Yael Goldstein

A novel of scary parallel universes, spawned by suspense writer and new mom Hannah's coping with her own mother's unexplained disappearance during her childhood. She and her kind and loving husband Adam have a son, Jack, who needed to be revived at birth due to breathing problems, but happily survives. Or not. And Hannah and Jack's comfortable marriage doesn't survive the stress of being parents. Or does it? Things keep "flickering"; Jack appears and disappears, based on metaphysical waves show more and vibrations. I liked the story, especially the camaraderie of Hannah's mothers group, and the ending. It reminded me of the novels of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, who is acknowledged in the closing. show less

The Possibilities is an interesting story about motherhood, grief, and postpartum. After a distressing birth, Hannah obsesses over her son, Jack. Then, one evening, Jack completely disappears, and Hannah travels to alternate realities to find him.

I really liked Hannah, she was a well-written character. I loved that she only wanted what's best for her son and my heart broke for her when the "alternate universe people" told her she didn't have a son. However, there were quite a few characters show more to keep track of, especially when there were different universe versions of the same character.

I also struggled a bit with the pacing; I found the story to be a little slow for my liking, it did pick up at certain points but then it would slow down again when there would be a long explanation of what science-y parts were happening.

I do wish the world-building was slightly better. Whenever Hannah would enter a different reality, I found myself flipping back to see if I missed reading if she was back in her world or another's.

Although I didn't quite love this one, I did find it to be an original alternate universe science fiction story. I'd recommend checking it out if you're looking for a clever sci-fi story.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the gifted copy. show less

I thought this book was easy to pick up and put down. There are interesting parts in here and some boring parts too. Over all I think it's a good book.