***** - I Contain Multitudes

I CONTAIN MULTITUDES

CHRISTOPHER HAWKINS

*****

Hunted through an ever-shifting patchwork of worlds, one woman must rediscover her own past to restore reality before it's too late.

Unstuck from reality, Trina Bell never wakes up in the same world twice. Lost and alone, she crosses paths with an old librarian who is the only person who remembers her when everything else changes around them. When an encounter with a sadistic doctor makes Trina question whether she herself might be the cause of the shifting realities that are escalating out of control, she sets out to stop them.

As each successive world becomes more unstable and dangerous than the last—and with the librarian lost and descending into madness—Trina must confront the secrets rooted deep in her own past in order to find a way to repair her world before it collapses for good.

From the award-winning author of Downpour comes a mind-bending multiversal thriller of betrayal, discovery, and the will to reshape destiny.

MY REVIEW

*****

I had previously enjoyed Christopher Hawkins horror novel – Downpour (review here), so I was excited to receive the ARC for his latest sci-fi – I Contain Multitudes.

Trina Bell wakes up in a new reality every morning – the world shifting around her and people forgetting her. Until one day, she meets a librarian who remembers who she is – can she break the cycle?

The premise for this book is unusual – every day, the world around Trina resets, and it isn’t just the people that change, but the entire world - skipping backwards and forwards in time and also introducing parallel worlds. This kept the story engaging and the pace high throughout. Trina is our anchor in the story, and we hold on to her as we progress through the worlds she inhabits - Hawkins ensures that she feels real and believable throughout.

The book starts to pick up the pace as Trina and librarian Colin move through the realities together, being chased by a mysterious doctor and the shadows. There’s a lot of action in these sequences and I raced ahead to work out what was happening and how all the various threads would come together. The ending blew me away – I was not expecting it at all, and it instantly made it a five star read for me (but no spoilers, I’m afraid!).

Overall, I Contain Multitudes is engaging and unusual sci-fi with a fantastic plot progression. Thank you to NetGalley & Coronis Publishing for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon UK