An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes

August 31, 2015
The summer before senior year, four longtime friends, who bonded over weekly games Dungeons & Dragons, are drifting apart. Math nerd Archie is upset about his father coming out as gay and his parents’ subsequent divorce. His crush, Mari, is distraught over her adoptive mother’s recent cancer diagnosis and is simultaneously contemplating contacting her biological mother. Meanwhile, Dante’s family and church shun him after they discover he’s gay, and Sam’s grades are dropping due to his obsession with his girlfriend, Sarah. When Sarah’s family moves to Seattle, Sam and his friends embark on a cross-country road trip so he can win her back; along the way they become more honest with each other and themselves. While debut novelist Ribay gives the story a distinctively diverse and nerd-centric cast, the structure comes across as disjointed, with the first half of the book shifting focus among the four main characters before transitioning to a more conventional setup in the second half. Some overdramatic moments during the road trip overstuff a narrative already brimming with personal problems. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kaylee Davis, Dee Mura Literary.

September 1, 2015
A diverse quartet of Dungeons & Dragons players spends the last week of summer before senior year road tripping from Philadelphia to Seattle.Monday night D&D just doesn't feel the same as it has over the years since sixth grade. Archie, the straight white boy, has a newly out-and-proud dad. Archie won't tell anyone either about his father's gayness or about his own attraction to the Dungeon Master, Mari, who wants to be a writer. Mari's closest with Dante, the only other black kid in school, a gigantic, nonathletic, deeply closeted computer geek. Their circle is closed out by Filipino Sam, who is devoted to his girlfriend, Sarah. Sarah's family moves across the country, leaving Sam heartbroken, and soon the four gaming friends are headed out on a road trip in pursuit, told through shifting perspectives. Mari worries about illness in the family and being a transracial adoptee, and Dante about having been outed to his religious and judgmental grandparents. Meanwhile, Archie makes frequent unwanted sexual and racial jokes, while Sam's merely sullen and unfriendly. They each have an epiphany-some more rewarding than others. Though the setup appears to be tailor-made for a #weneeddiversebooks world, its execution falls short with its characters' arcs: the straight white creep is rewarded, the gay black mensch is punished, and girls are judged for being insufficiently geeky or insufficiently sexually available.Both profoundly literary and sadly unsatisfying. (Fiction. 15-17)

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September 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-For years, Archie, Mari, Dante, Sam, and Sarah have been meeting weekly and playing an ongoing campaign of Dungeons and Dragons. By all appearances, the five are close, longtime friends and buddies. But the fantasy game they are playing might just be a metaphor for a fantasy friendship-no one knows Dante is gay, for example, or that Archie secretly pines for Mari. When Sarah moves away with her family, almost without a word about it to anyone, she leaves Archie, Mari, Dante, and Sam to come to terms with what kind of relationship it is that the five really have. As they embark on a cross-country road trip to find Sarah and help Sam win her back, a wise and smelly hitchhiker, a tornado, a car fire, a hate crime, a love kindled, and a love extinguished bring Archie, Mari, Dante, and Sam together as real friends who know how to really live. Told initially in alternating third-person omniscient narrative, the story begins by letting readers know the thoughts and motivations of each of the four main characters by going over the same events from differing perspectives. By the end, the stories intertwine into a single narrative in which teens will be invested in all parties equally. The pace, because of this format, never catches up to the high-stakes events on this road trip. VERDICT A quiet and meaningful story, though a bit too mopey to pack a real punch.-Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

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