Split (review)

Wade has always felt he had trouble balancing his musical passion with his desire to be the perfect student, but after his mother's death, he undergoes a literal split that leaves two separate Wades. In chapters that alternate focus between them, each Wade (at first unaware of the other) pursues love, happiness, and his goals (the "good" Wade writes a computer code he hopes will save the world from a nuclear disaster, while the artistic Wade parties and sings in seedy bars). When the worlds begin overlapping (first in dreams and then in their actual waking lives), the Wades must collaborate to stop the series of events that may lead to their downfalls. The pace is slow at first as both Wades are explored fully, allowing readers to see how the same set of emotions, passions, and insecurities could produce such dramatically different teens. Once the adventure kicks in, complete with a stolen bejeweled tiny car worth a fortune, vague threats of world annihilation, and lives hanging in the balance for each Wade to rescue, the pace increases, as do the quirky overlaps between the worlds that are at once confounding and intriguing. The fact that the Wades aren't integrated, healed, or thrown back a year to when this all began is deeply satisfying, especially as readers will likely find both of them compelling protagonists who deserve their wildly divergent, dreamed-about happy endings.