This one was weird. The concept was fascinating, and actually executed extremely well. Its also extremely adult and there are a lot of potential trigger warnings (more so than were described at the beginning.)

My biggest problem was Laney. I know she isn't actually meant to be a likable character, but I just couldn't enjoy her character at all.

Also, I like a story that makes me confused. But this one had me completely lost at times.

In conclusion this was a pretty neutral book for me.

I will admit i almost gave up on this one as it was a bit confusing, but I'm glad I stuck it out. An interesting take on alternative realities and heavy but a good read

Some Laneys Died is an interesting work of fiction that revolves around the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. After seeing her father cheat on her mother, Laney is introduced to this concept of a myriad of worlds each made up of Laneys that made different choices than her own. It is a complex theory of physics but the author does a really good job of making it understandable for the average reader. I am not even remotely science-minded and I quickly caught onto the idea.

This is a good book, it's very original, and the characters are very likable. However, I found Laney to be somewhat naive at some times and I didn't get as invested in the supporting characters as I usually would. I felt very blasé about the mother and the father seems kind of equally meh. Laney was a very forgiving character in a way that seemed unrealistic, I'm not sure how fond a teenage girl would be of the woman who drove her parents apart. The positive family image probably would've benefited from a little more normal teenage angst but I understand what the author was trying to create.

All in all, this is a good book. It's a quick read, has a pleasing ending, and I maintained interest throughout, finishing it in just two sittings. I would suggest it to a friend.

This book was FANTASTIC! My mind is left all screwy and I love it. Laney was a great character. I was drawn in from the very start. I read Brooke Skipstone's first book and loved it as well. She does the magical realism thing so good. This story had dimension skipping. My brain hurt, but I love when I have to really think. She seems to have a way of completely absorbing me into her stories. I can't wait to read what she decides to write in the future.

One heck of a fast, interesting read. The MC regrets choosing to tell her mother about her father's affair which broke up their marriage and her life. Thus begins a story about choices and their consequences. Except Laney learns that no matter what choice she makes, she will make the opposite choice in another universe. She wonders whether she can skip to those other worlds. Strange things begin to happen after skeletons of twin sisters are found in a river near where she discovered her father's liaison. She sees an alternate self and has visions of her own tryst plus disturbing memories of something awful which may or may not have happened to her. In her frantic search for answers, she discovers she can skip to alternate selves. Along the way, she renews her relationship with her father and discovers more about her past. The science is extremely compelling, mind-blowing, yet not difficult to grasp. This is a story of renewed relationships and the strength of love even in the most difficult circumstances. Highly recommended.

<b>UPDATE: not mere hours after posting my thoughts, the author decided it was an appropriate move to message me on my Goodreads account with a 5 paragraph essay explaining all the reasons why I was wrong about not liking their book. As an artist myself, I found this incredibly arrogant and, frankly, immature. I will not be reading anything else by them ever again. </b>



<b>Yeahhh— I really wanted to like this</b>

And truthfully, it’s not that I didn’t, per say... the concept itself is right up my alley, so I truly enjoyed the parts that were heavy on dimension “skipping”, as this book calls it. I’m a big fan of multiverse stories, paradox theory, all of that. I also love YA— when they’re good.

<I>But...</I>
(And it’s definitely a large qualifier)
At ~25-40%, the author really started to let her biases show. The following dog whistles went off:

— <b>kink/sexuality shaming</b>; I was a pretty prudish 16 year old, but I didn’t have the kind of utter disgust and horror that Laney does for discovering her mom’s toy drawer. Like, I get it, it’s always a weird event when you’re a teenager and you have the revelation that your parents fuck, but the way in which the character is written really rubbed me the wrong way.

There’s actually an entire part of the plot that centers Laney and two other girls from school filming each other masturbating with a vibrator— which in and of itself is absurd and just not something that actually happens???— but the way it’s written, has so much shame in it, that I was not only frustrated with the fact that this was (an “important”, nonetheless) part of the plot in the first place, but also frustrated that the author was suggesting that young women should be ashamed of their sexuality. It was just weird, y’all. Definitely made me uncomfortable. It could be very possible that this was the author’s intent, but I kind of doubt it.

— <b>addiction shaming</b>; they seemed particularly focused on weed for some reason, despite its legality in many places, and there being little evidence to support it being addictive in the way that <I>actual</I> substance abusers struggle with.

