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A review by cancan_jpg
The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge
4.0
‘How do you know you really exist?’
I borrowed this book from the BorrowBox app straight after watching the ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ film; I heard about it on Twitter, and was excited for another middle-grade book about science!
‘The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day’ manages to expertly intertwine science, family drama, and the emotions of adolescence, with everything connecting in a tight storyline, and every single infinitessimally small detail adding to the story. At times, certain parts of the book feel like an Alice In Wonderland type of concept, albeit with more Logic and less surrealism and absurdism (and with less of a fantastical aesthetic).
As a book that deals with chapters alternating POV between two different realities, the book does a masterful job of blending the narrative between each chapter, with the events of the end of one chapter connecting smoothly with the events of the next, despite not even being set in the same universe!
I felt like this book did an excellent job of handling the stress of being a child known for their academic excellence, since I was also someone who experienced a lot of academic pressure as a kid, and who is now friends with a lot of people that were once ‘academically gifted’ children turned into stressed adults.
The book’s handling of the siblings’ dynamic also kicked me in the heart a bit, as someone who is also a younger sibling with a sometimes-strained relationship with their elder sibling.
I will say that I kind of wished the book described how the characters look earlier on? I suppose it is part of the charm that Maisie isn’t really focused on appearances, but I’d spent a good half of the book imagining her in my own way before the narration finally tells me she’s blonde and pale (which was the opposite of how I’d personally pictured her), and I had a mental conflict of whether I should completely change my mental image of her in the middle of the story. But that might just be me.
I also kind of felt sad that they didn’t resolve the fact that Maisie doesn’t have friends, due to her academic gifts making her leave school for university at an excessively young age. I understand it’s not the point of the story, and that the most prominent friendship is that between Maisie and her sister Lily, but it did make me a bit sad.
The writing gave me such an emotional attachment to Maisie, and did a good job of drawing me into these characters’ lives in as short a time as possible! As such the endingreally messed me up a bit, and I found myself almost crying when Lily explains the existence of the alternate universe as a computer generated simulation, after Maisie had passed away in the real world. Maisie, however, uses her knowledge of science and her dad’s video games to try get herself back home, and prevent her own death. The ambiguity of the ending is interesting for a middle grade novel, and I’d almost forgotten how many of my favourite MG novels delt with these sorts of dark concepts. In my opinion, this is a very important book for children to read!
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and marathoned through it quickly in almost a single evening, so I’m sure many kids Maisie’s age will be enthralled with it as well! The way Edge uses science in this book will get many kids fascinated with learning what Maisie knows, even after the novel, and I really enjoy that Christopher Edge provides his scientific reading list in the Acknowledgements at the end - I’m definitely saving that for myself for later! Also, on a personal note, I really got a kick out of the references to ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ and even The Cure, early on in the book (if you’re giving this book to a kid, you could maybe even recommend them Hitchhiker’s Guide later on!).
It was a really enjoyable, albeit very short read, and a very important novel for Middle-Grade readers!
I borrowed this book from the BorrowBox app straight after watching the ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ film; I heard about it on Twitter, and was excited for another middle-grade book about science!
‘The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day’ manages to expertly intertwine science, family drama, and the emotions of adolescence, with everything connecting in a tight storyline, and every single infinitessimally small detail adding to the story. At times, certain parts of the book feel like an Alice In Wonderland type of concept, albeit with more Logic and less surrealism and absurdism (and with less of a fantastical aesthetic).
As a book that deals with chapters alternating POV between two different realities, the book does a masterful job of blending the narrative between each chapter, with the events of the end of one chapter connecting smoothly with the events of the next, despite not even being set in the same universe!
I felt like this book did an excellent job of handling the stress of being a child known for their academic excellence, since I was also someone who experienced a lot of academic pressure as a kid, and who is now friends with a lot of people that were once ‘academically gifted’ children turned into stressed adults.
The book’s handling of the siblings’ dynamic also kicked me in the heart a bit, as someone who is also a younger sibling with a sometimes-strained relationship with their elder sibling.
I will say that I kind of wished the book described how the characters look earlier on? I suppose it is part of the charm that Maisie isn’t really focused on appearances, but I’d spent a good half of the book imagining her in my own way before the narration finally tells me she’s blonde and pale (which was the opposite of how I’d personally pictured her), and I had a mental conflict of whether I should completely change my mental image of her in the middle of the story. But that might just be me.
I also kind of felt sad that they didn’t resolve the fact that Maisie doesn’t have friends, due to her academic gifts making her leave school for university at an excessively young age. I understand it’s not the point of the story, and that the most prominent friendship is that between Maisie and her sister Lily, but it did make me a bit sad.
The writing gave me such an emotional attachment to Maisie, and did a good job of drawing me into these characters’ lives in as short a time as possible! As such the ending
Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and marathoned through it quickly in almost a single evening, so I’m sure many kids Maisie’s age will be enthralled with it as well! The way Edge uses science in this book will get many kids fascinated with learning what Maisie knows, even after the novel, and I really enjoy that Christopher Edge provides his scientific reading list in the Acknowledgements at the end - I’m definitely saving that for myself for later! Also, on a personal note, I really got a kick out of the references to ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ and even The Cure, early on in the book (if you’re giving this book to a kid, you could maybe even recommend them Hitchhiker’s Guide later on!).
It was a really enjoyable, albeit very short read, and a very important novel for Middle-Grade readers!