More like a 3.5, but bumping to a 4 for the author's willingness to take a risk. It didn't completely work, but it worked well enough that I kept turning pages to finish it.

Speculative fiction paired with choose-your-own-adventure format elements.

Super setup: a global reality game show lottery-picks one 'regular' person per season to have the opportunity to reset their life within a "quantum bubble" by going back to major decision points, reliving them, and making better choices.

The season 1 star became the host, season 2 never aired, now it's season 3. We meet our middle-age protagonist, Marsh, who is divorced with a teenage daughter and secretly in desire of a do-over. Wish granted. Or so she (and we) think.

It turns out that in speculative fiction, just as in real life, the 'reality' is mostly for show and the 'game of choice' is a little more scripted and manipulated than it first seems. Despite this being fiction and somewhat speculative to boot, it takes suspension of belief and a generous roll-with-it stance towards the plot at several points.

If that's not your thing, you might find it frustrating.

1) Marsh is likable, but not always identifiable and at times, frustrating. She kinda comes across like a video game character - the story is about her, told through her perspective, and yet...she doesn't ever really develop or grow.

2) I thought the execution and the ending/s didn't always live up to the promise of the potential. There were times where I had to suspend disbelief and adopt a generous roll-with-it stance as the story progressed. It would be easy to poke holes if one were the poking kind. In the end, I decided to just enjoy the reading ride wherever it took me. If that's not your thing, you might find it frustrating.

3) I've heard several podcasters say this is a book about choices, but that seems a bit of a disservice. To me, it's more about contentment (or lack thereof) with past choices, realization that life is never perfect, and our future may not be as constrained by our past as we sometimes think. Those are complex and interesting things to think about,. The book doesn't explore them, just tees them up.

Recommended for the right reader or someone who's open to something creative and off-formula. Also, not that you need it to enjoy this, but recommend The Cartographers,

Will definitely read another of her books--this might not have been PERFECT (is any story, really?) but it was interesting and complicated, and predictably unpredictable...just like life, if not like reality TV. ( )

All This and More by Peng Shepherd is a very highly recommended unique version of a Choose Your Own Adventure story, only this time it is to choose, or rather revise, your life.

Marsh has just turned forty-five and feels as if she has missed her chance at fulfillment in every area of her life. She can't believe it when she is selected to be a contestant on season 3 of the show All This and More. The show uses quantum technology, a time bubble, to allow contestants the chance to revise their pasts and change their present lives. This is Marsh's chance to seize her chance to get it all right and have the life she always wanted. As she tries on being successful in different occupations Marsh begins to realize that something is not quite right with All This and More.

This is a very creative, imaginative novel and the writing is incredible, characteristics I expect from any novel Peng Shepherd writes. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am good with the reality TV show plot mixed with science fiction. My only hesitation is the Choose Your Own Adventure aspect. My kids were fans of these kind of novels years ago, however I never grew up with them so the idea has no nostalgia for me. The plot had to stand on what I choose.

The different realities Marsh encounters were well done and the glitches she begins to notice are seamlessly incorporated into the various narrative choices. I liked the science fiction aspect to the narrative, the idea of jumps to different realities is clever, but maybe not so much the choose what to do next while reading.

Admittedly, I did choose what I sincerely wanted to see next, so my experience was a mix of the two options. It might be interesting to read it straight through without choices to see if it changes my feelings. Thanks to William Morrow for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2024/06/all-this-and-more.html ( )

Here is the pitch: Black Mirror meets Sliding Doors meets Groundhog’s Day meets Pretty Little Mistakes meets Life After Life meets…well, you get the idea. This is Shepherd’s third speculative fiction novel, and although its premise is solid, it is not exactly groundbreaking. It uses a reality show frame and multiverse theory to create an adult version of a “Choose Your Adventure” book. The actual storyline is pretty straightforward: Since just about every aspect of Marsh’s life is a shambling mountain of regrets, she would like to be able to go back in time and fix her mistakes. Fortunately, in her world, there is a game show for that. Through manipulation of “quantum mechanics,” the creators of All This and More can arrange unlimited opportunities that allow a contestant to relive important transitional moments. Within this scheme, Marsh can make different life choices or just tweak tiny details until she is satisfied with her life. She begins with conservative alterations, but soon finds herself in increasingly outrageous and improbable scenarios. After many iterations, Marsh begins to notice some disturbing irregularities and glitches, leading her to suspect that she is not solely guiding the process. The reader has the opportunity to occasionally “help” Marsh decide by selecting among offered options, following the text to a specified location. Shepherd’s book is an example of how the alternate-universe plot can become tiresome, with required repetition and inherent logical inconsistencies. The jumps and re-workings get harder for the reader to track, the effect is numbing, and it encourages skimming— despite the author’s efforts to incorporate the fantastic and outré. Similar to those classic CYO adventures, what results is a disjointed narrative that sacrifices depth to accommodate a gimmicky design. ( )

What if you could go back to moments in your history and make a different choice? Because of the butterfly effect, even small changes can have ripple effects that result in major differences for the future.

Marsh gets such a chance when she is picked to be the contestant on Season 3 of "All This and More," a reality TV show that, thanks to the technology known as "quantum bubbling," allows her to go back in time and make different choices.

This new technology is very vaguely explained, so the reader must have a large capacity for suspension of disbelief here regarding this plot point, which undergirds the entire novel. Once you get past that, the story proceeds smoothly. Most of the book consists of Marsh making change after change to her history, which leads her down a different path from the one her original life took. I found the different iterations of her life story a little confusing to follow, but if you let go of the need to keep it straight in your head it kind of just flows, one episode to the next.

Complications arise that throw a monkey wrench into Marsh's story as well as adds a twist and suspenseful story line, and towards the end the plot picks up speed.

There is a "pick your ending" element to this novel, and the author tells us in the beginning that the reader can choose to read straight through (which I did) or choose various decisions for Marsh and take a wilder ride.

There are some plot points that don't make sense and don't resolve (what happened to the Chrysalis pill?) so it's best for the reader to just enjoy the ride, the concept, and the adventure. ( )