Laney’s father’s girlfriend struggles with addiction issues, but the only substances that the author names are alcohol (totally valid) and weed (why???). She has miscarried in the past, according to the author, due to this substance abuse. She was also fired because she smoked weed at her job <I>inside</I>... who does that? And look, weed, like other things, is not for everyone, and that’s fine. But to have it be the main struggle for someone who’s supposedly an addict was weird.
It’s just silly. If she’s an alcoholic, say she’s an alcoholic. There’s not nearly enough scientific research to suggest that weed usage during pregnancy causes miscarriages, and there certainly <I>is</I> enough research out there for the consensus to be that weed is no more addictive than caffeine (technically caffeine is more addictive...)

The way that Laney’s perspective on these issues is written really gives off the impression that the author is letting her personal feelings on the subject of sexuality and cannabis usage show, which is fine, it’s her book, but it really alienated me as a reader who both has some kinks in her sexual preferences, and also, to be transparent, uses a lot of weed both recreationally and medicinally, someone who also worked in the legal cannabis industry for many years.

— <b>casual racism</b>; Laney’s friends flash “gang signs” ( the author’s words 😒🧐) in photos. She also goes out of her way to describe a black or brown (we don’t know because Laney literally describes him as something to the effect of, “could be African-American, could be middle eastern”) boy working at the camping/outdoors store. It’s just always a bad look when all of the white characters are not described exclusively by the color of their skin and then the one BIPOC shows up and that’s their leading descriptor.

There are trigger warnings at the beginning of the book which is <I>so, so, so, so <u>great</u>! </I> Seriously, more authors/publishers need to do this. What’s strange is that some of the bigger triggering themes were not listed in this warning, and in all honestly, the trigger warning is strangely broad. Like, if you’re going to warn us, you should be specific.

“<I>This book contains scenes of violence, sexual situations, and suicide.</i>” Really doesn’t cover it, imo. There’s a sexual assault scene that will honestly probably haunt me and it would’ve been nice to get a heads up.

Listing both ‘violence’ and ‘sexual situations’ is not enough, nor helpful. If you really care about a reader being triggered, say what it actually is, don’t beat around the damn bush... not to mention the, ya know, <b>incest</b>.... why on earth is that not listed?

I know that this is an ARC and hopefully enough people will talk about these issues, but this overall, these were big negative marks for me that had me, mid-read, docking it from 4 stars to 3 within the span of maybe 20 pages.

Overall, I just really didn’t connect to a lot of the writing style. The dialogue felt particularly forced. Never at any point did I feel I was being narrated to by an actual teenager. It gave me, “I’m a cool, hip 30-to-40-something who totally knows how teens interact nowadays,” vibes, but they really, truly <I>don’t. Like, at all</I>.

It’s a 4/5-star concept with 2/3-star execution 🤷🏻‍♀️
**Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC**

A good read but it takes time to get into it. Started off slow and hard to follow but soon picks up the pace and towards the end I had a feeling there might be a second book in the series. Would read this book again but would want a paperback version rather than digital book. I like to collect series to re-read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this novel. I will not be giving a review on this novel due to I felt I could not give it my all. It just wasn't fitting into my mind enough to give a good or bad review.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Skipstone Publishing for an honest review.

The concept of this book is fascinating—a girl skips to alternate universes where she made opposite choices. How cool is that? But besides the sci-fi aspect, this story is rooted in broken families and desires to make them whole again. Laney wants to renew her relationship with her father after a three year absence. But she discovers that his girlfriend is pregnant with her stepsister. Gibbs, the mother, has had several miscarriages, so Laney wants a relationship with Gibbs to protect her sister. Along the way, she escapes a potential attack from a young man who may have killed her 13-year-old self in another universe. As is usual with many YA books, the MC has a love interest, in this case a multiracial boy named Jagger who happens to be an expert wrestler and MMA fighter. He comes in handy as Laney confronts her murderer later on. The pacing is fast and the intrigue never wavers. This is a page-turner and will leave you wanting more answers. Luckily, Book Two will be released in a few months.

I cannot accurately describe this plot, so I'll just say this book confusing and mind-bending. I did know going in that it was going to be a little confusing, but I did find it a little harder to follow than I thought.

