School Library Journal Starred Review

Gr 9 Up-efore her Aunt Magnolia died in a blizzard in Antarctica, she made Jane promise to accept any invitation she might receive to visit Tu Reviens. When her high school tutor, Kiran, extends an invitation to her family's annual spring gala at Tu Reviens, Jane knows she has to accept even though she is still deep in mourning for the aunt who had raised her. But the estate (and the impossibly rich and peculiar family that inhabits it) is far more perilous than she could have possibly imagined. Befriended by a very odd dog named Jasper and the intriguing Ivy, Jane is drawn into an Alice in Wonderlandlike adventure where nothing makes sense, and danger and intrigue are the order of the day. According to the author's note, Cashore has incorporated elements of many of her favorite books into this hefty novel. The book is divided into multiple long chapters, each offering readers different paths for Jane. Each "direction" adopts the format and narrative structure of a distinct genre, sometimes to great effect, but occasionally leading readers into a confusing jumble of characters and subplots. Nevertheless, teens will willingly be pulled headlong into a novel that ranges in topics from space-travel to umbrella-making to art theft to kidnapping and international espionage. VERDICT This excellent, genre-bending title is a great pick for teens looking for something challenging to take them off the well-beaten path of standard YA fare.Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

ALA Booklist

When Jane receives an invitation to attend a gala at the island mansion Tu Reviens, she accepts t because she wants to go, but because her adored (and recently deceased) Aunt Magnolia made her promise to visit Tu Reviens if she ever got the chance. Bizarre personages and events fill the palatial home, including art theft, kidnapping, a secret organization, flirtations, and seemingly impossible twists of fate, all of which the impetuous Jane faces with a devoted basset hound sidekick. It's the story's structure, however, that's most noteworthy, as Cashore (Graceling, 2008) applies the concept of a multiverse to Tu Reviens, following Jane down five possible paths during her stay. Yet, it's not until the second half of the book, where things go increasingly off the rails, that the story truly blossoms. Art forms a constant backdrop to the narrative, and in all versions of Jane's story, she finds respite from her grief and uncertain future through artistic expression. Creation, compassion, and choice repeatedly emerge as themes in this ambitious, mind-expanding novel. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Though a departure from her beloved Graceling books, this is getting the full treatment from the publisher: author tour, Comic-Con promotions, a floor display, and more.

Horn Book

An old acquaintance invites orphaned Jane to her family's exotic island mansion. What's going on? Jane wonders, watching the household prepare for a gala and noting the priceless art. The story then splits into five alternate scenarios; in parallel narratives, Jane moves between multiverses of surreality, sci-fi, and art theft. Clues to the story's fantastical nature are playful and sly, and Cashore's inventiveness is unflagging.

Kirkus Reviews

A seemingly innocuous choice leads to wildly divergent potential futures in a genre-busting departure for a lauded fantasy author (Bitterblue, 2012, etc.).Still grieving for the aunt who raised her, Jane has dropped out of college and feels left at loose ends. At the invitation of a wealthy sort-of friend, she visits the family's crazy-quilt mansion on their private island only to find it overstocked with rich eccentrics, mysterious servants, fabulous art, dangerous secrets, potential lovers, and infinite possibilities. After a contrived setup freely borrowed from the classics of gothic fiction, the storyline splits into five distinct narratives, each employing the style and conventions of a different genre (mystery, thriller, horror, science fiction, and fantasy), each intersecting and commenting upon the others, and each with a different (not always pleasant) conclusion. This can all manifest as a bit too clever, and the bewildering abundance of supporting characters from every class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation sometimes reads more like bundles of quirks than fully realized persons. Still, an understated romance (plus a perfectly adorable basset hound) helps unify the various scenarios, and the whole is grounded by the personality of the bisexual title character—the only one explicitly ambiguous in race—with her honest kindness, blunt humor, nerdy creativity, and rock-solid integrity. Not for everyone, but adventurous readers will find it charming, thought-provoking, and utterly sui generis. (Fiction. 14-adult)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Cashore-s first novel in four years covers an eventful weekend in the life of 18-year-old Jane, an orphan raised by an aunt whose recent death has left her niece unmoored. When a former tutor, Kiran, invites Jane to her family-s island mansion, Tu Reviens, Jane accepts, arriving with everything she owns, including 37 handmade umbrellas. A cast of guests, servants, Kiran-s twin, and a basset hound is quickly introduced, as are a raft of suspicious activities. The story then restarts five times in five genres-spy thriller, horror, science fiction, mystery, fantasy-sometimes repeating information verbatim from a previous section. Each new version is a little weirder than the last, and the overall effect is less Choose Your Own Adventure than Groundhog Day on acid, set within a framework that pays homage to several classic novels, most notably Du Maurier-s Rebecca. These shifts require a reader patient enough to follow the story-s many contradictions until Jane discovers why she-s at Tu Reviens and, ultimately, what she wants. An ambitious departure for Cashore that will reward (and perhaps demand) many re-readings. Ages 14-up. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Sept.)

Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Aunt Magnolia is dead and Jane is lost. Her guardian since her parents’ deaths, Aunt Magnolia has provided Jane with comfort, inspiration, and direction. Grieving and aimless, taking solace only in her umbrella-making hobby, Jane accepts an invitation from Kiran, a former acquaintance, to Tu Reviens, a strange, almost living mansion on a private island. Kiran’s family, who owns the mansion, is odd and secretive, as are the servants and other guests staying there. Even Jasper the dog, who has taken a liking to Jane, behaves abnormally. Are they criminals involved in art theft and forgery? Or, are they the ones catching the thieves? Does the house have a consciousness? Jane explores five alternate explanations for the activities at Tu Reviens, each more fantastical than the last and each bringing her closer to the truth about Aunt Magnolia. Jane, Unlimited is a departure from the high fantasy of Cashore’s Graceling books, but fans will enjoy the worldbuilding in this genre-hopping mystery. Cashore uses the theory of the multiverse to explain how Tu Reviens and its inhabitants could exist simultaneously in at least five different realities. Still, it is difficult to know how to take this book. On one hand, it seems not to take itself too seriously; on the other, it sometimes feels like an allegory for Jane’s grieving process. Readers will have to puzzle the book’s meaning for themselves, but they will enjoy the author’s imaginative and witty storytelling, along with the novel’s many memorable characters.—Johanna Nation-Vallee.