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A review by babbity_rabbity
The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge
3.0
Full review can be found here, but here's what you need to know:
Other reviewers mentioned that there’s an awful lot of science in this book, and I didn’t really take them seriously… but wow. There’s a TON of science in here–I mean that in terms of quantity, not density.
This is obviously what the book is going for– a riff on the major breakthroughs of the last 50/100 years in physics, seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old prodigy having the weirdest day. It’s a great idea, and some of it is executed very well. Edge does a great job boiling down some of the more complex and theoretical concepts to a paragraph and using MG-appropriate language.
In my opinion, however, there are just too many different concepts crammed into this one book. The story would have been much stronger if he had picked two or three of these ideas (say, relativity, infinity/Mobius strip, and black holes) and given them more room to breathe. The book jumped to a new major idea every couple of pages, and if I weren’t already familiar with these terms, I wouldn’t have had the stamina to follow them.
This book will likely be appealing to a young reader who is on the verge of jumping right into adult sci-fi but would just as soon read something with a more relatable character. I worry, however, that many will be turned off by the protagonist (why is she a next-level prodigy? wouldn’t the story work just fine if she were a garden-variety genius?) and the sheer volume of mini science lessons.
I also want to mention that the story has a dark edge that I wasn’t expecting. There’s some emotional weight to the last quarter of the book that will probably fall on readers who aren’t ready for it (in fun twisty ways and in jarring, horrifying ways). By the end, however, it’s all come together into something rather sweet and uplifting.
A final note: This book might have gotten four stars from me if it weren’t for a baffling scene of street harassment inserted halfway through the story apropos of nothing. While walking with her young teenage sister, Maisie sees some boys catcall her sister. One even goes to far as to physically block their path until the sister obeys his demand to smile. Maisie is taken-aback by the incident, but her sister doesn’t really discuss it; the implication seems to be that Maisie is getting a glimpse into growing up and that capitulating to bullying and sexual harassment is just the price of doing business. The incident is never addressed by the book. I was floored. This single scene brought the book down a whole star for me, and I wavered about going all the way down to two. In 2019, I don’t understand why this is acceptable.
I received a free eARC of this book from Delacourte Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Other reviewers mentioned that there’s an awful lot of science in this book, and I didn’t really take them seriously… but wow. There’s a TON of science in here–I mean that in terms of quantity, not density.
This is obviously what the book is going for– a riff on the major breakthroughs of the last 50/100 years in physics, seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old prodigy having the weirdest day. It’s a great idea, and some of it is executed very well. Edge does a great job boiling down some of the more complex and theoretical concepts to a paragraph and using MG-appropriate language.
In my opinion, however, there are just too many different concepts crammed into this one book. The story would have been much stronger if he had picked two or three of these ideas (say, relativity, infinity/Mobius strip, and black holes) and given them more room to breathe. The book jumped to a new major idea every couple of pages, and if I weren’t already familiar with these terms, I wouldn’t have had the stamina to follow them.
This book will likely be appealing to a young reader who is on the verge of jumping right into adult sci-fi but would just as soon read something with a more relatable character. I worry, however, that many will be turned off by the protagonist (why is she a next-level prodigy? wouldn’t the story work just fine if she were a garden-variety genius?) and the sheer volume of mini science lessons.
I also want to mention that the story has a dark edge that I wasn’t expecting. There’s some emotional weight to the last quarter of the book that will probably fall on readers who aren’t ready for it (in fun twisty ways and in jarring, horrifying ways). By the end, however, it’s all come together into something rather sweet and uplifting.
A final note: This book might have gotten four stars from me if it weren’t for a baffling scene of street harassment inserted halfway through the story apropos of nothing. While walking with her young teenage sister, Maisie sees some boys catcall her sister. One even goes to far as to physically block their path until the sister obeys his demand to smile. Maisie is taken-aback by the incident, but her sister doesn’t really discuss it; the implication seems to be that Maisie is getting a glimpse into growing up and that capitulating to bullying and sexual harassment is just the price of doing business. The incident is never addressed by the book. I was floored. This single scene brought the book down a whole star for me, and I wavered about going all the way down to two. In 2019, I don’t understand why this is acceptable.
I received a free eARC of this book from Delacourte Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.