Monday, July 7, 2014

REVIEW: Dissonance by Erica O'Rourke


Dissonance (Dissonance, #1)
Delancy Sullivan has always known there’s more to reality than what people see. Every time someone makes a choice, a new, parallel world branches off from the existing one. Eating breakfast or skipping it, turning left instead of right, sneaking out instead of staying in bed ~ all of these choices create an alternate universe in which an echo self takes the road not travelled and makes the opposite decision. As a Walker, someone who can navigate between these worlds, Del’s job is to keep all of the dimensions in harmony.

Normally, Del can hear the dissonant frequency that each world emits as clear as a bell. But when a training session in an off-key world goes horribly wrong, she is forbidden from Walking by the Council. But Del’s not big on following the rules and she secretly starts to investigate these other worlds. Something strange is connecting them and it’s not just her random encounters with echo versions of the guy she likes, Simon Lane.


But Del’s decisions have unimaginable consequences and, as she begins to fall for the Echo Simons in each world, she draws closer to a truth that the Council of Walkers is trying to hide ~ a secret that threatens the fate of the entire multiverse.





THE RUN-DOWN
Delancy is part of a family of Walkers. As Walkers, they are able to travel to parallel worlds--or Echoes as they are called. All of the parallel worlds are only echoes of the real world--the Key World--but can damage our world. That is the duty of the Walkers, to make sure that the Echo worlds do not damage the Key World. Sometimes fixing the world, other times cleaving it (basically erasing the Echo). During one of her Walks, Del accidentally cleaves an Echo world and faces the consequences. But in that Echo she saw an Echo of one of her fellow classmates, Simon, and she continues to run into Simon's Echo each time she Walks. But when the real life Simon begins to merge with his Echo, things get confusing.

MY THOUGHTS
I was both excited and worried when I picked up this book. I was excited because this book sounded so intriguing and it focuses on my favorite subject: PARALLEL UNIVERSES. But I was also worried because I have read the author's previous series, Torn, and did not enjoy it. Well, I am enormously glad that I picked up this book despite my worries, because I really enjoyed this book!

At first, it did take me awhile to get into this book. You dive right into the story without knowing the background and terminology is thrown at you without the definitions. Echo? Walker? Consort? Key World? Pivot? What do these words mean?! And it made it difficult because I had to guess as what was going on. So, these Echoes have something to do with parallel worlds right? Is it a word for parallel worlds? Eventually, the words are either explained or just easy to figure out, but it made it difficult for me to understand what was going on in the first chapter or so.
When I was able to understand what was going on, I was then able to enjoy this book. I always find the idea of parallel universes interesting and this book was not different! The whole system of Walkers was intriguing.
I just loved the idea that there are people who are able to travel to other dimensions (although it makes me upset that I can't). But I was kind of disappointed that the Walkers considered the other universes as only echoes of our world and the other worlds were not real (I am inclined to believe that the Echoes are actually real!). That did not make the worlds any less interesting. My favorite aspect of parallel universes is how different yet the same the worlds can be to our own and we get to see that in this book and I just loved seeing it!
To be honest, I was not a huge fan of the romance. It was okay, but it didn't wow me.
I did find it interesting when <highlight to view spoiler>Simon began to remember what happened in the Echoes. I just thought that was a very unique idea and it was kind of interesting seeing it happen.<end of spoiler>

Although, I enjoyed a majority of the book, I did have some difficulty with the end. I did not fully understand what was going on. Actually, I knew what was going on, but it just didn't make sense. It's hard to explain without spoilers so... <highlight to view spoiler>I just couldn't understand the thing with Monty. I mean, the scheming that Monty apparently did seems just way too elaborate and I honestly cannot believe it as a possibility. The scheme took what? years and years. And he actually planned the meetings with the Simons? I just feel that it he were to scheme something, he would go about it in a much easier and plausible way <end of spoiler>

IN CONCLUSION
The main issues that I had with this book were the beginning and the end. The beginning was just hard for me since I was basically dumped into this world with no understanding of what was going. The ending just didn't make sense to me.
But I LOVED the ideas in this book!
I hereby give this book
3.5 Wheels!
Meaning: I liked it, but it wasn't quite amazing.

No comments :

Post a Comment