The reading adventure we all need right now, Crossings is broken into three seemingly disparate narratives -- a short story by French poet and Poe translator Charles Baudelaire, a noirish thriller set in pre-WWII Paris, and a mythological tale based on Pacific Island lore. This speculative fiction novel allows the reader two ways to navigate its pages. Read it front to back in the conventional sequence, first page to last page, you get one perspective. Or accept the challenge of the "Baroness sequence," which has you jumping (a la Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar) through a sequence identified on the first page, which makes a good argument for reading a digital version of the book, allowing you to click where instructed. Either way, this foray into speculative fiction is a puzzle wrapped in a love story wrapped in well-wrought historical fantasy, and it is absolutely worth it. 

[I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

I do believe this is one of the most unusual books I have ever read. Alex Landragin brings readers a multi-genre novel that can be read two different ways. I thought this was a very clever novel, especially from a debut author.

I went ahead and read this in the conventional way first and then went back and read it the other way the author suggested. I’m not really sure which I liked best, so this may be a story that I come back to in a few months and revisit. It’s definitely a book worthy of a re-read.

I really liked the overall story, but the gem of this book is the stories within the stories. Finding out the pieces to the puzzle was a pleasure. The only negative I have to say is that it was a bit confusing connecting the dots to who is who. I suggest readers take notes for each character because I wish I had done that and made a “family tree” of sorts.

Readers looking for something clever and unusual that blends historical fiction, fantasy and just a touch or horror, will likely enjoy reading this debut novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

This is a fascinating concept, but ultimately I had to DNF. I think this is just a case of it not being the right book for the right time (my newborn has my reading schedule all messed up!) I made it about 20% before deciding to set it aside. I loved the concept and the "choose your own adventure" style writing. You could read this in one of two ways- straight through in a traditional format or through the eyes of specific characters. I also think this would work better in physical format. I wanted to click through to make sure I was getting everything but the Kindle edition made that hard. The main through line is a love story between Alula and Koahu, and if you can get sucked in I do think it would end up being worth the work. Perhaps at another time for me!

Crossings
Really interesting fiction book centers around the premise of metempsychosis. The book can be read in two ways, that being sequential page turning or by following the Baroness sequence...jumping around when prompted. I opted for the Baroness style which was going really well until about 90% done with the book, when my prompts were sending me to random spots I already read. I was frustrated and returned to the beginning of the ebook to see what actual order I needed & then I noted I had not read the Baroness method in the proper order. That explained why I was at times so confused, but it didn’t deter me! However, given this little mishap, I have read all but 2 chapters & have decided to start over and read sequentially. Having said all that, if the idea of soul jumping seems an interesting read to you, I’d highly recommend this book. You, too, may want to read it both ways. Many of us awarded the ARC have decided to read it both ways. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

A unique reading experience I enjoyed twice. The reader chooses one of two possible ways to read the book:
1. The Baroness sequence which gives you prompts at the end of each chapter, and 2. Start to finish. I chose the former and, while I was captivated throughout, I was sometimes confused keeping the timelines straight. The moment I finished the book, I started it again from start to finish and enjoyed it even more as details fell into place. A satisfying conclusion that begs a sequel.

Really inventive book-you can either read it straight through or via the Baroness sequence which hopscotches all over the book. The story was definitely compelling-I chose the Baroness sequence and had some Kindle technical glitches near the end. I think that I was able to fix some of it by reviewing and seeing the order that the story was supposed to be in. There's some romance, some mystery, some fantasy, some historical characters and a crazy book-within-a-book.
I plan on reading it front to back next time!
Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

3 to 4 Stars
This book is very special due to the way it is created and specific in how to read it. The idea of YOU being in control of the book rather than the usual experience is true but also false. It takes patience and understanding to read and if willing to do the investment, the read can be worth the effort.

I have learned something about myself after reading this book: it drives me crazy to not know how far along I am in a book. In the preface (do NOT skip the preface of this book), the narrator explains how to read this book. There are two choices: 1) You can read it as you would any other book- from front to back. This telling will give you three separate stories that are loosely related. 2) You can read it in a special, predetermined sequence that has you alternating chapters throughout the book- doing this will give you one complete story. At the end of every chapter, there is a note as to where in the story to flip to.

