Name: Jane, Unlimited
ISBN: 9780803741492

Kristin Cashore

"Recently orphaned Jane accepts an unexpected invitation from an old acquaintance to an island mansion where she will face five choices that could ultimately determine the course of her newly untethered life"--

Jane, Unlimited

Date read: 
 January 21-January 23, 2020 

 Actual Rating: 3.75 STARS 
 
 "Multiverse comes from an idea that every time something happens, everything else that could have happened in that moment also happens, causing new universes to break off from the old universe and come into being. So there are multiple versions of us, living different lives than the ones we live, across multiple universes, making every decisions we could possibly make" 

Jane, being all alone after her Aunt Magnolia died on her journey through Antarctic, was invited by her old friend to visit and stay as long as she wants in this island mansion called Tu Reviens. Because of the promise she made with her aunt never to turn down the invitation, she had no choice but to go. From the first pages of this book, it felt like an ordinary read, with a simple touch of mystery. Boy was I wrong.

The more I read, the more it gets weirder and weirder. The moment she arrived at the mansion, a lot of different mysterious situations arise. I thought that it was too much to throw those mysteries at once, but little did I know, the author has a great idea on how to tackle each and every mysteries in her own unique way. 

The first part is the main actual plot of the story, where everything started from and branched out. There are a lot of questions and mysteries bothering Jane and she wanted to know every single one of them. At the end of the first part, you can see that when the situation permits her to extract all the answers from different characters, her chances to know the truth were thrown at her all at once. Each character bears an answer to each of her questions. She contemplates on which of the mysteries she wanted to know first, hence she has to choose which character she needs to follow.
And that was where the fun started.

With the first two sections both started with  Jane decides...  as if the scene started again, it took me awhile before I realized what the author was trying to do. I got all confused. But after it hit me hard what was really happening, I got really into it. Five mysteries: the Vermeer painting,the Panzavecchia family, the disappearance of Charlotte, Ravi's mother and Jane's Aunt Magnolia's death. With each character Jane needed the answer from, the situation with the particular character revealed the truth about each mystery. By the next section of the story, it came back to the scene where Jane needed to choose and then another mystery would be revealed. Though with each section, the events of the day would apparently change compared to the last section, but the actual and relevant answers still remains. It really fascinates me on how the writer spread out every clues and revelations on every section and avoids dropping it all at once. It was actually hard to explain without spoiling everything, and it would take me a whole day to write all the explanations but there is one thing I have to say: this book was so surprisingly enjoyable to read. 

The funny thing is,with every section comes a different genre. Thriller, then action, then paranormal, then sci-fi and the last section settles with fantasy. It got more and more ridiculous with each section now that I think about it, but it was the same reason why I actually liked this. It was so much fun to look forward to every decisions Jane has to make. Where it would lead her and what revelation would she get out of it. 

Truly, I really liked the multiverse concept of this book and how the author managed to deliver the story with so much uniqueness. The reason why I dropped my rating is that I really don't want an obscure ending. I don't want an ending where I have to come up with a definite ending myself just to satisfy my curiosity. I don't want an open ending. This book actually has no ending. Well, actually, it has five different endings and I don't know what Jane from the actual dimension really decided to choose and which endings were from the other dimensions. But all in all, I still enjoy reading this so much.

Ryan 

3.5 Stars

what a...perplexing and interesting read. review to come!

Natalie

One of my favorite things about Kristin Cashore’s writing is that all her books are so different from each other. In Jane, Unlimited she’s taken this to the next level: while she does repeat herself within the book, the repetition is so ingenious and original that it becomes an integral part of the story she’s telling.

Very briefly: the book is about Jane, a young woman whose guardian, her Aunt Magnolia, has recently died. Jane has dropped out of school and isn’t sure which direction she should take her life when she receives an unexpected invitation to visit Tu Reviens, the family estate of a prominent local family. Before Aunt Magnolia left on what turned out to be her final Antarctic photography trip, she made Jane promise that if she ever received an invitation to Tu Reviens, she must accept.

Katie

***4.5 stars***

I had no idea what to expect going into this book, which is really the way to do it. We follow Jane as she visits Tu Reviens, a mansion on a private island owned by a friend's family. She is presented with a choice: which direction to go? Which person to follow? We then see the aftermath of each outcome of said choice.

For me, each story gets better and better. They are each a different genre, so the earlier ones, which are mystery and spy thriller-esque and not particularly my cup of tea, were not as enjoyable for me, though still very good. The third story is horror, and it was suitably scary and where the story truly starts to pick up. The last two stories are where this book really shined for me. The fourth is sci-fi followed by the final story, a portal fantasy. I ADORED these last two stories and they are what pushed this book into such a high rating. You can kind of choose which "reality" you would prefer to be what "really" happened, to Jane, which I think is really fun. My personal favorite, hands-down, is the final story.

Overall, this was such a fun, delightfully odd book and I'm glad I took a chance on it. I can't wait to get into some of Kristin Cashore's other books!

laura

I really enjoyed this book. I loved how it explored multiple worlds and multi verse. One of my favorite t.v show is the flash and I love the multi verse concept. I enjoyed the concept so much. I really loved the lead character. I thought the world building was so well done. I especially thought the first section was crafted so well and that you could really turn that first chapter into any type of storyline. It was so well done and it made me want to keep reading and see what the next story was about. It had hints of romance but no real romance development but that actually worked fine for me. I wonder if this book is the start of series cause it worked fine as standalone. I would however be curious for a book 2 in the same series of worlds.

Kymberly L McNabb

A story that explores how one choice made a crucial point in life can offer a completely different future. For fans of choose your own adventure and fantasy books.

Emily C Peterson

I definitely enjoyed this more on re-read, but not enough to bump up to 4 stars.