When fourteen-year-old Sophie Sophia journeys to New York with a scientific boy genius, a Kerouac-loving bookworm, and a giant shaman panda guiding her; she discovers more about the visions, string theory, and a father who could be the key to an extraordinary life.
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This is a very visual read. By that, I mean it begs to be made into a movie and sometimes the descriptions go on and on where a camera could have shown the reader what the writer meant in one snap. I liked a great many things about this book, and only disliked a few. I will also fully admit that I read this one because of the awesome cover.
What's good: It's different! There is nothing stock in the plot. I love stuff about parallel universes. I love 80's music. I love pandas. The book has a great many clever elements, many of which would be more amazing visually (see above comments). There is a pro-science element here that is so very missing from much of the YA world-especially in books for the ladies. Yay, Science!
The meh:
One: Finny exists only to serve as Sophie's crutch. Whether or not he actually has a character (besides stereotypical gay best friend) I didn't see it. Ditto Drew. In both cases, it was about how they looked. And Finny supplied answers when needed, like a robot helper.
Two: After reading the whole book, I still don't understand how Sophie's travels line up with her father's theories on string theory. Why are they both jumping into the same universes? Why is traveling so restricted (there only seem to be the same four(?) universes? Why are they traveling? Hmm.
Three: I can't stand being handed a clever plot, which my mind needs to process, and then being bombarded with flashbacks. This happened over and over again, and most of these flashbacks did nothing to serve the plot. I guess we were supposed to understand how awesome the father was. Still not sure....
Four: Despite being raised by two super smart parents, Sophie herself was not that smart. Seriously, she never reads or remembers something she read that could help her. Finny supplies her with all of the string theory business, and when she needs poems a book of poetry appears. I don't know why I wanted her to be smarter, I just did. Instead, she is an empty kind of magicpixiedreamgirl who sews pockets onto skirts.
I'm not quite sure how to sell this to readers. Perhaps the kids who read the drama fiction genre would like it for a change of pace. Maybe a group that loves things kawaii. I don't have a bunch of gothic lolitas at the library, but if I ever do, I'll try this on them.
