How do people decide on a path, and find the drive to pursue what they want?
Ida struggles more than other twentysomethings to work this out. She can shift between parallel universes, allowing her to follow alternative paths.
One day Ida sees a shadowy, see-through doppelganger of herself on the train. She starts to wonder if she’s actually in control of her ability, and whether there are effects far beyond what she’s considered.
How can she know, anyway, whether one universe is ultimately better than another? And what if the continual shifting causes her to lose what is most important to her, just as she’s discovering what that is, and she can never find her way back?
Ida is an intelligent, diverse and entertaining novel that explores love, loss and longing, and speaks to the condition of an array of overwhelming, and often illusory, choices.
Untitled
I was surprised at how much I ended up liking "Ida" – it took me a while to really get into the story.
A great thing about this book is the amount of representation it has, especially considering it’s not the main focus (which some books do). Here, it’s not really a big deal – which I like. There are characters who are bisexual, genderqueer and genderfluid.
Another pro is that the pronoun “they” was used in reference to the love interest, Daisy, which is something that took a little bit of getting used to but was rather cool.
Even though it’s not really highlighted, there are also some people of colour in here too.
Frank was great – he was certainly a highlight and perhaps even my favourite character.
Damaris and Adrastos were quite interesting, if confusing – they were never quite explained.
The narrative style of third person present tense was something that I’m not usually a fan of but it did grow on me.
I’m glad I read "Ida" in one sitting, because it had the potential to be rather confusing. It also had a rather open ending with some things left unresolved. However, it was interesting and I did enjoy it. - Melissa (QBD)
Guest, 10/11/2017
