Parallel by Lauren Miller

(I have such a hard time rating this because it was a solid 4/5 stars until the end when it became 2/5 stars)

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.

In honor of Sci-Fi November, I thought I'd start off the month long event by reviewing a book that I discovered thanks to last year's Sci-Fi month. This premise intrigued me so much, and while I was reading it, I was super into it. Like so super into it I finished it in a day and stayed up way too late reading. And, I really liked it...UNTIL THE FREAKING END! I didn't know that I was able to have this kind of reaction to a book: I had tears in my eyes because I was so mad at how it ended, and then proceeded to throw the book down. Hard. 

What I liked: The science and astronomy behind this book was fascinating. I was nerding out in the extreme. The whole sci-fi aspect was handled really well without being cheesy--like something of this subject matter (parallel worlds) could be. The organization of the novel worked out well too, and I had my doubts at the beginning. It flowed and made logical sense. I loved seeing how the little details and decisions in Abby's parallel life affected her actual life--even if it did have me pulling at my hair at some points. It was a coming-of-age story without the normal contemporary coming-of-age scenes. The tropes were still there, but they had a cooler, sci-fi twist to them. 

What I didn't like: Let's start with the smaller things. So, I wasn't a fan of the fact that I didn't care about either love interests until it was too late. To me, it hardly felt like a love story, I was too wrapped up in the Abby-has-no-idea-what's-going-on-in-her-life story. That being said, I was a big fan of Caitlin and Tyler and so I'm a little peeved at how that was handled (no spoilers, just passive aggressiveness). Now, can we talk about the end? Because I refuse to accept it as a legitimate ending. Without giving anything away, all I can just say is that 1) I feel like the whole book was a waste and 2) I'm pretending like it ended a page or two before it actually did. Anger--so much anger. I'm mostly so sad about the ending because it completely changed my view on the book. I almost feel like the author was trying to pull one over her readers, like it was supposed to be this monumental twist that was shocking and wow and stuff, but I wasn't a fan. 

-Annie

Edit: After having time to stew over this book, and believe me, I spent a lot of time thinking about it, I'm moving the rating up to 3 stars. I kind of get the point the author was trying to make at the end (kind of), but that doesn't change that it twisted my whole perspective of the book with only a couple sentences. I'm stilly annoyed, but whatever.