That being said I did enjoy it, because it is a really unique premise for YA and I've never read anything like it. It's a nice refreshing idea.
I just didn't really like Laney. She was a little one-dimensional for me, which honestly does make sense because the plot is so layered that Laney's development probably got lost a little. I just wish she had a little more personality.

I do think this is an interesting read, and a good addition to the genre. I also really appreciated the trigger warnings at the beginning! More books should do that! Overall I did enjoy this, but it wasn't my favourite.

Let me start this review by saying: this was by far the most confusing yet intriguing books I ever read.
I loved the concept of this book, being able to skip into alternate universes. I have never read a book with such a storyline, but I really loved it.
The book does deal with very heavy topics, but all these topics were handled very well.
Skipstone's writing style is very beautiful and easy to get through, which is why I flew through the book once I started.
I'll definitely check out Skipstone's first book and am very excited for the second book in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Skipstone Publishing for giving me the chance to read this amazing book.

"Some Laneys Died" is a thrilling blend of science, mystery, and romance. The overall concept of the narrative was so unusual and thought-provoking, that it kept me reading. The longer I read, the more invested I became until I couldn’t stop reading to find out more. I craved an answer to the many questions that kept circulating in my head as Laney gradually gathered more information and tried to solve the mystery of the twin girls and their bodies in garbage bags in the woods. This was a mind-bending story that truly sparked my imagination and made me reflect on life and possibilities of "what if this were real?"

This is also an emotionally moving story that delves into the heart of sisterhood and the strength of that bond. As an older sister, I would purchase this book for my little sister. There is something to be said about this pure form of love and its power to hold us together even in our darkest, most traumatic moments. This is a well-written narrative that will carry you through a spectrum of emotions; I recommend it!

Unfortunately wasn't for me. Didn't seem to get into the writing. Wanted to love it so much! Disappointed 😞

DNF’d at 40%

When Laney was 13 years old, she saw her father having sex with someone who wasn’t her mother. Her father begged her not to tell anyone, but Laney immediately told her mother what she’d seen, which directly led to her parents breaking up. In the three years since that day Laney has become obsessed with the idea of alternate universes where different choices lead to vastly different outcomes. Now she’s 16, the lines between universes have started to blur, and Laney is finding that she’s able to skip between the timelines.

This is a really interesting concept for a book, and I was really hoping and expecting to like this one! I’m genuinely disappointed that I didn’t.

Laney’s obsession with timelines, universes, and what she saw three years ago, makes complete sense. She was traumatised and hasn’t been able to effectively deal with that. But her only other personality trait outside of this up to this point in the book is a tendency to jump to conclusions. What little actual presence she had, I didn’t really like. If Laney had been developed more, and had been given more personality outside of her trauma, then that would’ve improved this book tremendously.

I liked Laney’s mother a lot less than I liked Laney herself. One of the first things the reader is shown, as in this is the very first chapter, is a conversation that Laney and her mother have one year after the Incident™. Laney tells her mother that she’s been obsessing over what she could’ve done differently that day. Instead of reassuring her daughter that she did the right thing, or that Laney not saying anything that time would only have delayed the inevitable and that the affair would’ve eventually come to light anyway, she went into detail about how the many worlds theory works and reinforced Laney’s obsession with what-ifs. Which is the exact worst thing she could’ve done. In what else I read, her interactions with her daughter did not read like that of a healthy mother-daughter relationship. It rubbed me up the wrong way. To be fair, that might have been Skipstone’s intention, but I didn’t get the impression that it was.

This book has trigger warnings at the start, which is a very good thing! Every book should do this! I’m very glad that Skipstone included this, and I hope that doing this becomes industry standard very soon. However, not every potential trigger that crops up in this book is in that opening list. That there were any is better than nothing, but two major things that are in this book weren’t mentioned: incest and sexual assualt. Laney is assaulted and nearly raped by someone she trusted, and her stepbrother is constantly leering at her and trying to get her to sleep with him. Incest squicks me out, and I would’ve appreciated a warning for it. If either of these things were triggers for me, then reading these things could’ve been actively harmful, rather than just deeply uncomfortable.

Aside from these incidents, the rest of the book is also overly and unrealistically sexual. I freely admit that I’m asexual and my sexual experience is non-existent. I still doubt that many allosexual straight girls can say that, when they were 16, they decided to film each other masturbating at a sleepover and then freely shared those videos around. That scenario Just Doesn’t Happen.

