Relativity by Cristin Bishara

Title: Relativity

Author: Cristin Bishara

Book #: Standalone


Publisher: Walker Childrens

Publish Date: September 10th 2013

Pages: n/a

Format: Kindle Edition


Date Read: September 21st 2013

Rating: ★★½  / out of 5

Maybe applying the scientific method will help. First, define the question. That's easy.

Where the hell am I?

Summary: 

If Ruby Wright could have her way, her dad would never have met and married her stepmother Willow, her best friend George would be more than a friend, and her mom would still be alive. Ruby knows wishes can't come true; some things just can't be undone. Then she discovers a tree in the middle of an Ohio cornfield with a wormhole to nine alternative realities. 

Her ideal world—one with everything and everyone she wants most—could be within reach. But is there such a thing as a perfect world? What is Ruby willing to give up to find out?
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)

Review: I received a free copy of this book for review.

I feel really luke-warm about this book. There is nothing really obvious about it that would make me not like it, but digging deeper into it I came to the conclusion that this book was just not doing it for me. There were some really good things about it, as well as some negatives, and in the end they all just cancelled each other out so I was left with a very overwhelming neutral feeling.

__________

As far as parallel universes are concerned- which is basically what this book is all about- I think the author did a very good job. She included many scientific theories and equations that could provide explanation for the hows and whys and even ifsof parallel universes actually existing and being traverse-able. 

[A] We once thought of an atom as the smallest unit, the most basic unit of matter. But look closer and you find that atoms are made of electrons, neutrons, and protons. Keep looking closer. Protons and neutrons are made of quarks. Quarks are made of vibrating loops of string. As strings vibrate, they warp the surrounding fabric of space, producing black holes, tunnels, and other oddities, like U-shaped universes with shortcuts from one stem to another.

[B] Observation causes the collapse of wave functions. Wave functions map the possible states of a system. So, if wave functions branch in different directions, independent of each other, then there are countless alternate realities playing out.

She also quoted research from famous scientists like Albert Einstein and made it have a very well researched, realistic feel. It did not feel like a fantasy novel to me. Definitely very science-fiction. Unfortunately, while this took up a large part of the book, it was all that I really liked. 

Ruby, the MC, was pretty bland in my opinion. I didn't really feel like she had a like-able personality. Though, she did have a pretty sarcastic attitude that I enjoyed:

She puts her hands on her hips and sizes me up. "You should've kept the bag for yourself. You need, like, a total makeover," she says with a look of sheer repulsion. "That shade of denim? It is so bad. And those shoes."
I look down at my frayed jeans and olive sneakers. "Thanks for the tip." I sidestep around her and head downstairs.
Yep, we'll be friends in no time.

Besides her sarcasm, I just felt like she was too impulsive, selfish, winy and kind of a pushover. It bothered me so much that, despite how smart Ruby claims to be, she wasn't able to wrap her mind around the fact that every little rash decision she made altered something in the lives of the people who lived in that world.

I help myself to the cash. Really, she would want me to have it.

A black Trek isn't locked onto the track, so now it's mine.

She also has this habit of saying "Just calm down, Ruby. Take a deep breath. N2 and O2 in, carbon dioxide out," and pretty much says this every time she starts to freak out. I just wasn't able to connect to her, or any of the side characters, at all.

Overall, I would still recommend this book. If you want to read about a book that explores parallel universes with science to back it up, this would be a decent contestant. 

Quotes:

Mr. Burton seems to have this habit of rubbing the top of his bald head It's like he keeps checking for hair.

I don't believe in magic, but I do believe in jaw-droppers conjured up by Mother Nature. The Northern Lights, for one. Brachiosaurus standing forty feet tall, volcanoes spewing two-thousand degree lava  the Milky Way containing 100 billion planets. All of it seems otherworldly, the stuff of pure imagination. 

Kandy gives me a venomous look, which I return in kind. Then we proceed to ignore each other. A symbiotic relationship. 

It's impossible.
But apparently, sometimes things aren't always what they appear.

I start walking again, trying to wrap my brain around all this, when I see the library. Seriously, catch me before I swoon and face plant.

The universe is expanding 74.2 kilometers per second per megaparsec. Just because we can't feel it doesn't mean it's not happening.


On My Goodreads:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/712269850