{Synopsis} – As their senior year approaches, four diverse friends joined by their weekly Dungeons & Dragons game struggle to figure out real life. Archie's trying to cope with the lingering effects of his parents' divorce, Mari's considering an opportunity to contact her biological mother, Dante's working up the courage to come out to his friends, and Sam's clinging to a failing relationship. The four eventually embark on a cross-country road trip in an attempt to solve–or to avoid–their problems.
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.
{My Thoughts} – Mari, Sam, Archie, and Dante are the main characters within the pages of this book. When you first begin reading the focus per section is on each individual character, but they do cross over so you get to know them all while getting to know one at a time. These four soon to be seniors in high school have been friends since the sixth grade. They don’t really know each other all that well though, not in a personal sense. They have been playing a game called Dungeons & Dragons and they know each others game characters more then the actual person.
Mari is a sweet girl. She has conflicted feelings and she finds out some sad news about her mom. After her mom tells her the news she tries to get her to reach out to her birth mother, but Mari isn’t sure that’s what she wants. She spends the whole of the book trying to figure out if that is what she wants to do or not.
Archie has had his world torn apart in a sense. His parents divorced a year ago. His dad came out as gay and for his senior year his parents decided that he has to live with his dad. That isn’t what he wants because he hasn’t found a way to accept his dad for who he is. Archie spends the whole of the book trying to find ways to accept his dad and work through the issues with his dad.
Dante is an interesting character. He ends up being forced out of the closet. His family resents him. He isn’t sure how to handle the fact that his family resents him and is afraid to tell his friends that he is gay. He spends the whole of the book trying to figure out how to tell them he is gay while still trying to accept it is the lifestyle he wants to live.
Sam is well Sam. He got his heartbroken when his girlfriend Sarah moved across the country because her dad got a new job. She didn’t tell him though until the day they were moving and claimed she didn’t know how and then broke up with him and said she wanted nothing to do with a long distance relationship. The whole of the book is him working on accepting the break up and trying to figure out if it is for the best or if he has a chance to change things.
I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters in it are easy to love. They are easy to be one with. I enjoyed getting to know them and being a part of their fictional lives. I rooted for them and called some of them not real pleasant names when they came of as rude and mean. I really like the way the book ended and hope to read more by this author in the future.
Final Conclusion: 5 Star Rating.
