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Title details for Bridge by Lauren Beukes - Available

Bridge

A Novel of Suspense

by Lauren Beukes
ebook
1 of 2 copies available
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1 of 2 copies available

A grieving daughter’s search for her mother becomes a journey across alternate realities in this dazzling new thriller from the author of The Shining Girls that is "sheer thrilling madness with a big, beating heart that reminds us we're all connected" (Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author).
There are infinite realities. She's looking for one . . . 
Twenty-four-year-old Bridge is paralyzed by choices: all the other lives she could have lived, the decisions she could have made. And now, who she should be in the wake of her mother’s unexpected death.
Jo was a maverick neuroscientist fixated on an artifact she called the “dreamworm” that she believed could open the doors to other worlds. It was part of Jo’s grand delusion, her sickness, and it cost her everything, including her relationship with her daughter.
But in packing up Jo’s house, Bridge discovers Jo’s obsession hidden amongst her things. And the dreamworm works, exactly the way it’s supposed to, the way Bridge remembers from when she was a little girl. Suddenly Bridge can step into other realities, otherselves. In one of them, could she find out what really happened to her mother? What Bridge doesn’t know is that there are others hunting for the dreamworm—who will kill to get their hands on it. 
Bridge is a highly original, reality-bending thrill-ride that could only have come from the brilliant mind of award-winning novelist, Lauren Beukes, about mothers and daughters, hunters and seekers, and who we each choose to be. 
"A fantastic high-wire act of a novel . . . at once a cosmic narrative and a deeply intimate human story." —Catriona Ward
"Ass-kicking, mind-bending entertainment." —Kirkus Reviews
“A suspenseful, deeply immersive odyssey that will make you consider the alternate possibilities inside us all.” —Katie Gutierrez
"Spiders out into alternate universes yet manages to be very much about us and our fractured now." —Paul Tremblay
"Lauren Beukes is a major, major talent." —George R. R. Martin

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 8, 2023

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780316267878

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780316267878
      • File size: 1507 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2023

      Estranged from neuroscientist mother Jo owing to Jo's obsessive belief in the dreamworm, said to facilitate travel to alternate worlds, Bridget Kittinger is shocked to discover the dreamworm in the depths of the freezer after her mother's death. Visiting other worlds might help Bridget understand this one, but, alas, others would kill to get the dreamworm for themselves. A speculative thriller from the author of The Shining Girls. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      June 15, 2023
      What if it were possible to inhabit different versions of yourself in different realities? Beukes explores the scientific and ethical ramifications--with a healthy dose of speculative horror. Cleaning out her estranged mother's house after she dies, Bridget Kittinger-Harris finds a horrifying husk she recognizes as "the dreamworm," sparking memories from her childhood of strange adventures and her neuroscientist mother's odd, sometimes dangerously neglectful behavior. She immediately swallows a strand and soon finds herself inside another Bridget in another universe. Meanwhile, that alternative Bridget wakes up inside the original Bridge's body, and chaos and near violence ensue. Once order has been restored, it's clear that Bridge's mother, Jo, was up to something--probably the permanent relocation of her own consciousness into some other world's version of herself, so Bridge will be able to find her and they will be reunited. Thus begins a weird treasure hunt as Bridge uses strands of the dreamworm to travel from body to body while her friend Dom reads Jo's journals, reaches out to a musician and a neuroscientist for help, and babysits all the other Bridges as they turn up, confused, out of their own realities. Meanwhile, a woman named Amber and her cuddly dog, Mr. Floof II, seek to eradicate anyone who's infested by the dreamworm threads. The worldbuilding here is skillful, as is the pacing--Beukes avoids dropping anvil-like plot points or world details, trusting the reader to unpack clues and read between the lines. Bridge's world is not our own, featuring something called Lifebook instead of Facebook and a pandemic faced by a President Harris rather than Trump and/or Biden, but the differences are subtle enough that we can believe there really might be an infinite number of universes, and selves, out there somewhere. And maybe grief itself, Beukes suggests on a deeper level, is strong enough to alter space and time. Effective as metaphor but mostly ass-kicking, mind-bending entertainment.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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