Good news-the book club I'm a part of has been revived! Expect more random book reviews of things that aren't usually my taste.
So this is the type of thriller I would never pick up, only with a very sciency edge. I was honestly not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did but it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This book focuses on Jason, a Physics professor with a wife and a son who gets kidnapped by the alternative universe version of himself and sent to a world where his family doesn't exist. Instead he has invented a box that lets him travel to alternative universes. There are essentially three parts to this book-Jason being kidnapped, him universe-hopping to try and find his world and his eventual return to it.
By far my favourite part of this was the last third. I did not expect the twist of there being multiple Jasons and I loved the way this was handled. Up until that part, it was an enjoyable but not particularly engaging story. Jason as a character could have been far more annoying than he was and I was so happy that he didn't cross the line into an unlikeable male protagonist. I was however slightly disappointed with the way his wife was handled. Instead of universe-hopping with some random female scientist, why not make it the alternative version of his wife? It would have added another level to the whole 'do I sleep with her?' dilemma and also given his wife more character depth. Instead we get Jason immediately sleeping with her with barely any moral quandary and then she gets shot. Sure, it might have harmed the last third but she could have died in an alternative universe in some way and then had that bit play out the same.
For a book that isn't usually my taste, I really enjoyed reading this. It posed some interesting questions regarding 'what is the self?', and the ending did not follow the same predictable route as the rest of the book which gave it a breath of fresh air. The characters weren't amazing but they weren't cardboard cut-outs either. Overall, if you like the sound of the blurb then I would definitely give this one a try.
Overall Rating:
.5
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