And there’s no further interaction with parallel universes in the past to cause her other self to make different choices as she moves forward. Because…Abby is dealing with an entire year’s worth of choices by her other self, she just can’t remember them yet. I don’t actually care very much if the science makes sense–I mean, it’s science fiction, and I’m fine with some fairly magical science. This creates the changes Abby is experiencing, but she’s an anomaly in realizing it most people’s memories rewrite as the other universe changes their current lives. In this one, two nearly-identical universes collided, but one is moving a year behind the other. All three parallel universe books have had very different concepts for how the multiverse functions. Less awesome was the logic of the whole thing. Likewise, this focuses on how our choices–sometimes seemingly small ones–can change everything. In focus this is closer to Pivot Point than to A Thousand Pieces of You, in terms of being about the changes in one person’s life, rather than epically different worlds where entire societies are re-shaped.

But she only gets memories of the intervening year as she lives forward a year later–and nothing in set in stone because that other Abby is still making her choices. In one she took an acting class in the other she wound up in astronomy–and now she’s living the consequences of the alternate choice. But then she wakes up the next day–in an unfamiliar dorm room at Yale, with two sets of memories for her 17th birthday.

Due to a freak combination of circumstances, she’s been cast as a supporting character in a Hollywood action movie, putting college on hold. The story begins just before Abby’s 18th birthday, and her life has gone all off of her careful plans. This is another one that does a beautiful job exploring how different decisions can radically change a person’s life…while being totally different than the previous two parallel universe books I read this year! I slipped one more parallel universe book in just before reporting on my challenges: Parallel by Lauren Miller.

Parallel by lauren miller