The Infinity of You & Me by J. Q. Coyle

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Infinity of You & Me by J. Q. Coyle Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor Coyle, J. Q. The Infinity of You & Me. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2016 [256p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-250-09922-8 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-250-09923-5 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-10 As Alicia’s fifteenth birthday approaches, her hallucinations are becoming more frequent and more real to her, despite the numerous medications she takes. Then [End Page 69] her dad—the guy who abandoned Alicia when she was three—randomly shows up, tells her to get off her meds, and promptly gets pulled away by burly guys into a black car. She wants to write him off as crazy, but she nonetheless stops taking her pills and discovers that the worlds she sees in her visions are real realms that have splintered off from the “prime” reality and that she is a gifted spandrel, someone who can traverse multiple realities. One world—the world that happens to be inhabited by a handsome, brooding boy with a savior complex—is in particular danger from a plague, and if Alicia wants to save it, she must also figure out where her father is and how to save him from the murderous thugs that took him. There are plenty of overused tropes here, from the pills that impede our heroine’s true nature to the generic love interest, and they’re not deployed in any particularly original way; Alicia is also flatly drawn throughout most of the book. The splintering theory is entertaining, though, and the alternate universes are compellingly unique. The relationship between Alicia and her mother, a woman whose attempts to protect her daughter lead to their painful separation, offers some emotional heft, and Alicia eventually becomes a fully developed character. Everett’s The Unquiet (BCCB 11/15) offer a more sophisticated take on alternate universes, but those looking for sci-fi lite with a touch a romance may find satisfaction here. Copyright © 2016 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois