Content Warnings: anxiety, death, gun violence, kidnapping, some blood

Jason Dessen, often billed as a person who isn't living up to his potential, wakes up in a place he's never seen with people he doesn't know but who seem to know him. His life is not his own, the world he's in doesn't seem his own. Jason isn't sure what's real and what's not. All he knows is that he is going to fight to find his wife and son again, even if it's the last thing he does.

I will admit, I am not a big fan of sci-fi and it is a genre that I rarely partake in. But I was intrigued by the concept of this book, the constant branching of possibilities resulting in innumerable versions of yourself. And how all of those realities simultaneously exist. It's mind boggling but makes sense at the same time. That every decision makes branches constantly and that there is no way of going back after a decision has been made.

The addition of Amanda I could have done without. She seemed to exist solely to further point Jason towards the hypotheses and conclusions that he was already making, and would have arrived at eventually without her interventions. However, Amanda adds to the already small slate of characters and perhaps her addition was to not only act as a compass and a manifestation of Jason's unconsciousness but simply to have another character in the book.

Overall, this book posited wonderful discussions on humanity, choice, fate, and pathways in life. And I wouldn't have picked it up had my book club not decided on this. I enjoyed it more thoroughly than I would have thought and it just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover, or its genre.