busy and not used to it) but, offend Great Britain, that's a sure fire way to get someone from there to hate your book. And I think HC UK are publishing this, too. Irony. Hope you at least like it!

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  9. Awww no :( I was hoping this would be a really good, but I've seen lots of mixed reactions about A Thousand Pieces of You. I'm seriously thinking about pushing it aside for the time being. I don't think I could stomach a character that behaves this way. And that sex situation would bother the hell out of me! Shame the book didn't live up to the cover :( Hope your next read is much, much better Kirsty-Marie!

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    1. I was too, I only checked the ratings before reading and was pretty high, so had high expectations, and it being Claudia Gray after all, but ugh. Another cover lie. I'm glad I'm not the only one, I seriously don't get how that didn't get cut out of the book. :/

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  10. I've heard a lot of negatives about the romance. I think the whole "is it a love triangle, is it not?" aspect is throwing a lot of people off.

    Thanks for your review, I still want to read it even though I know my expectations will be SUPER low.

    Amber Elise @ Du Livre

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    1. Yeah, it's weird. Since it's not exactly a love triangle (or well, quadrangle, if you include the other guy, that she switches back and forth with.) Even if the romance was cut out though, still wouldn't have liked it because of the characters. :/ Sometimes it's better going into one with low expectations, it might surprise you! :)

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  11. Ha! I like the title of this post. Sums up your feelings for this book pretty well. I must admit that the premise sounds really good despite the innards as you reviewed. Too bad.

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    1. Why thank you! ;) But yeah, I guess it does, haha.

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  12. Wow! now that I really want to go back to GR and take off one star of my rating.
    I HATED that part about Marguerite and russian Paul. I despited it, and all the time I was thinking the same.
    Yeah, I also hope it would be like All Our Yesterdays, but no such luck.
    Great review!

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    1. It's the main thing I hated about it, (I mean, I wasn't exactly having a good time with it before that, but it would've been at least 2-3 stars for me without it.)

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