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:	9781440588150
Publisher:	Simon Pulse
Publication date:	09/04/2015
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Lexile:	HL660L (what's this?)
File size:	450 KB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Randy Ribay was born in the Philippines and raised in Michigan and Colorado. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he specialized in language and literacy. He is the English Department Chair at an all-boys high school in Philadelphia, a reviewer for The Horn Book, and a nerd-of-all-trades. Randy lives in Camden, New Jersey with his wife and two dog-children. Visit his website at www.randyribay.com and find him on Twitter @randyribay.

Editorial Reviews

08/31/2015
The summer before senior year, four longtime friends, who bonded over weekly games Dungeons & Dragons, are drifting apart. Math nerd Archie is upset about his father coming out as gay and his parents’ subsequent divorce. His crush, Mari, is distraught over her adoptive mother’s recent cancer diagnosis and is simultaneously contemplating contacting her biological mother. Meanwhile, Dante’s family and church shun him after they discover he’s gay, and Sam’s grades are dropping due to his obsession with his girlfriend, Sarah. When Sarah’s family moves to Seattle, Sam and his friends embark on a cross-country road trip so he can win her back; along the way they become more honest with each other and themselves. While debut novelist Ribay gives the story a distinctively diverse and nerd-centric cast, the structure comes across as disjointed, with the first half of the book shifting focus among the four main characters before transitioning to a more conventional setup in the second half. Some overdramatic moments during the road trip overstuff a narrative already brimming with personal problems. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kaylee Davis, Dee Mura Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"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

So this is what happens when Dungeons & Dragons meets On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Five companionable misfits, who almost by default survived middle and high school together (but never really ‘got close’), now embark on a cross-country quest that disrupts their transition to senior year as well as their group’s status quo. Archie, Dante, Mari, Sarah, and Sam are distinctive characters with interlocking arcs. Their personalities shine through the prisms of their personal proclivities and diversity (ethnic and otherwise). For example, Archie has a thing for precision and numbers…and Mari, while Dante is much more introspective than his size and family life imply. Chapters rotate through each teen’s first-person perception of their shared experiences. While tighter editing of the viewpoint transitions seems in order, the reader’s experience is enriched by seeing the story unfold from inside each character’s mind. Ribay melds some rather familiar stereotypes (e.g. ‘nerd’), tropes and creates a mélange that is sufficiently fresh and real. What’s not quite so fresh or real is the pile of issues the five must face alone or together. Sure, coming-of-age quests practically require battles with self-confidence, identity, communication, loyalty, and accountability; but this book’s deluge of big ticket issues is a bit too much for the page count. Primary topics include: adoption, being uprooted (moving), biracial families, cancer, divorce, racism, religious disagreements, sexual identity, and the vagaries of young love. Some moments are especially violent or scary, making this title suitable for the older end of the YA range. There is some satisfying flow to how the five friends manage to survive their scrapes, mid-sized scares, and shattering moments with increasing savvy and selflessness. In the end, lessons are learned; connections deepen; families regain some traction; and everyone levels up by way of some hard-earned experience points. Reviewer: Katie Engen; Ages 14 up.

Children's Literature - Katie Engen

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