Jane, Unlimited was the most bizarrely, unique book I have ever read. It was so different from anything else but man did it go off the rails at times. Oddly enough I really enjoyed it even in its utter whackiness. I love how Cashore wrote a modern day 'choose your own adventure' book but with a twist. Her use of genres was interesting and nothing I have seen before. Half the time I had no idea what I was reading and where things were going and that was the fun of it all. All in all a read like I had never experienced before.

At the end of this book my main thought was... what??? To be fair, I took a big break while reading this book to read a book for Book Club, but when I came back to it I was still confused and remained confused for the majority of the book. Maybe it's just not my thing. I did like the book overall - it made me think and I enjoyed getting to know the characters over and over again.

Are we the sum of our choices, or does each choice spin us off in a new reality? Jane get the chance to visit Tu Reviens, the place her dead aunt made her promise to go if she ever got the chance. Once there, Jane seems to live several versions of the present, each changed by a different choice on who to follow. Mysteries are solved, expanded, and multiplied.

While this is technically fantasy, fans expecting a more Graceling like setting will be disappointed. I did enjoy this one, but it felt like a slow starter, and took quite a while to get into. I'd give it to good readers who like variations on a theme and mysteries to solve. The magical realism made me put it in fantasy, but I've moved it to mystery to see if it gets more attention there.

Cashore is a literary innovator, and I think she deserves far more wide-spread acclaim. Would recommend.

This is probably the strangest book I have ever read and I am not sure if I loved it or not. I am probably in the minority when I say I loved the first part and was a bit more meh on the last parts. Once I started reading it I could barely put it down. This included the first two “choose your own adventure” sections. It was the final sections that threw me a bit when we started switching genres and going weird.

Jane, Unlimited is hard to describe. Jane is an orphan who was raised by her aunt Magnolia. Magnolia was an underwater photographer who died on her last expedition to Antarctica. Jane runs into her old tutor Kiran who invites her to Tu Reviens. The Thrash family is super rich and have built this frankenstein house on their own private island. It is a mismatch of stolen houses all fitted together and filled with people and priceless art. Jane is introduced to the staff and guests of Tu Reviens and comes to realize that everyone has secrets and most of them are lying about something.

At a certain point Jane has to choose who to follow to ask her questions and that is when the choose your own adventure starts. Each person leads to a different story and conclusion. The stories build for the reader as we become aware of more of the background even though Jane doesn’t carry her knowledge through on each adventure. There are five different people to question and five different paths to follow. One involves spies, one an art heist, one the missing stepmother, one multiple dimensions and the last an otherworldly dog. Each is written as a different genre and they get progressively stranger.

Two days after finishing the book I am still torn on what I thought of it. It is undeniably genius and very well crafted. Plus there are awesome umbrellas and a lot of talk about raining frogs. I also loved the characters and how they all fit together. I loved that the relationships were fluid and diverse. I loved the dog Jasper. And I did truly love Jane. So maybe I loved the book? Despite its weirdness or because of it? You’ll have to read it and decide for yourself.

Loved it! So well written and intricately plotted out. Reminded me a bit of Barbara Michaels.

When I found out the Kristen Cashore had written another book, I immediately got super excited. I loved her Graceling series, so I had to get my hands on Jane, Unlimited, and let me tell you, it was completely different from Graceling, and I LOVED it!
I loved the summary, Jane's character got better as the book progressed, and there were so many possibilities that could have occurred in this book, I didn't know what Jane was going to do! So much action and adventure! I want more please!

I tried so hard. But after about the 3rd time through I just wasn't working for me at all and I was bored.

It’s a strange multiple stories novel that never successfully carries off the complicated plot. Very intelligent but also confusing.

This was NOT the book that I was expecting from Kristen Cashore after so many years of missing her writing. However, I can't say that I was disappointed. She still brings her characters alive in a way that speaks to me deeply and her beautiful writing could carry me through the most boring of stories. Luckily, this was certainly not a boring story.

It took me a little while to get into this book, and I was a little confused at first. I'm so glad I stuck with it! Jane shows us how seemingly small decisions lead to consequences from the everyday to the fantastic. A modern Gothic puzzle of a story!

So I was a little skeptical of what amounts to a Choose Your Own Adventure for teens. But the beginning pulled me in with an Agatha Christie meets Doctor Who vibe. And it delivers. Jane is a fascinating character and the house and the people who live in it are equally intriguing. The set up works and explains itself in one of the plot lines.

The different worlds work well, too. I don't want to reveal too much, but be prepared for Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and Bradbury with spies, art thieves, possession, and a bit of romance (although maybe not with who you expect). And the dog! Who doesn't love a cool and lovable dog?

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy for review - in exchange, here it is - my honest review! All opinions are my own and do not reflect the view of any organization that I am affiliated with.

oh DAMN this book is not what I expected at all! I thought it was fantasy, and boy was it... and on top of that, it was a detective story and a thriller and a multiverse-portal caper and a psychological horror (horrible things happy to Winnie the Pooh) and a....n urban fantasy? I don't even know.

Imagine you're grieving the death of your beloved relative, the last relative you had in this world. And now imagine that your friend from college, a rich and disattached friend, invites you to her house for a gala. The house that your dead relative specifically told you to visit if you ever had the chance. A whole bunch of people and situations start converging in on each other, and there's so much to pursue and untangle that your head spins. There's art forgery and a stubborn Basset hound and a cute servant girl and a gruff housekeeper and a small girl and a British man with a gun. You just have to make the right choice at the crossroads of 5 options. And you're in luck: we get to explore all possibilities!

I love multiverse books and I freaking love parallel narratives and exploring every nook and cranny of a story and intertwined plot lines and eek! Shivers of delight and joy. You should read this book if you're a completist when it comes to video games, if you're willing to leave all expectations at the door, and if you enjoy reading about jellyfish.

This book just kept getting weirder and weirder, but I couldn't put it down, and I can't stop thinking about it! The characters were all fascinating, as were the worlds.

I started reading this book purely because of how much I enjoyed the Graceling series. While this book had fantastical elements, I'm not quite sure how to categorize it. Was it a mystery, a realistic fiction, a fantasy? I'm not sure. What I do know is that confused me. Probably not helped by the fact that while I was reading, I kept falling asleep. It just felt disjointed, odd, and uninteresting. Not my favorite.

Interesting idea, but I felt like there was too much buildup.

I really tried to like this book, but I simply could not. There was little action to speak of and the story seemed to me to be more like the board game Clue as the author tantalized the reader with characters who might - or might not-be significant to the plot. Much as i love Graceling and its sequels, I cannot recommend this book to teen readers..

What a wild ride! While at times the conceit of telling the same story from the same root felt tiresome, but a few pages into each chapter I was hooked. Cashore is a masterful writer, and this novel lives up to her reputation.

I had a hard time getting into this book, and I still don't know how I feel about the book in its entirety. I would recommend this book to readers of all young adult titles. It's a great crossover book for the readers who don't normally read "science fiction" without turning them off.

A chance encounter with former tutor Kiran Thrash enables Jane, an umbrella-crafter and college dropout, to fulfill a promise to her beloved late Aunt Magnolia—to accept an invitation to visit the mysterious Thrash family home, Tu Reviens. During her visit, Jane reaches a seemingly insignificant moment in time where one action will branch her off into different futures. Each choice results in a different path for Jane that takes her far beyond her previously ordinary life. An ambitious, complex offering with diverse characters from the author of the Graceling series. Overall, I enjoyed this book and the journey it took me on. I can see some readers, though, not enjoying all the chapters, especially if they aren't into the concept behind the narrative.