Seventeen-year-old Perry Teasdale is a dreamer.
She’s not the kind of dreamer who waltzes through fields of wildflowers, twirling her skirts in a starry-eyed daze; or the kind who aspires to be the biggest rock star the world has ever known (not that she’d complain if that accidentally happened). She’s the kind of dreamer who can’t get a decent night’s rest because her sleep is flooded with scenes from other worlds—ones that seem as real as life itself.
Mind-blowing dreams may sound like loads of fun, but when they start to bleed into Perry’s waking hours—confusing the line between dream and reality, and keeping her in a sleep-deprived fog no amount of caffeine can cure—Perry’s not exactly thrilled.
Try as she might to shake the dreams from her mind, they keep gaining speed, growing ever more vivid and intense…until that hazy boundary between real and imaginary fades away, and Perry is forced to consider the impossible: Her dreams seem real because they are.
When disaster strikes, sending Perry’s newfound normalcy into a tailspin, she takes the only logical path left: a whirlwind tour of the multiverse, scouring an ever-growing assortment of alternate realities for the missing piece—the missing person—to put her life together again.
Along the way, Perry enlists the help of an ancient wise woman (who may be a tad homicidal); a nerdy-in-all-the-right-ways mathematician (who knows all of Perry’s secrets, even before introducing himself); and a sword (because you can never go wrong with a sword).
At times hilarious—at times heartbreaking—Shift is sure to be, well, one of those two things. (Goodreads)
After having increasingly vivid and exhausting dreams, Peregrine “Perry” discovers that she is a Shifter who can exist in multiple versions of reality. With the assistance of her older brother Evan and his friend Max, Perry begins to learn how to control this newly discovered ability. Then, out of nowhere, tragedy strikes and Peregrine finds herself on a journey full of adventure, pain, and, of course, love.
Perry is stubborn, full of sarcasm, and definitely has a “flair for the dramatic”. Like many female leads in YA, she just doesn’t know what she has...until she loses it. However, she still comes off as very human instead of like a stereotype. Ezra however, is the stereotypical older sibling. He’s super overprotective of his little sister and 100% enjoys teasing her pretty much whenever the opportunity arises. The banter between the two is remarkably realistic. Max came off as a bit of a cliché to me, unfortunately. He has a weird hero complex that is constantly competing with this “I’m a nobody” mentality thing that I found annoying. Secondary characters like Aunt Jess, Nalya, and Kellen were far more interesting to me than Max was. I did adore how nerdy he was though. (also a huge fan of the different types of nerdiness that most of the characters represented) That leaves Thaelia. Oh my goodness did I enjoy her. I would absolutely read a book just from her point of view. She is equally as stubborn as Perry and seems to be the only one who matches her snarkiness. Her apathetic way of caring makes it easy to believe that she is a very old creature.
The concept of this story was what attracted me to it and I still think it is one of the more interesting ideas I have come across this year. Unfortunately, it comes off as if this main idea for the book was not fully thought out. Whenever something pops up in the story that really needs explanation, all you (and Perry) get is “It’s complicated”. This was my biggest annoyance with this book. I also was not a fan of just how fast it moved (I know, a weird, rare complaint.) The characters are never given time to breathe and fully deal with what is going on. Something important happens and we just move on. For me, this took away from the impact that these events should have had.
 |
| (Background makes more sense if you read the book.) |
Regardless of the multiple annoyances and flaws, I did enjoy Shift. The end left off in a way that, yeah, could totally be a standalone or could also become a series. I was also left with many questions (most of which had to deal with Kellen and Nalya) and how Ezra’s fate impacts other realities...but I’m guessing it’s complicated.
*I received a digital ARC of this book to review.
Rating: ★★★☆☆3.5/5
Book Information: Goodreads
Posts
Social Icons