Any book can be read from to back, so I had to choose option two. I mostly loved it- "Crossings" refers to the idea that while alive, people can transfer souls by looking into each other's eyes-- they can 'cross' their lives with each other. When told as one story, the plot focuses on the crossings of various characters over the span of seven lives.

Getting snippets of story at a time made parts of it drag a bit- and like I said, it drove me crazy not knowing how much of the story I had already read. At the same time, it was an adventure. How was it all going to work out? How were all of the people connected? How the heck did the author manage this?

If it wasn't for the format, I would consider this a strong 4-star book because of the slow parts. Yet, I love the imagination that was put into the storytelling and I highly recommend it. Reading the kindle version was a plus for skipping chapters- there was a link at the end of the chapter that would automatically take me to the next part. No page flipping! I would eventually love to re-read it front to back and see how my idea of the story changes...

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And to the author Alex Landragin- wow! This was trippy!

Buckle up because this isn't your typical debut novel. I'm a sucker for books about books and this one does not disappoint!
The fact that it is also features a Parisian Bookseller is a bonus.
The novel actually is quite clever since it contains 4 stories in one. The novel itself is one story, and the Bookseller stumbles across a rare manuscript that contains 3 vastly different stories. This novel is so much fun and I promise like nothing you have previously read!

I have picked up this title a few times since receiving it through Netgalley. I've tried to read it both ways, but haven't been able to get into it. This might be because during the covid crisis I have been working all hours being a key worker and haven't been able to turn my brain off to take in a deep and clever book. I am on holiday in a few weeks time and will attempt to read this again. I will edit this review once I finish.

I loved the idea of this book. Three distinct stories are part of the same novel. You have the option of reading them in order or you can click links within the book to read the stories as they are interspersed together. This is a terrific use of tech to expand the limits of the novel form, and I hope this will be used by other authors in the future.

Unfortunately, I only really liked one of the three stories in the book - a story set in Paris during WWII. The other stories just didn't grab me. However, the concept was very interesting.

Okay, this was a rather different book than what I'm used to. In some ways, it reminds me of an adult version of "choose your own adventure" in the sense that there are two different ways you can read this book and as a result, the story unfolds differently. I chose to follow the Baronness' sequence, which basically means the book jumps around back and forth among the three different stories so that you end up with a somewhat cohesive novel where all three stories are connected. Alternatively, one could read it as 3 different short stories. Thinking back, I could see how the stories could be completely separate and have nothing to do with each other, but I liked the way the overall novel was constructed. That said, this was an ARC and there were a few problems with the links and sometimes the transitions were a bit awkward, even though I supposedly went to the right place. I would complete a section on one page, click on "go here" and it will take me to the middle of a sentence. But overall, I was able to piece the story together and I thought it was very well done. I would love to see the final version when this book is published just to see if it smooths out those issues. Overall, I enjoyed the story and would like to revisit it, this time reading the three stories separately.

Thanks to #NetGalley, #AlexLandragin and #StMartinsPress for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Wow, I've never read a book that could be read backwards as well as forward. That's totally unique! I had to read this in order though, I felt weird doing that but I love the concept anyway. Maybe I will try that next time. Anyway, I liked this and thought it was a unique story as well. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!

The most remarkable feature of this rather unique novel is that it can be read in two ways: one, as three independent novellas with a single theme running through them. The first, The Education of a Monster is a story supposedly penned by French author and translator Charles Baudelaire, in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, about the transmigration of souls among live people—something he expected to accomplish around the time his novella was written. The second story, City of Ghosts, revolves around a mystery and love affair between a German Jew author named Walter Benjamin and Madeleine Blanc, a woman of Asian descent he met at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, in May 1940, as the city was expecting the onslaught of German troops after the fall of France during WWII. The third story, Tale of the Albatross, is a collection of mini-memoirs of the people whose bodies were inhabited by two young South Pacific islanders after they broke “the Law” of their people on the transmigration of souls without return, something that would forever upset the balance of their carefully kept lives.

