Nick Gregorio is a father, husband, dog-dad, writer, reader, nerd, punk, mall-walker, movie guy, and teeth-grinder living just outside of Philadelphia with his family. He is the author of six books. Jen & Gary's Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements is his third novel.
A rare, cosmic feat that seemingly only (this universe’s Nick Gregorio) could do. The novel of Jen and Gary, throttled through personified oddities, cheeky language, larger-than-life personas, and intricate plots told in action film prowess. For something like this, Gregorio does well stringing everything, including each reader, together in his grand design. Great read.
I came for the cover and stayed for the fantastic story. At first I was unmoored by the unrealistic multiverses but the characters won me over, and the choice of such fantastic worlds enriched the narrative both with humor and purpose. So glad this story found a publisher!
It’s a valid question that I ask with the utmost respect with which that question can be asked.
There’s outer space and dinosaurs and giant squids. Moose-humans, an eagle-headed goddess, an ejaculating landmass. Big, scientific words and phrases like exponential, quantum deterioration, and “venting into null space.”
And there’s also a messy relationship. Or the possibility of a messy relationship.
And even with all the galaxies and multiverses and quantum entanglements and whatnot, that’s the core of this story. This is about a relationship. Or the potential of a relationship. The potentials of a relationship. The potentials of all relationships.
And in typical Nick Gregorio fashion, beneath the humor and explosions and sci-fi nerdery is the pure and raw human element. The simple, plain pieces that make us all tick. The ups and downs, the good and bad, the choking laughs and snotty tears, the farts and snores. Real human shit.
So what even is this?
I dunno, man. But who cares? It’s tender. It’s weird. It’s insanely sci-fi, but it’s also so incredibly real.
And it’s one absolute hell of a read.
All I can say is that the dude did it again. He wrote another banger.
Fun, zany, silly, and tender. This reads like a novelization of all the best parts of the multiverse stories we’ve come to know and love (or be annoyed with (if you’re the type of person who gets annoyed by joy)).
Gregorio was clearly having fun with this. You should too. Don’t think too much—just enjoy the ride, and settle in with a bucket of popcorn for this multi-dimensional romcom.
I don’t even know how to describe this book except chaotic, hilarious, and somehow really sweet? Gary breaks reality by having feelings and it only gets weirder from there. I laughed out loud more than once and then got a little emotional, which I did not see coming.
A novel that’s as grounded as it is fantastical, so if you appreciate any kind of fantasy adventure that somehow manages to stay underscored by reality, mixed with an adult (brutally honest) love story, you probably should read this book immediately.
Good pacing, a plot that out of the gate keeps you off-kilter in a good way until you find out what, how, and why it’s all happening, and just enough character building to make you root for everyone involved, well Dan’s alright I guess.
The worst part actually was the acknowledgments section. That’s a bizarre thing to say. But completely true because it’s here where it’s mentioned why some publishers didn’t want to publish this novel. Which was just an annoying reminder that most times the key holders of creative storytelling of any medium, wouldn’t know creativity if a good script or in this case a book hit them in the face. So super shoutout Unsolicited Press for making this happen.
(PS. Difficult to market? Interstellar meets La La Land with a little James Cameron sci-fi and Titanic mixed in, I came up with that in 30 seconds, was that so hard? I’d watch a movie based on this book, that’s all I’m saying, I think it’d be pretty damn good too).
***Somewhat spoilery below****
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Between the unrequited (or is it?) love story, action-adventure, space and time soft sci-fi backdrop, and general underlying human condition explorations typical from Gregorio, this novel has it all to keep you turning the page trying to find out what’s going to happen next.
Gary’s hero’s journey is a long, windy (and trippy), sometimes obscure road to get to a simple enough revelation but that’s kinda life, and there’s comfort in that. It’s also a melancholic but satisfying reminder that in the real world, saving the day isn’t necessarily about some big heroic act and getting the big happy ending; sometimes it’s just about choosing everyone else, someone else, over yourself and accepting that’s good enough.
The best way that I can describe this book overall is a sci-fi, comic book-esque love story. Traversing universes in which Jen & Gary are everything from landmasses, to robots, to dinosaurs and more in search of one where they are happily married is definitely something that I wont soon forget.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.