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Bridge

A Novel of Suspense

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
0 of 1 copy available

In this reality-bending thriller from the author of The Shining Girls, a grieving daughter's search for her mother becomes a journey across alternate realities.

It was a game they played; the other worlds, the other lives. It was part of her mom's grand delusions. It wasn't real. Unless it was...
Bridget Kittinger has always been paralyzed by choices. It has a lot to do with growing up in the long shadow of her mother, Jo, a troubled neuroscientist. Jo's obsession with one mythical object, the "dreamworm"—which she believed enabled travel to other worlds—led to their estrangement.
Now, suddenly, Jo is dead. And in packing up her home, Bridge finds a strange device buried deep in Jo's freezer: the dreamworm. Against all odds, it actually can open the door—to all other realities, and to all other versions of herself, too. Could Bridge find who she should be in this world, by visiting the others? And could her Jo still be alive somewhere? But there's a sinister cost to trading places, and others hunting the dreamworm who would kill to get their hands on it . . .
Across a thousand possible lives, from Portland to Haiti, from Argentina to the alligator-infested riverways of North Carolina, Bridge takes readers on a highly original thrill ride, pushing the boundaries of what we know about mothers and daughters, hunters and seekers, and who we each choose to be.
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    • Library Journal

      March 1, 2023

      Estranged from neuroscientist mother Jo owing to Jo's obsessive belief in the dreamworm, said to facilitate travel to alternate worlds, Bridget Kittinger is shocked to discover the dreamworm in the depths of the freezer after her mother's death. Visiting other worlds might help Bridget understand this one, but, alas, others would kill to get the dreamworm for themselves. A speculative thriller from the author of The Shining Girls. Prepub Alert.

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Kirkus

      June 15, 2023
      What if it were possible to inhabit different versions of yourself in different realities? Beukes explores the scientific and ethical ramifications--with a healthy dose of speculative horror. Cleaning out her estranged mother's house after she dies, Bridget Kittinger-Harris finds a horrifying husk she recognizes as "the dreamworm," sparking memories from her childhood of strange adventures and her neuroscientist mother's odd, sometimes dangerously neglectful behavior. She immediately swallows a strand and soon finds herself inside another Bridget in another universe. Meanwhile, that alternative Bridget wakes up inside the original Bridge's body, and chaos and near violence ensue. Once order has been restored, it's clear that Bridge's mother, Jo, was up to something--probably the permanent relocation of her own consciousness into some other world's version of herself, so Bridge will be able to find her and they will be reunited. Thus begins a weird treasure hunt as Bridge uses strands of the dreamworm to travel from body to body while her friend Dom reads Jo's journals, reaches out to a musician and a neuroscientist for help, and babysits all the other Bridges as they turn up, confused, out of their own realities. Meanwhile, a woman named Amber and her cuddly dog, Mr. Floof II, seek to eradicate anyone who's infested by the dreamworm threads. The worldbuilding here is skillful, as is the pacing--Beukes avoids dropping anvil-like plot points or world details, trusting the reader to unpack clues and read between the lines. Bridge's world is not our own, featuring something called Lifebook instead of Facebook and a pandemic faced by a President Harris rather than Trump and/or Biden, but the differences are subtle enough that we can believe there really might be an infinite number of universes, and selves, out there somewhere. And maybe grief itself, Beukes suggests on a deeper level, is strong enough to alter space and time. Effective as metaphor but mostly ass-kicking, mind-bending entertainment.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      This unique sci-fi novel has Lisa Cordileone jumping between time frames and alternating realities. She voices the title character, Bridge Kittinger, as both a child and an adult. Bridge swallows a "dreamworm" that launches her into the mystery of her psychedelic past and how it relates to her late mother's cutting-edge neuroscience research. Cordileone's quirky, almost squeaky, timbre manages to sound believable when voicing Bridge at any age, and her consistency makes for smooth transitions among the audiobook's many disparate worlds. Cordileone's narrating talent truly soars when voicing several of the characters who are crying while talking. J.T. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

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