You know, this book was pretty cool.

The concept with this book could have been disastrous, it could have been great or it could have been any other book.

I think that way that we jumped between realities was handled really well. that could've gone really wrong.

My one complaint is The beginning and the end didn't quite connect to one another, though. ( )

“Okay, let’s say you’re right,” I say, “We’re shifting between multiple copies of ourselves. Is that why I have two sets of memories? The memories I carry with me when I shift, and the memories of the body I’ve shifted into?”

“Exactly,” Luke says.

I shiver. “We’re like ghost, possessing our own bodies for a time and moving on.” (92)

Stranded at a party because everyone, including her best friend Jen, is drunk, Kathleen calls her brother to pick her up. The weather conditions are fierce – snow settling on the icy roads. Nick is involved in a devastating car accident that takes his life. Kathleen blames herself and in her moment of anger and blame isolates herself from Jen and anyone else once close to her. Kathleen’s mother begins to drink while her father pretends as though nothing is wrong.

Or, in another reality…

Kathleen is still stranded at the party and Nick is still dead, but instead of her mother drinking she has been throwing herself in to community efforts to help prevent drunk driving and various other causes. Jen is still Kathleen’s best friend, and life moves on.
The only thing that each of the realities have in common is a boy named Luke, whose first interaction with Kathleen is at Nick’s funeral. Kathleen doesn’t know where he came from but instantly feels a connection. Plus, he seems to be the only one who has memories of his own alternate realities. Maybe he can help her find the one where her brother is still alive.

What drew me into this book was the notion of alternate universes. I don’t think that I’m a very big fan of time travel novels, although I guess the concept of realities all existing simultaneously is similar in fashion. I’m looking over the notes that I made about this novel and I’m not quite sure where I was going with it. I wrote something along the lines of follow up with Rogers (Carl Rogers, a brilliant theorist and therapist back in the 60’s I wanna say. He devised the notion of person-centered therapy and was best known for his work with schizophrenics. Rogers believed that we must emerge ourselves into the schizophrenic reality to communicate with them, rather than try to force them into our reality. But you see, even though I made this notation, I am not quite sure why?)

I enjoyed this book and think that a lot of teens will like it as well. Kathleen is a very empathetic character. I truly wanted her to find her brother but understood the dilemma of what that might mean in all of the other realities. ( )

Reviewed by Karin Perry for TeensReadToo.com

If only she had her driver's license. If only she wasn't afraid to drive. If only Jen hadn't gotten too drunk to drive home. If only she hadn't called Nick to come and get her. If only... If only...

Kathleen's life is altered on the night she goes to a party where her best friend gets too drunk to drive her home. Kathleen calls her brother, Nick, to pick her up, and being the great brother he is, he doesn't hesitate to get out on a cold and slippery night to rescue his little sister.

When police knock on the door of the party everyone assumes they're busted. Kathleen is given the job of stalling since she is sober. Instead, the police are there for her - to take her to the hospital where Nick was taken after he was hit on the way to pick her up.

Kathleen's life drastically changes after Nick's death. Her father isolates himself in his office watching sports on television and her mother begins drinking a little more every day. Kathleen is left feeling alone until she meets someone new at Nick's memorial service. Luke offers kindness and concern when no one else is focusing on her needs.

The night after the funeral Kathleen, full of sadness, falls asleep in Nick's bed. When she wakes up she realizes she isn't in the same "reality" as she was the day before. Little things aren't right. Jen, who she's been fighting with since the night of the party, so much so that she didn't even come to the funeral, shows up to take her to school on this particular morning like nothing had ever happened. They are still amazingly close. Confusion plagues Kathleen's mind all day. Finally, she realizes what is going on.

Kathleen realizes there are certain moments everyday when she makes decisions, and depending on what decision she makes, her life takes a different path. The problem for Kathleen is that she retains the memories of the previous path while she also has to live in the new one. All of these paths run parallel and go on at the same time with different consequences. Kathleen ends up splintering into several paths, which she keeps track of by the different names she gives to herself. She becomes Kay, Kate, and Kathy, in addition to her original self. Her major problem is that she doesn't know who she'll be when she wakes up in the morning. Her one constant is Luke. He manages to find her no matter who she is.

Deborah Lynn Jacobs has created a thought-provoking novel about the importance of life choices. Kathleen learns a lot about herself as she navigates her way through her many lives, attempting to reconcile with family, friends, and her own feelings about loss and love. ( )

Overcome with guilt over her brother's death, a teenaged girl shifts between multiple universes in an attempt to find one in which he is alive. ( )

When seventeen year-old Kathleen's brother is dies in a car accident on his way to collect her from a party she's consumed by guilt. At the funeral she meets a young man who seems to really see her - and suddenly she finds herself shifting between alternate realities and alternate versions of herself. She sets out to find a version of reality in which her brother didn't die. As reality blurs, her only stable point is Luke, the man from her brother's funeral - but when Luke turns out to be something other than he seemed, Kathleen is suddenly adrift with no way to go back and undo the choices she's made.

Unusual and griping. Jacobs explores the grieving process in a unique manner, showing rather than telling how various choices affect a life's outcome. Teens should be able to relate to Kathleen's choices. I did find Luke's age in relation to Kathleen's a bit disturbing, however. ( )