'Jadie in Five Dimensions' by Dianne K. Salerni: A Blog Tour Review (+US Giveaway) // Dimension-Jumping Kids, Conspiracy Theories & Family Drama

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the Jadie in Five Dimensions by Dianne K. Salerni Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours! Check out the other stops by clicking on the banner below!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Rockstar Book Tours and Holiday House Books for this free copy.

Title: Jadie in Five Dimensions
Author: Dianne K. Salerni
Publisher: Holiday House
Pub. date: 5 October 2021
Series: standalone
Page count: 288
Source: Rockstar Book Tours
Genres: middle-grade, science fiction

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A thirteen-year-old girl seeks answers about her past in the fourth dimension–and beyond–in this think-outside-the-box adventure.

What do you do when it turns out your whole life has been a lie?

Jadie Martin was always told she was abandoned by her parents. Creatures from the 4th dimension rescued her and placed her with a loving adoptive family. Now, Jadie acts as an agent for the beings, also known as Seers. She uses the 4th dimension as a short-cut to travel anywhere on Earth, performing missions calculated to guide the world toward a brighter future.

But then Jadie discovers that her origin story is fake. In reality, her birth family has suffered multiple tragedies and disasters engineered from 4-space, including the devastating loss of their baby girl. Her!

Doubting the Seers, Jadie starts anonymously observing her long-lost family. Why are they so important? What are the true intentions of the Seers? And what will all-powerful four-dimensional beings do to a rebellious human girl when they realize she’s interfering with their plans?

A Wrinkle in Time meets Flatland in this thrilling journey that challenges the meaning of family, loyalty, and our universe at large.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Content warnings: abduction, carjacking (mentioned), death, hit and run (mentioned), loss of a loved one, manipulation

Jadie in Five Dimensions is one of my anticipated middle-grade sci-fi releases of this year and I even included it in a new releases round-up post I did a few months back. So I was thrilled to see this book tour come up and to be lucky enough to get selected for it.

What really attracted me to this book was the beautiful cover. This book has got to be one of the prettiest sci-fi reads I have ever seen so far! I can’t wait to get an actual physical copy for my home library later on. The second impressive thing that stood out was the dimensional physics plotline. I hardly see middle-grade sci-fi that explores something this complex, so I was very invested in seeing how this book plays out.

Jadie Martin is an Agent of the Seers. They are all-seeing beings who exist in 4-space and employ Agents like Jadie to manipulate events in 3-space – where we live – to bring about change that will nudge world events in a better direction. At least, that’s what Miss Rose, the 4-space being who gives orders to Jadie and her fellow Agents, has told them.

Jadie was saved by Miss Rose when she was abandoned as a baby and placed with the Martins, who also raise Marius alongside Jadie as siblings. Being all Agents, their family is placed with two other Agent families so that they can work without arousing suspicion. There’s Alia, Jadie’s friend, and Ty, a sort of boy genius and Marius’s friend. They all possess bracelets that allow them to travel to their mission locations through 4-space when called on by Miss Rose.

Alia gets Jadie to swap bracelets with Jadie for a few hours one day, which is against the rules, but Jadie agrees. She ends up being called on a mission to Philadelphia through Alia’s bracelet to spill water on someone’s laptop. But as soon as she lands in their bedroom, Jadie finds traces of baby photos that look disturbingly like herself in the apartment.

Taken in by curiosity, Jadie surreptitiously follows her birth brother, Sam, and comes to the realisation that her birth family never abandoned her in the first place. And to make things worse, the Seers seem hellbent on making her birth family miserable and destroying Sam’s laptop using every Agent possible.

The characters were an interesting bunch here. Jadie was probably the character with the least troublemaking tendencies here but she still managed to get into a boatload of trouble for her good intentions. Then Marius is the goofball big brother who just wants to protect his family. Ty was by far the most interesting with his mad genius personality and his troubled relationship with his family. I was disappointed that Alia hardly got any page time beyond her role in Jadie’s chance meeting with her birth family, but her character did not make a real impression on me in that little time either.

The 4-space and 5-space characters were interesting too. It took some time to understand their motivations and character but I found it funny how they were essentially us but not really.

Jadie in Five Dimensions was my first foray into any sci-fi books revolving around dimensional theory and physics. The author did a great job at giving me the basics of dimensional theory and I had a good basic understanding of the subject by the time I finished this book. However, I strongly feel this story is appropriate for upper middle-grade or young adult readers since I myself took time to acclimatise to dimensional talk.

I liked that the author did not shy away from using diagrams to help the reader understand dimensional theory basics. I found them immensely useful. The technique of letting Jadie look back and remember Miss Rose’s lessons to them on dimensional travel was a genius move too.

Jadie in Five Dimensions had a great fast-paced, intriguing storyline. I was pleasantly surprised by how well-developed the plot was and taken by surprise when some of those plot twists hit me. I also loved that the short chapters did not let the story slow down or go too fast. This was absolutely brilliant storytelling!

The world-building in Jadie in Five Dimensions was unique. Rather than different worlds, tackling 4-space and even 5-space seemed like an extremely difficult task. To bring to a middle-grade level seemed an even more daunting task! I found it fascinating how each dimension had its own characteristics and travelling between these dimensions had its own rules as well. But I am not well-versed in the theory, so I have no idea about accuracy.

A side character suffered an accident that tore his ACL, leaving him with a limp. There is also mention of a crutch that he uses when necessary.

Jadie in Five Dimensions is an ambitious middle-grade science-fiction that delivers a thrilling adventure through multiple dimensions while also focussing on the importance of family and friendships. With brilliant storytelling and a uniquely creative take on world-building, I found this book delivered on everything I hope to see more of in middle-grade science fiction!

Here’s more Jadie in Five Dimensions content you should check out: Elise’s Q&A with the author, Beth’s Q&A with the author

3 winners will receive a finished copy of JADIE IN FIVE DIMENSIONS, US Only.

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Dianne K. Salerni has written many books for children and young adults, including state-award nominated series The Eighth Day and Junior Library Guild selection Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts. She attended the University of Delaware and the University of Pennsylvania before teaching fourth and fifth grades for many years. Now Dianne spends her time hanging around creepy cemeteries, climbing 2,000-year-old pyramids for book research, and volunteering at her local rescue animal shelter.