Choices by Deborah Lynn Jacobs

Description: (goodreads)


SHIFTING BETWEEN MULTIPLE REALITIES, a teenage girl consumed by guilt over her brother's death tries to find a universe in which he is still alive. Sticky notes rim the mirror in rainbow colors. REMEMBER. DON'T FORGET HIM. READ THE NOTEBOOK. Remember what? Remember who? And what's this about a notebook? There's another note, bottom center of the mirror. THE DREAMS ARE REAL. In an unconscious effort to find her dead brother, Kathleen slips between universes. Choices begins in one dimension, then fractures into four distinct voices with every decision Kathleen/Kay/Kate/Kathy makes


Epic Wins:

• I read it in one night, maybe 5-6 hours max, it was just so gripping and the idea itself was hard to ignore.
• Great concept, being able to switch to different ‘universes’, it's something worth reading.
• Kathleen (Kay, Katy, Kate, Kathy or whoever she is) was a conservative girl who never did anything that would be considered dangerous. That is until she has about five personality splits.
• Luke: hmmm… what can I say? Charming but he has secrets, ones you can’t wait to find out but once you do you are mad. Of course understanding washes over you eventually.
• Her brother: She realizes that her brother was the glue that held their family together for a while. She cares so much about him; she can hardly believe that he is gone. Or is he?
• She flashes into different universes and fixes them before she moves on. It really makes you think about each choice you make, how many thousands of choices you make a day? You can picture the universe split at each choice. Should I write this sentence or do I choose not to? (Crazy huh?) Maybe this is what Shakespeare was rambling on about when he said ‘To be or not to be’?
• Jen: In some universes I love her and in some I hate her. Jen has a hard time forgiving, and when your friend is going through some tough stuff it isn't nice if you ignore them, but she pulls through in all of them.
• You get multiple stories of teen hardship, which makes this book very easy to relate to it. It has every personality, well for the most part.
• Kathleen figures out how to become the glue for her family.
• In the end she uses all of her new ‘personalities’ to figure out how to approach life’s choices.

Epic Fails:

• I really didn’t like the chopped blue hair she had in a couple of universes but that’s not much to whine over.
• She was very weird sometimes, like for example she would drink and get high in one universe then in the next she would be timid and quiet, normal Kathleen. This, of course, is due to the changing of universes so again you can’t really complain.

Overall:


Um… did you see the fails? This should be obvious. I loved it! This writer has power (not to be punny but the author has a book called powers) when she writes; her books deal with honest problems and heart wrenching solutions. Sure she throws in some paranormal/fictional element but everyone can relate to the problems, because most of them are things we deal with. This book gets a high five!




just sayin,
-Kare