My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 3.90 with 536 ratings (as of 7/30/2020)

Crossings is an unforgettable and explosive genre-bending debut–a novel in three parts, designed to be read in two different directions, spanning a hundred and fifty years and seven lifetimes.

On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight-through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. The first story in Crossings is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption, and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations. With each new chapter, the stunning connections between these seemingly disparate people grow clearer and more extraordinary. Crossings is an unforgettable adventure full of love, longing, and empathy. …Synopsis from Goodreads

200 Word Review

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

I loved reading “choose your own adventure” books. Everyone started reading at the same place, but you could decide how the story played out. You could spend hours rereading without taking the same path twice. In Crossings by Alex Landragin, there are two paths to choose from, the linear path or what is referred to as the Baroness sequence. I followed the Baroness sequence and was in for quite an adventure.

Crossings is the first novel I read that can be read in two ways. It can be read straight through which contains a collection of loosely connected stories. You can choose to follow the Baroness sequence and follow an alternative page sequence that cleverly reworks the stories into a single novel.

I was going to read Crossings both directions it can be read but decided to wait a few months to read the linear version. The concept of writing the novel is imaginative and creative, and I added a star because of how well it works.

The e-book links to the next section in the sequence were not always accurate. If that occurs in the final draft, go to the “note to reader” and click the links from there.

This review was published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 7/30/20. When available, the review will be published on Scribd.com and, using Overdrive, will be rated in 9 libraries.

Genre: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Print Length: 384 pages
ISBN: 9781250259042
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: July 28, 2020

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