| Alaric Underwood is a 16-year-old boy who lost his mother, Alex Underwood, two years prior in a train crash. While snowed in at home with only his zany aunt for company, he reflects on memories of his mother. He looks at a model of his house carved from an old oak tree inside a glass dome--something his mother made, which she called a folly. The folly takes Alaric to a parallel universe, where his mother is still alive. However, in the other life, his mother had a girl instead of a boy. Alaraic comes face-to-face with his female counterpart, Naia.
In Naia's world, Alex was in the train that crashed, but she had a 50/50 chance of survival, and managed to survive in that lifetime. Naia and Alaric meet, and try to make sense of what happened. Naia discovers she can travel to Alaric's world just as he did to hers. Alaric is happy for the first time in two years when entering Naia's world, because his mother is alive there. Alex meets Alaric in the cemetery and is naturally curious about the stranger with a resemblance to her daughter. Later, Naia and Alaric try to enter each other's parallel universe simultaneously, and discover that it cannot be done. | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear) FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes Explore: Is this an adult or child's book? - Kid's book (ages 7-14) Family relations Yes Descript. of chases or violence - 0 % planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 10 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 60 % Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30 % Main Character Identity: - Male Profession/status: Age: - a teen Main Adversary Identity: - Female Age: - a teen Profession/status: How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book. How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters Writing Style How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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