Parallel universe

Glad to have gotten back on track with my reading with a gusto. I  came across an article that tells you how you can speed read 100 non-fictions in one month with a special app, I do not think it will work with fictions.  

 During the weekend, I read if, then by Kate Hope Day. The story started off very nicely and it was quite a page turner. I thoroughly enjoyed the multiverse theme and what if there is another parallel universe but I was a little disappointed how the story ended as I had expected more from the plot. Perhaps it is just like real life, there are possibilities and there is no resolution. I do believe that certain connections are not coincidental and there are dreamlike experience that are too surreal to explain.  Too many unknowns beyond us. The title is apt and the story works.

The story is about four families who live  in Clearing, a small town lying in  the shadow of a dormant volcano in Oregon.  Many believe that Broken Mountain is quite a dormant volcano but Mark, a wildlife scientist does not think so. He foresees an imminent and devastating natural disaster. Cass Stuart, a brilliant PhD student struggles with the demands of caring  for her baby wants to resume her research on the theory of everything and the possibility of a multiverse. She envisages herself pregnant once more. Samara, a realtor who is mourning the death of her mother starts seeing glimpses of her mother alive again.

Mark is married to Ginny who is a busy surgeon. Ginny is so into her work that she feels disconnected with her own family and starts seeing glimpses of herself with a beautiful colleague in her kitchen.  Cass, Ginny and Mark start seeing glimpses of different versions of themselves and when  Broken Mountain awakens nearby and these visions mean more than they appear to.

The story had me from its first paragraph that reads:

‘THE EARTH TREMBLES. She tastes metal. That’s how it starts on a moonless Sunday in Clearing, Oregon, in the shadow of the dormant volcano locals call Broken Mountain.

     Just after 10:00p.m. Ginny stands at the bathroom sink, a toothbrush in one hand and a papaerback in the other. She  always reads like this, in minutes parceled out from her packed days – in the bathroom after everyone has gone to bed, or parked in her car when she gets to the hospital a little early. The heat whirs in the vent. She considers staying up to read another chapter. Her husband, Mark, is already asleep in the next room.

  Her pager buzzes from the bedroom and she retrieves it from her bedside table. A series of familiar numbers scrolls across the tiny backlit screen. The emergency room. “ Damn.”’

The story moves at a good pace and great characterization allows you to imagine the characters  in a suburban neighbourhood. If, Then the debut novel by Kate Hope Day is an engaging read and its premise is fascinating.

I am a fan of fictions premised on alternate or parallel universe. click 1 click 2 click 3