Mission Multiverse: Doppelganger Danger meets the sophomore slump

“Why would I want to see something that doesn’t move the story forward and only sets up a sequel”, my oldest son pondered. That specific takeaway was in relation to a conversation about cinematic entertainment, but our conversation then pivoted to the medium of books. From the perspective of any creator, that is indeed a challenging assignment. You want to add to the overall story, yet produce an entry that stands on its own, all the while getting fans to care more about the characters so that they’re willing to see them again. When phrased like that it’s no wonder why so many middle school students struggle in finding a book series that they can engage in. Mission Multiverse Doppelganger Danger is the second book in this series. We quite enjoyed the first one, but Doppelganger Danger doesn’t connect in the same fun, carefree and adventuresome way as its predecessor.

In a way, Doppelganger Danger picks up shortly after the events of Mission Multiverse. The team of adventurous middle school students is on a different planet battling a series of monsters, and it’s not going well. The Space Cadets have discovered the multiverse, and are aware that a big bad named Empyrean is intent on taking over Earth. The multiverse version of Earth is Dim14 is similar to ours, except everyone has a doppelganger over there with various changes in their personality. Granted, you could’ve inferred that from the title, but most of the middle school students I teach don’t know that word. Most of them also don’t read so the odds of them making it this far in the review are near zero.

The team was told that they should never interact with their look-alike, but you know how teens are, right? Meanwhile, back on Earth, the team is noticing some rips in the fabric between the two worlds, which would make it easier for us to be taken over.

The multiverse, whichever version you subscribe to is a challenging concept and place to be now. Every superhero has some form of it, and even high-profile art films have created versions of it, with an everything bagel, that have proved to be surprisingly fun. In this case, it’s the lack of fun between the first and second books in the Mission Multiverse series that is, ironically, so surprising.

Mission Multiverse had a certain zip and flair to it that made reading about the kids and their discovery engaging. Doppelganger Danger replaces that zip with big issues that are easily solved and small problems that somehow add up to big plot devices. Who is a doppelganger and who isn’t, why is one of the groups trusting one when they know that they’ve infiltrated their group? There are kids who have crushes on someone, a double that has a life that one of the girls has always wanted and misunderstandings that make simple things go sideways.

Even as the book progressed I got the feeling that nothing that happened in Doppelganger Danger would matter. There’d be some grand reveal or switch happening that would put whatever is wrong right, but would do so in a way that set up another book. Not to give too much away, but the only thing missing from the final sentence in this book is a series of ellipses that ensures readers know that another book is coming.

So why didn’t this book connect with me? This first one had a real sense of adventure. It was a group of band kids who discovered this cool thing at one of their parent’s work, and proceeded to use it. The sequel had more of a sense of obligation. The alternative world’s been set up, so the connection between the two needs to be explored. A parallel world has lots of opportunities to shine and distinguish itself, but aside from the occasional monster, these two worlds were too similar.

Call it the sophomore slump, the second book curse or whatever. It reminded us of the chasm of disappointment we had between Alien Superstar 1 and 2. That series rebounded a bit with the third and final book, but it was more a whimper than a bang. Mission Multiverse will have a more difficult go at recovering its mojo because there are more characters and the reading level is more advanced. Arguably, there are too many characters in Mission Multiverse and a culling of the main six to a spry four main characters would induce real conflict and a more compelling reason to keep reading the series.

Mission Multiverse Doppelganger Danger is by Rebecca Caprara and is available on Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams Kids.

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