An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes - Hardcover

Ribay, Randy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1440588147 ISBN 13: 9781440588143

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2015

Synopsis

As their senior year approaches, four diverse friends united by their weekly Dungeons & Dragons game struggle to figure out real life. Archie tries to cope with the lingering effects of his parents' divorce, Mari considers an opportunity to contact her biological mother, Dante works up the courage to come out to his friends, and Sam clings to a failing relationship. When the four eventually embark on a cross-country road trip in an attempt to solve one of their problems--and to avoid the others--the journey tests their friendship and they quickly realize that real life is no game.

Told in the narrative style of Akira Kurosawa's RASHOMAN, AN INFINITE NUMBER OF PARALLEL UNIVERSES is at turns geeky, funny, and lyrical as it tells a story about that time in life when friends need each other to become more than just people that hang out together. 

About this title

About the Author

Randy Ribay is the author of An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, a Simon & Schuster book.

Reviews

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1440588147
• ISBN 13: 9781440588143
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240