A review by ashyoung555
An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes by Randy Ribay
4.0
There are many things to like about this book. For starters, it legitimately hosts a wide array of diverse characters, but that's not what the book is about--mostly. Rather, it's about human people who have human problems and human flaws and human relationships, which is refreshing, because those THIS BOOK IS DIVERSE DID YOU SEE HOW DIVERSE IT IS narratives are getting old now that I'm old enough to see what diversity should be like.
Things I Liked:
- The characters were complete, fully realised individuals. They all changed as people throughout the story, too. They actually reacted to the things that were happening to them.
- The prose. I can see where people could find it too simple, but there was a smooth flow to it, and it never reached trying-too-hard areas in that department. When I read it, I found that it was easy, enjoyable and effective to read.
- The chapter titles. They were kind of poetic, and I love poetry, so go figure.
Things I'm Not Sure Of:
- The prose. It's a double-edged sword, I suppose, but the nature of the prose did leave me, not quite at a whole arm's length, but maybe a hand's length away from being affected by the characters. The only time I felt a true pang was when Dante was involved--when his grandparents confront him, at the end, etc (saying any more would make it a spoiler). I was nearly always partially removed from the story, but that wasn't a bad thing. When I read this, I didn't really want to be thrown into tears. I wanted to crawl into a story about real people that weren't where I was at that moment. And that's what I got; some relief, a timeout, and a good story of four friends who don't really know each other or themselves properly learning some stuff about each other and themselves.
Things I Didn't Like:
- When the guys Sunshine gives the group contact details for do their intimidation thing at the house (any more would make it a spoiler). The abrupt character change afterwards and just the whole logic of that situation didn't really follow for me. I didn't really understand the point of it.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's well-written and the plot is well-structured. The order the author presents the four characters in really worked for me, and when they come together in the last part, it wasn't awkwardly executed like these transitions sometimes are. The romance was somewhat irritating in spots, but I'd definitely give this book a re-read, which gives it a big tick of approval from me.
Things I Liked:
- The characters were complete, fully realised individuals. They all changed as people throughout the story, too. They actually reacted to the things that were happening to them.
- The prose. I can see where people could find it too simple, but there was a smooth flow to it, and it never reached trying-too-hard areas in that department. When I read it, I found that it was easy, enjoyable and effective to read.
- The chapter titles. They were kind of poetic, and I love poetry, so go figure.
Things I'm Not Sure Of:
- The prose. It's a double-edged sword, I suppose, but the nature of the prose did leave me, not quite at a whole arm's length, but maybe a hand's length away from being affected by the characters. The only time I felt a true pang was when Dante was involved--when his grandparents confront him, at the end, etc (saying any more would make it a spoiler). I was nearly always partially removed from the story, but that wasn't a bad thing. When I read this, I didn't really want to be thrown into tears. I wanted to crawl into a story about real people that weren't where I was at that moment. And that's what I got; some relief, a timeout, and a good story of four friends who don't really know each other or themselves properly learning some stuff about each other and themselves.
Things I Didn't Like:
- When the guys Sunshine gives the group contact details for do their intimidation thing at the house (any more would make it a spoiler). The abrupt character change afterwards and just the whole logic of that situation didn't really follow for me. I didn't really understand the point of it.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's well-written and the plot is well-structured. The order the author presents the four characters in really worked for me, and when they come together in the last part, it wasn't awkwardly executed like these transitions sometimes are. The romance was somewhat irritating in spots, but I'd definitely give this book a re-read, which gives it a big tick of approval from me.