An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes

by Randy Ribay

Overview

Four friends from wildly different backgrounds have bonded over Dungeons & Dragons since the sixth grade. Now they're facing senior year and a major shift in their own universes. Math whiz Archie is struggling with his parents' divorce after his dad comes out as gay. Mari is terrified of her adoptive mother's life-altering news. Dante is carrying around a huge secret that is proving impossible to keep hidden. And when Sam gets dumped by the love of his life, everyone is ready to join him on a cross-country quest to win her back. The four quickly discover that the road is not forgiving, and that real life is no game. They must face a test of friendship where the stakes are more than just a roll of the dice—they are life and death.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440588143
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	10/16/2015
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	HL660L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Randy Ribay is the author of An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, a Simon & Schuster book.

Editorial Reviews

"A legitimate geeky book written by an awesomely geeky man who understands the classic geeky teenager. And. it. Was. On. Point. The trip of a lifetime. You want a diverse, thought-provoking, hilarious book? This is it. Join the party." —YA Books Central

"A novel written by a geek, for geeks, that manages to touch on so much, and packs a surprising, emotional punch. The characters and their journey together will stick with you for a while." —BookRiot

"Debut novelist Ribay gives the story a distinctively diverse and nerd-centric cast." —Publishers Weekly

"The stories intertwine into a single narrative in which teens will be invested in all parties equally.... A quiet and meaningful story." —School Library Journal

"Ribay sets up his characters' dilemmas in alternating third-person sections for the first half of the book, leading to the road trip scenes in which the friends' copious issues are unpacked." —Horn Book Magazine

"Of all the grades, senior year of high school is most fraught with emotion. Randy Ribay, of Camden, has done a terrific job of capturing these emotions in his novel. Ribay takes us inside the lives of four teenagers on a cross-country odyssey and gives equal weight to all. It's one of those trips we don't mind going on because most of us can recall facing that senior year of high school when we knew life was about to change." —The Star Ledger

From the Publisher

09/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—For years, Archie, Mari, Dante, Sam, and Sarah have been meeting weekly and playing an ongoing campaign of Dungeons and Dragons. By all appearances, the five are close, longtime friends and buddies. But the fantasy game they are playing might just be a metaphor for a fantasy friendship—no one knows Dante is gay, for example, or that Archie secretly pines for Mari. When Sarah moves away with her family, almost without a word about it to anyone, she leaves Archie, Mari, Dante, and Sam to come to terms with what kind of relationship it is that the five really have. As they embark on a cross-country road trip to find Sarah and help Sam win her back, a wise and smelly hitchhiker, a tornado, a car fire, a hate crime, a love kindled, and a love extinguished bring Archie, Mari, Dante, and Sam together as real friends who know how to really live. Told initially in alternating third-person omniscient narrative, the story begins by letting readers know the thoughts and motivations of each of the four main characters by going over the same events from differing perspectives. By the end, the stories intertwine into a single narrative in which teens will be invested in all parties equally. The pace, because of this format, never catches up to the high-stakes events on this road trip. VERDICT A quiet and meaningful story, though a bit too mopey to pack a real punch.—Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA

School Library Journal

2015-08-05
A diverse quartet of Dungeons & Dragons players spends the last week of summer before senior year road tripping from Philadelphia to Seattle.Monday night D&D just doesn't feel the same as it has over the years since sixth grade. Archie, the straight white boy, has a newly out-and-proud dad. Archie won't tell anyone either about his father's gayness or about his own attraction to the Dungeon Master, Mari, who wants to be a writer. Mari's closest with Dante, the only other black kid in school, a gigantic, nonathletic, deeply closeted computer geek. Their circle is closed out by Filipino Sam, who is devoted to his girlfriend, Sarah. Sarah's family moves across the country, leaving Sam heartbroken, and soon the four gaming friends are headed out on a road trip in pursuit, told through shifting perspectives. Mari worries about illness in the family and being a transracial adoptee, and Dante about having been outed to his religious and judgmental grandparents. Meanwhile, Archie makes frequent unwanted sexual and racial jokes, while Sam's merely sullen and unfriendly. They each have an epiphany—some more rewarding than others. Though the setup appears to be tailor-made for a #weneeddiversebooks world, its execution falls short with its characters' arcs: the straight white creep is rewarded, the gay black mensch is punished, and girls are judged for being insufficiently geeky or insufficiently sexually available.Both profoundly literary and sadly unsatisfying. (Fiction. 15-17)

Kirkus Reviews