Are we talking dimension hopping? I'm excited. [York: The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby]

When I woke up this afternoon around 1 pm, having gone to bed around 5 am, the post readathon blues hit me square in the face. I woke up tired and not motivated to finish reading York: The Shadow Cipher (TSC) by Laura Ruby, the book I thought I might have finished the during the 24 hour event. With the return date looming for Smoke (Dan Vyleta), another one of my library loans, I went to sit at the dining room taking the two books with me, intent on finishing TSC.

When I'd read the first 10% of TSC a little more than a week ago the excitement was real. A story about a centuries old puzzle in New York City was tantalizing enough on its own, but when I saw how well the characters were written and how diverse they were I was hooked. The characters were written in an age-appropriate fashion and the story was logically layered. Characters had to deal with real-life obstacles and consequences, from the relatively mundane of parental supervision to the threat of death. Well researched, reading through the story feels like watching an episode of Secrets of New York. A book about puzzles, or more appropriately ciphers, gives the impression that there's either going to be a satisfying treasure at the end or a generic moral takeaway about how the journey was the treasure all along. In the case of TSC the latter was an idea toyed with throughout. While both may end up being true, I'm happy that so far we're seeing tangible results in-story. 

What most excites me and what I feel is being strongly alluded to in-story is the possible existence of a multiverse, and with it multiples of New York City. What is this mystery science that only adds more questions? Is the story all some kind of simulation? Will there be dimension hopping? What is or are the conspiracies our protagonists will unearth? As the first entry in a planned trilogy TSC has me hooked and I'm going to be looking out for the sequel, York: The Clockwork Ghost, the next time I'm at the library. As it stands the York story looks to be going from general mystery to mystery sci-fiction, but I guess I'll have to read the whole series to find out. I gave this book a well-deserved 5-star rating on GoodReads. Yes, it's that good.