An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes

An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes

Randy Ribay

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

As their senior year approaches, four diverse friends joined by their weekly Dungeons & Dragons game struggle to figure out real life. Archie's trying to cope with the lingering effects of his parents' divorce, Mari's considering an opportunity to contact her biological mother, Dante's working up the courage to come out to his friends, and Sam's clinging to a failing relationship. The four eventually embark on a cross-country road trip in an attempt to solve--or to avoid--their problems. Told in the narrative style of Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMAN, AN INFINITE NUMBER OF PARALLEL UNIVERSES is at turns geeky, funny, and lyrical as it tells a story about that time in life when friends need each other to become more than just people that hang out.


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  • GaviaStrix
    Feb 19, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    The cover is gorgeous. I like that it is simple with a couple of details (white clouds, gold stars, and writing. The texture is interesting; it feels more like parchment instead of the usual smooth cover.

    One part of the book that I especially liked was the amount of diversity in the book. There are characters that are straight, gay, white, black, Asian, adopted, raised by two parents, raised by divorced parents, raised by grandparents, and that's just the main characters. The side characters are just as diverse. I like that the characters aren't stereotypical either. They're diverse in a way that is unique and organic to them.

    Beyond the diversity, I didn't really like the story. The tagline on the cover reads "In real life, you need real friends." As far as I could tell, none of the characters were really all that close until the very end of the book. Actually, they were all real assholes to each other. I didn't like that we followed the events of a couple of days from the point of view of four characters, making us rehash the same events several times over. It felt too tedious and dragging. The plot of the story was pretty generic YA fare for the most part too and it ended abruptly. The book was okay, but there was a lot of room for improvement.

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