RESONANCE

This sequel to Dissonance (2014) continues Del’s adventures in a musical version of parallel universes.

Sixteen-year-old Del can, like her parents, Walk between worlds of the multiverse. She knows how to find the musical strings that bind the worlds together. However, the ruling Consort strengthens their own Key World by “cleaving,” or unraveling, other worlds. When Del learns that cleaving actually destroys billions of lives, she joins the rebel Free Walkers. She also learns that her sweetheart, Simon, has survived the cleaving of the world he was on and has become a major player in the fight against the Consort. Hiding on various different worlds, the rebels race against time to stop the Consort, which includes Del’s parents, from cleaving massive numbers of worlds. Opposing them is Lattimer, leader of the Consort and a run-of-the-mill megalomaniac-style villain. O’Rourke does her best to balance suspense and romance. Her multiverse premise is hardly original, but she freshens it a bit by tying it to music, plucking that string consistently. Both plot and worldbuilding are so complicated that it will be difficult for new readers to follow—newcomers need not apply. Two escape sequences are too easy for the supposedly impossible-to-escape setting, but they do supply action.

Standard rebels-against-impossible-odds plot with a mild twist.