Parallel

March 25, 2013
When Miller’s debut novel opens, Abby Barnes has put off college to star in a Hollywood blockbuster alongside an A-list movie star. On the night before Abby’s 18th birthday, two parallel worlds collide, and Abby wakes up as another version of herself, one attending Yale with her best friend Caitlin, but who still has memories of her “other” life. In addition to this dimensional shift, Miller also shunts readers between Abby’s life at Yale and her senior year of high school, unpacking the altered events that led to her Ivy League future in this universe. Each chapter opens with a datestamp, which should help readers feel (a bit) less lost than Abby, as she tries to understand her condition with help from a Nobel-winning physicist, while more anomalies pile up. While each chapter provides a compelling excerpt from Abby’s life and shows off Miller’s storytelling skills, strung together they don’t create an entirely coherent narrative. Readers will likely find themselves flipping back and forth and rereading passages, trying to keep up with the unfolding changes in Abby’s life. Ages 13–up. Agent: Kristyn Keene, ICM.

August 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Abby has two memories of the day before she turned 17. In one, a schedule mix-up means she has to take drama. In another, she's late for school, and drama's closed, so she has to take astronomy. Two choices, two very different lives. One leads to being a movie star, the other to being an Ivy Leaguer. On that day, parallel universes collided. Then, the day before she turns 18, movie star Abby jumps to the universe to live Yale Abby's life. The problem is, she only remembers her LA life, not the one in New Haven. Luckily, her science genius best friend is at Yale and can fill her in on her own backstory and explain the mechanics of what's happening. Miller shines when describing the university's campus and the students' daily lives, including the partying and drinking. The time and universe jumping is initially confusing, but quickly settles into a pattern. Readers have seen the teen's different lives, and like her, have ideas about what the "right way" is, even if all of Abby's attempts to escape destiny and exert free will backfire horribly. Her lack of knowledge about her recent past and what happened to create her current life draws readers in. As the story unfolds, it's in seeing what's constant across realities, and in seeing the different paths laid before her, that Abby learns what-and who-is truly important.-Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington County Public Libraries, VA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2013
Parallel worlds collide to life-altering effect in this soft-sci-fi novel. One minute Abigail Barnes is shooting a movie in Los Angeles opposite "Cosmo's Sexiest Guy Alive," and the next, she's waking up in a Yale dorm room with a roommate and life she doesn't recognize. Thankfully, Caitlin, Abby's science-genius best friend, is also a Yalie. Together they conclude that Abby's strange, new reality is the result of an "interdimensional collision" of two parallel worlds. Sound confusing? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Further complicating the situation, Abby (and readers) must come to terms with the fact that she is now permanently linked to another Abby who exists in a separate physical world. The choices that this parallel Abby makes directly affect the world in which this Abby exists. This gets especially tricky when it comes to matters of the heart. Desperate not to lose her newfound love, Abby must race against time and her parallel self in order to regain control of her destiny. While the premise of Miller's debut novel for teens offers an interesting take on universal themes of love and fate, and the characters are likable enough, the science at the heart of the story is mind-numbing. Furthermore, the constant back and forth between parallel worlds will likely make it difficult for readers to ever truly feel invested in the novel's romantic core. A miss. (Science fiction. 14 & up)

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May 1, 2013
Grades 8-11 Abby never expected to be starring in a Hollywood blockbuster and dating a leading man on the night before her eighteenth birthday. She had always planned on a different path, one that included college. Well, she gets her wish: she wakes up in a dorm room at Yale, where it appears she has been for weeks. With the assistance of her friend Caitlin's knowledge of parallel universe theory, and a helpful professor, Abby soon realizes that a cosmic shift has taken place. The narrative shuttles back and forth in both time and location between Abby and her parallel, leading Abby to discover that the smallest decisions can lead to drastically different paths. While the narrative jumps take some getting used to, Miller ably depicts Abby at different points on her journey, with complex side characters and a cleverly nuanced romantic triangle. Adding questions of quantum mechanics, predestination, and soul mates to the day-to-day friendship, family, and boyfriend issues firmly situates this debut next to Cat Patrick's books or Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (2010).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)