All This and More

If someone gave you the chance to go back and change things, to make different decisions, would you?

Marsh just became the contestant on the world most high-tech game show. Using quantum technology, she has the chance at the ultimate do-over, changing the past until she gets the perfect life – and then she gets to keep it. But even as things seem to be getting closer and closer to perfect, weirdness is slowly creeping in around the edges. Something is wrong with this “reality” tv show…

I’ve been a fan of Peng Shepherd ever since The Cartographers – which is also a must read! In this story, Marsh gets to do something we’ve all thought about – undo her mistakes and take the path less travelled. See what could have been. Who show more doesn’t have regrets? As she does she becomes more confident, more successful and assertive. But it all has a price, and there’s something more going on behind the scenes. It also explores the ethics of something like this; at what point do you have the right to make these decisions for other people, changing not only your life forever, but theirs?

And you, the reader, get to make choices too. This is formatted like one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books, and you get to pick which decisions Marsh is going to change. I was reading this on a Kindle so I actually decided to just read straight through and get all the options, instead of flipping back and forth. Luckily there weren’t too many branching paths, so that didn’t really confuse or mess things up at all. But it’s a really cool conceit, considering the topic.

I loved this book, although things did start to get a little wild in Marsh’s alternative lives by the end. And I did enjoy all of the possible endings. You may prefer to read straight through like I did, or flip back and forth. But I think any fans of The Midnight Library or Blake Crouch will enjoy this! show less

All This and More is an intriguing story about a divorced woman whose life is in a rut. She becomes a contestant on a reality TV show in order to change her life into the life she dreamed about as a youth. The Prologue advises that readers can read the pages consecutively or skip pages by selecting the choice you think Marsh should take. I initially read the story conventionally from page to page. I then re-read the book and jumped chapters as suggested at the end of each of the chapters. I can honestly say that I did not miss part of the story by reading it either way.

As a character Marsh is meh. She doesn't have an exciting life or career nor does she have any idea how to craft such a life for herself. Her husband Dylan is equally show more meh. Dylan is a dull workaholic who has convinced Marsh that his career is the most important thing in their marriage. These two vanilla characters make a perfect couple. However, after Marsh catches Dylan having an office affair she leaves him. Once divorced and raising a teen daughter Marsh wonders whether she made the right decisions for her life. With not-too-strong characters, the plot is the driving force of the novel.

I give the author kudos for dreaming up this intriguing plot. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less

This is the second book by Peng Shepherd that I've read, first being The Cartographers and I will say I both liked and disliked this one more. I know, that sounds very silly and a little bit of a cop-out but bear with me.

Firstly, Shepherd's strength is that she can craft such a compelling world without needing to go into too much detail. I truly believed that this reality show could exist at some point without having to jump through a bunch of mental hoops. She is also great at setting up the magical realism elements without too much exposition, keeping everything rolling along with the central mystery. The central idea was right up my alley, asking how much you were willing to risk and give up to have the chance to redo your life show more over and over until it was perfect.

Secondly, a choose-your-own-adventure story is very hard to pull off, especially with something at this scope and I applaud her for trying it. I may have had a very different experience from other readers because a) I read this in one fell swoop over three hours and b) got lucky enough that all my choices led me to different scenes rather than looping around to something I had already read. Because of that, I had a wonderful time reading and flipping through the pages wondering what could possibly happen next. Of course, that's not the case for everyone so keep that in mind.

Now, cycling back to my comparison earlier. The reason both this and The Cartographers didn't get five stars was that they struggle with their antagonists and the ending. This is getting into spoiler territory:

I started to believe Ren was the problem around episode 5 (see for me it was episode five haha) and then began to realize the reason why he was the problem. Look, I understand that Shepherd wanted to give a juxtaposition to Marsh, but it felt odd to have the whole reveal be about a man manipulating her life. I read this story as a woman who struggled with the expectations society
placed on her to have a "perfect" life and I felt that having Ren as the mastermind behind it all undermined that. Yes, she does choose her own life at the end, but choosing between two romantic partners? I guess that's just not personally appealing to me. Then we get the three possible endings which were very open-ended which I wasn't a huge fan of. I was hoping there would be a little more resolution. I did appreciate that they were not all "happy" though.

If the topic of the book interests you, I would recommend reading it because it was an exciting experience, but just be wary that it can be a little confusing. show less

This book was super unique and different. I listened to the audiobook which probably made it harder to "jump" around in the book. I'm still not sure I love that idea, but it was unique and so I give it points for that. Now the actual plot? [SPOILER] Marsh's life is in a rut and she decides to go onto Season 3 of a reality show. They explore what her life may have been if she chose different options. Quantum Leap style they can see how her life is different. It felt a bit like Midnight Library in terms of seeing different outcomes of your life. It was fun to see Marsh's different lives and how things could've turned out, but then I feel like it started to get a little crazy and Marsh was feeling like she wasn't making choices anymore or show more what she asked for wasn't quite what it turned out to be. There was something like her ex was working for the show too. I can't quite remember how this ends, but I do remember enjoying the ride. I love these speculative fiction type books! If I saw this at a library sale, I would definitely add it to my shelves! show less

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 show more 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.
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