The second way Crossings can be read is suggested at the beginning; dubbed “the Baroness sequence”, it was the way I chose, and felt that it complemented the story rather nicely for it gave it a continuity and interconnectedness that the three separate novellas lacked. The novel Crossings has several themes running through it, but it mainly revolves around two young lovers whose souls are condemned to migrate from body to body for a span of one hundred and fifty years—traversing the globe in the process—as they seek to reunite after breaking “the Law” of their tribe and unleashing a chain of events that may or may not be irreversible. Through their lifetimes, they cross paths with French poet and translator Charles Baudelaire, who immortalizes their plight in a manuscript he penned two years before his death. The fate of the Baudelaire manuscript, and those who come in contact with it, is also explored.

I liked Crossings a great deal. As I said, it is rather unique novel, but also genre-bending, and pushes the limit of what a novel is and how it should be defined. I liked the mystery at the center—the unusual deaths and the search for the killer; the love stories, the mini-memoirs of the people who inherited Alula’s and Koahu’s souls. Each of those characters had distinct voices and plausible backstories, described through the broad tapestry of world history between the years 1791 and 1940. Thus, readers learn about the lives of South Pacific islanders and their customs, the lives of sailors at sea in the XVIII century, everyday life in a sugar plantation in Southern United States, the Commune of Paris and its aftermath, the life of Charles Baudelaire and his muse, former slave Jeanne Duval, and how Parisians lived their everyday lives in May 1940, as the German invasion became inexorable.

I cannot endorse this novel enough. If you take your chance to read it, give it time, for it takes some time to adjust to the jumpy format—if read as recommended, but I hope you like it and appreciate it as much as I did.

Disclaimer: I received from the publisher a free e-book via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very unique, well written, thought provoking book.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

"Crossings" was an amazing book. It is one that can be read forwards or backward. I chose to read the book backward and completely enjoyed it. The basic premise is that souls can cross from one body to another as they stare into one another's eyes. We get to follow the story through generations and different lives lived by the souls who first broke the law which says that for every crossing there must be a return crossing.

I loved this book and I appreciate NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of Crossings.

This book’s narrative structure is creative. The book can be read two ways, each imparting a slightly different experience.

Part historical, part supernatural, part crime drama, the story is an entertaining romp through times and characters and literature.

An interesting concept executed well.

The concept of this book (that it can be read in two different ways) was very intriguing. I read the introduction and was immediately drawn into the story and excited to continue. Then, when it came time to read the story I chose the read the Baroness sequence. From there it completely lost me. I was really bored with what I was reading and finally decided to just put it down. I didn't want to go back to the beginning to try and read it straight thought since I already knew there were going to be parts that I didn't like. Ultimately, I know that I won't be picking this one back up as the story never grabbed me (which is a shame because I actually really enjoyed the intro story). I'm giving this two stars because I do think the overall concept of the book is intriguing.

I received an electronic review copy of this book via Edelweiss. I was very interested in the idea that it could be read in two different was: as a single story or a a group of three separate stories. I decided to go with the single story approach, which meant jumping about in the book a good deal. The writing was good, the ways the different stories fit together as a whole was interesting, but partway through the links that were supposed to take me back and forth in the book so I could read the single-story order seemed not to work. I went back and read the chapters I hadn't yet read in the three-story order, but has difficulty putting the pieces together. As I said, this was a really interesting read, but I felt as if I wasn't sure I was actually having either of the two reading experiences the author intended

This is an interesting and enjoyable love story - one that spans almost two hundred years, includes a 'lost' novel by Charles Baudelaire that forms a portion of the book, and involves a small group of body-hopping souls who use a method called Crossing. One of the strands of the story involves the colonization and despoiling of a South Seas island, and I suppose one could interpret the Crossers as colonizers/despoilers on an individual level.

The book has three sections, and the reader is given the option of reading them sequentially or as one intertwined novel. Intertwining involves jumps between viewpoints, time periods, and geography; the author does a good job of juggling all of these elements and advancing a coherent story. The descriptions of times and places are detailed enough to give one a strong feel for each setting while not getting bogged down. Likewise, the characters are well drawn and as believable as semi-immortals can be.