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Review: Parallel by Lauren Miller


Abby Barnes had a plan. The Plan. She'd go to Northwestern, major in journalism, and land a job at a national newspaper, all before she turned twenty-two. But one tiny choice—taking a drama class her senior year of high school—changed all that. Now, on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Abby is stuck on a Hollywood movie set, miles from where she wants to be, wishing she could rewind her life. The next morning, she's in a dorm room at Yale, with no memory of how she got there. Overnight, it's as if her past has been rewritten.

With the help of Caitlin, her science-savvy BFF, Abby discovers that this new reality is the result of a cosmic collision of parallel universes that has Abby living an alternate version of her life. And not only that: Abby's life changes every time her parallel self makes a new choice. Meanwhile, her parallel is living out Abby's senior year of high school and falling for someone Abby's never even met.

As she struggles to navigate her ever-shifting existence, forced to live out the consequences of a path she didn't choose, Abby must let go of the Plan and learn to focus on the present, without losing sight of who she is, the boy who might just be her soul mate, and the destiny that's finally within reach


My Thoughts
Quite honestly I loved this book. It's a time travel novel for teens and couldn't have been more perfect for me as I loved The time between us and the time travellers wife.

The entire story is based around the idea that some decisions, even ones we think are insignificant, can change our lives and the path we follow completely. In this book We follow Abby. Abby had a plan but due to a scheduling change on her timetable on the first day or her last year at high school she ends up following a totally different and totally unexpected path. That is until one evening when something happens and she wakes up and finds her life has changed completely again. To cut a long story short it turns out that two parallel worlds have collided and because of the different decisions past Abby now makes it changes the path future Abby is now on radically. Yes it sounds insane and really complicated and to start with you have to get your head round it all but actually once you are a few chapters in it totally makes sense. My biggest tip is take note of the dates at the start of each chapter.

I won't tell you too much about what happens but I will say I loved the story as a whole. The sciencey bits all make sense and the concept behind the story was really interesting. I loved Abby as a character, loved the love story that develops over the book and I really particularly loved Abby's best friend Caitlin mainly because she was both gorgeous and geeky.

A fab page turner which I literally couldn't put down.

Comments

Anya said…
I've seen this around, it looks so cool! Great review, I love time travelling books too :)
I have this on my love list. I'll have to go get it after that review