Bridge – Lauren Beukes

In infinite parallel universes, there’s a version of you who already has everything you’ve ever wanted. But 24 year old drop-out Bridge is paralysed, by all the other lives she could have lived, the choices she could have made, and now, whoever she’s supposed to be in the wake of her mother’s premature death.

They’ve always had a complicated relationship. Jo was the teenage runaway turned maverick neuroscientist who threw everything away chasing after an impossibility – a mysterious artefact – the dreamworm – that allows you to switch between realities. And now she’s dead and any chance of reconciliation with her.

But is Jo really gone… or only in this universe? When Bridge and her best friend Dom stumble on the dreamworm, that does indeed open the doors to other worlds, otherselves, she becomes convinced her mom is lost out there. But the dreamworm is more dangerous than she can imagine, and she’s not the only one hunting across time and space.

Bridge is one of my favourite books of the year. I’ve been a huge fan of Lauren Beukes since stumbling across Zoo City back in 2013 and every book since has been a wild ride for the imagination. The Shining Girls, with its time-travelling serial killer. Broken Monsters, which starts as a police procedural before twisting away into the dark depths of a nightmare.

And now we have Bridge. The story of Bridget, a woman in search of her mother, wrapped in the grief of her loss to brain cancer. But her mother Jo was a scientist in search of wilder things, of a dreamworm that would let you visit alternate realities, albeit briefly, swapping places with her other selves in search of… something. A dangerous obsession which drove Jo to some very dangerous places.

Bridge and her friend Dom find her mother’s diaries and what follows is a story told not only across different timelines (the diary flashbacks and the present day), but also across the different realities, each startlingly similar to our own, but each one very slightly, very subtly off. Beukes handles this with a deft touch, layering hints to the not-quite-rightness of each of the worlds Bridge and her mother land on.

The characters, as you’d expect from a Lauren Beukes book, are fantastic. Key of which of course are Bridge (and her many alternates) and Jo, but also Bridge’s friend Dom, with their unwavering determination to help their friend. There’s also a multiverse-hopping cult, determined to halt the dreamworm. Caden, the musician who helped Jo unlock the dreamworm’s power, and his own mission to make use of it.

It’s a cracking book, chock full of tension and wild ideas. Not an easy read at times, with scenes of domestic violence and abuse, but one which will leave you in wonder at the end.

Strongly recommended. One of my favourite authors at the top of their game.

Bridge by Lauren Beukes is published by Michael Joseph and is out now in hardback. Huge thanks to Jamie at Black Crow PR for the advance copy to review.