All of this was making me want to stop reading, but I usually try to read at least half of arcs before DNF’ing. But then Laney said some casually racist shit and I could not bring myself to read the next page, so here we are.

After reading and loving the author's first book, Someone To Kiss My Scars, I was looking forward to the release of her new novel. Brooke Skipstone once again manages to capture our attention as readers in a story that is complex, intriguing, suspenseful and exciting.

This book is particularly suitable for anyone who loves stories of love, excitement, suspense, emotions and thrills.
Some Laneys Died is a beautiful book that tells the very moving story of Laney and deals with several interesting themes such as romance, parallel universes, physics, resilience and other darker themes such as sexual assault, suicide, violence, family problems etc.

Laney is obsessed by a choice she would have made as a child, that of denouncing her father's infidelity and she feels guilty about her parents' divorce. She imagines other worlds in which she would have made a different choice than this one and learns to use this power to move between worlds. She soon realizes that our choices can have an impact on our present as well as our future. Laney is able to confront and reconnect with her past.

This book is disconcerting. It took me a while to get into it, and I found that it was sometimes difficult - especially at the beginning - to know where you were, or what universe you were reading. However, this does become more obvious as the novel progresses and I really enjoyed the constant tension with every page — with so many different Laneys, I always felt there was always more disaster round the corner. I like that in books. I like to feel like I’m on the edge of my seat constantly.

I was constantly expecting Jag to change but he didn’t, which was actually nice to read for once. I suspected for a while that Laney/Bailee were actually Gibbs’ daughters and not Hannah’s, but that wasn’t the case. Actually, talking of Hannah, the way she treats her daughter sometimes is pretty bad - this is a girl who is looking for help, for answers, yet she doesn’t even tell her she loves her when she leaves for Alaska. I was upset when Laney saw the crash that killed her plane friends and their animals, and it was something I would have thought would be mentioned again. Perhaps Penelope the cat was actually one of the kittens from Evie & her husband when, in another universe, they decided to stay near the airport and survived. Maybe that was a vague nod, I don’t know.

It should perhaps come with a trigger warning, simply because of some of the heavy, disturbing content mentioned. Overall, it definitely caught my attention in the end, especially in the second half.

It’s a first for everything I guess. This is the first time when I just don’t know how I feel about a book. Did I like it? Did I dislike it? I feel both at the same time. I did like the idea behind the story. Different universes for every choice we make? How crazy is that idea? If you really think about it you make hundreds thousands f choices every single day and every little choice you make creates another universe. Truky mind-bending.
But the story was confusing with Laney’s skipping and I actually didn’t like Laney that much. She just doesn’t feel like a 16 years old girl and that just made the story less real somehow...
I’m giving 3 stars becuase I’m glad I found this book and got the chance to read it but it didn’t blow mind.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a wild trip! From the beginning, this book hooked me and kept me reading quickly until the end. Laney made a choice she now regrets, causing her parents to divorce. She writes stories where she made different choices and finds some escape from her pain. But after a news story appears about the discovery of twin sister skeletons near where Laney caught her father having sex with his girlfriend, she begins to have visions of an alternate version of her. Then finds herself skipping away from her dying self in a truck wreck back to the version of herself who never got into the truck. During her journey to truth, she finds a boyfriend/lover/protector and a special person who's been trying to find her. And she faces an evil which has haunted her in several universes.

A great story—family drama and redemption, mind-bending science, and thriller action scenes. I'm definitely looking forward to Book Two later this year.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I don’t normally go for YA books but this one intrigued me. I loved the premise but some of the relationships didn’t feel realistic to me. Which sounds a bit crazy as I had no issue at all with the concept of skipping!

*Thanks to the author for provide the ARC for a honest review*

In this book we have Laney, who caught his dad with another woman. Due to that event, her parents divorced and since then she's been obsessed in write her possible choices to make in the day-to-day.

I need to admit that I'm not familiar reading thriller books so at first it was hard to get into the story, also because of the amount of information that has. But while I was going through the story the book succeed in catch me and I wanted to read more about the multiverse.

The book contains topics like multi-verses, science and also has sensitive topics like rape and suicide.

In conclusion, although it's a little confusing first, after some pages it get more and more interesting the story.