YA Buddy Readers' Corner ♥ discussion

Marguerite Caine's physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes—and promises to revolutionize science forever. But then Marguerite's father is murdered, and the killer—her parent's handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul— escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of the people she knows—including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul's guilt—as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father's death is far more sinister than she expected.

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) by Claudia Gray will be one of our GBRs for September 2025.

Please read at your own pace, and hide any spoilers ☺ You are welcome to join at any time during the month ☺

Happy Reading Everybody!

Pre-Reading Questions -

Anybody got any thoughts on this one before we start?

Has anyone read anything similar to this before?

Anybody read anything else by this author previously?

Starting this series today. It's been on my TBR since it came out so I'm excited to finally get to it!

Chapter 4: (view spoiler)[ Ok so i'm little lost, ngl. This book kind of just jumps into the time jumping with little build up so I guess we're all playing catch up. Like maybe I missed it, but Marguerite was talking about how she misses her true home, but can't she just go back to that? I know she's searching for who killed her father, but ultimately, she can go back to her home because that's where her mom and sister are I would assume. We shall see how this goes (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 10: (view spoiler)[I don't trust Theo. I think he had something to do with her father's death and is framing Paul. There's nothing trustworthy about him so far. And now her and Paul are trapped in this alternate universe so this should be fun (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 15: (view spoiler)[so she basically hijacked this version of herself and slept with this other version of Paul knowing that this version of herself loves this version of Paul. I don't know, that's a little ick for me. Like when she leaves this body, this version of her is not going to remember sleeping with this guy she loves and that's just horrible. Not really a fan of where that went.

I do feel bad for her, but she needs to keep her head on right and focus on getting out of there not on her love life. (hide spoiler)]

I might take a reading to that one. I need to get a copy.

Chapter 21: (view spoiler)[ok what now? This big CEO is after her? But why? (hide spoiler)]

Finished: (view spoiler)[Well called Theo being in on it very early on. The love story between Marguerite and Paul was weird because of her apparently falling in love with the Russian one even though she was only there for like a week? Wouldn't she love her actual Paul who she really knew? This book was weird... But at least her dad is alive lol (hide spoiler)]

Book 2, Chapter 6: (view spoiler)[so I kind of agree with Theo and how he view jumping into other versions of themselves as wrong. Finding out that Margarite and Paul have just randomly been jumping for fun is crazy. It seems like such a violation. Anyway...so Pauls soul is fractured and she has to go on a wild goose chase to put him back together. While trying to out smart Conley. I really don't think it's a good idea that she brought Theo along but we shall see how this goes (hide spoiler)]

Book 2, Chapter 13: (view spoiler)[ I feel like I'm reading Theo's villain origin story. I fully believe that he views Paul as his friend wants to think he's ok with Paul and Marguerite, however, he obviously loves her and seeing all these versions of paul and what she will do to get him back can't be good. Esp after that war ravaged world where she was with Theo, he almost wanted to stay there just so he could be with her!

Also, still not loving these books. They're just meh to me (hide spoiler)]

Book 2 Chapter 21: (view spoiler)[ Ugh this book just got super frustrating. So she's upset because this other version of Paul shot Theo and now she's like, I can't be with Paul because all Pauls will have this darkness in them. Like come on, every version of him is going to be different based on cirmcumstances.

But also, she flees back to the Russia time? Way to just mess up this womans life some more. And of course this Marguerite is pregnant because why wouldn't she have become pregnant after sleeping with Paul that one time. So not only did she take that Marguerite's virginity's & her first time with that Paul - she is now pregnant from a night that wasn't even hers. And to top it off, Marguerite just HAD to return there to think and screw up her life more. I'm so over her melodrama & her weird obsession with this Russia Paul (hide spoiler)]

Book 2, Finished: (view spoiler)[ So of course she has an evil version of herself and of course that version would take over her body. I just feel like this keeps getting more and more ridiculous as the series goes on. Idk, I probably would have eaten this up in 2014/15, but now it's not that great. But yay, Paul is back...? Maybe, did he actually travel back with her? He was having one hell of a pity party in that last dimension. Well, one more book to go (hide spoiler)]

Book 3, Chapter 8: (view spoiler)[ Ok so crazy Marguerite is skipping through dimensions trying to kill those versions of herself while the real Marguerite follows and tries to save them. She's 0-2 so far, so not doing so hot. And Paul is a mess. Like I get that she's trying to save her other selves, but maybe they should be coming up with a plan to actually stop Triad and not just play catch up...

Also her parents sure do seem content to just let her skip around and do all this crazy dangerous stuff (hide spoiler)]

Book 3, Chapter 15: (view spoiler)[ ok so theres finally a plan of sorts. Other dimensions are working together against Triad. But it seems Wicked is still a step ahead. They need to figure out how to stop her (hide spoiler)]

Book 3, chapter 21: (view spoiler)[ omg a dimension of clones. That is terrifying. (hide spoiler)]

Finished: (view spoiler)[ so the wicked one basically got locked in her own dimension? And the real ones Universe was saved by linking the firebirds? The science didnt really science to me but sure. It was all right (hide spoiler)]