Life Is Strange Volume 1: Dust

Full disclosure: As of now, I’ve only played the first chapter of the game that inspired this book, Life is Strange. So I came into the story half-cocked, so to speak. I knew the premise well enough to understand and follow the story in this volume, but if you aren’t familiar, you may struggle to follow the narrative. But the story in this volume is a good read. It considers the possible consequences of Max’s ability to rewind (and change) events. The central conflict facing Max is reconciling the fact that she chose to rewind time to save her best friend and eventual lover, Chloe, and seemingly as a result, a devastating storm hit her hometown, killing many people. Max consequently wrestles with her role in and responsibility for those deaths. Simultaneously, she begins to flicker between parallel realities, in some of which she hasn’t saved Chloe and her town remains intact. The story ends with Max realizing that she has to find the reality in which she–this version of her–belongs or she’ll continue involuntarily flitting through dimensions.

I enjoyed the parallel-reality device, and the depiction of Max’s genuine heartbreak and sense of isolation is real and affecting. I’ll happily read the next installment to find out what happens to Max and Chloe.