The Coincidence Makers
Ratings10
Average rating3.9
The first thing you should know is: there's no such thing as coincidence. There are beings that watch over you. Some of us were like you, once. Call us what you will, guardians, agents, sentinels or perhaps spirits, angels, demons. No matter how you think of us, we have one purpose. We are architects of chance, we make coincidences. Of course, a Coincidence Maker always has the choice: fulfil the coincidence, or refuse. So when an assignment of the highest level is slipped under the door one night, it's immediately obvious that the choice will have to be made. A choice that could change our understanding of coincidences, of fate, free will, and even perhaps, love itself... An imaginative and page-turning debut that blends mystery, thriller and magic to ensure you'll never look at a coincidence in the same way again... PRAISE FOR THE COINCIDENCE MAKERS "You'll never feel the same about coincidences once you read this startingly fresh novel" Charlaine Harris "A smart, unpredictable, and heartfelt adventure story" Kirkus Reviews "Blum rides the delicate balance between the world of the truly unbelievable and the universe you can see if you squint your eyes just right." Publishers Weekly
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I enjoyed the universe Blum created. There were questions I had about it's inner workings about how deep the coincidences go. About 4/5s the way through I guessed the end but it didn't diminish it. Still satisfying. I did think this was going to be a bit more sci-fi-y than it ended up being.
Pros: fascinating world, interesting characters, tight ending, thought-provoking
Cons:
Guy, Emily, and Eric are coincidence makers. They receive a white envelope with their mission parameters, and then arrange for those conditions to be met, resulting in a love affair, a new career, a dream attained, whatever is required for the humans around them. Then Guy gets a strange new assignment, one that will change his life.
I first heard of this book not long after seeing the film The Adjustment Bureau. I loved the film (note, it has little resemblance to the Philip K. Dick short story it was based on), but more than that, I loved the idea that there's a bureaucracy in charge of planning fate for certain people. So I was curious what Blum would would do with his idea regarding those who plan coincidences. Make no mistake, while the ideas are similar, the execution is very different - and excellent in both cases.
In the first half of the book you learn a lot about who the coincidence makers are and how they're trained as you witness the three of them working on different cases. This part is heavily character driven, which I didn't mind as there was so much to learn about the world and people that I didn't really notice the plot was light. The second half of the book becomes more plot heavy as the various threads introduced earlier start to pull together into a cohesive - and immensely satisfying - ending.
I loved that their world includes things like imaginary friends and that there's a history to coincidence making where theories change and develop over time.
The characters are all quirky, with different foibles. Eric creates coincidences so he can go on dates. Guy plans his coincidences on one wall of his apartment so he can visualize what has to happen when. The side characters were a lot of fun too, especially the General.
The book makes you think about why people act certain ways when it comes to making decisions. It encourages looking at the larger picture. It is at times heartbreaking and at others sublime.
This is a fun, quirky book, that didn't go where I thought it would, but looking back there's no other way it could have gone. Definitely worth the read.
