Reviews

“It’s OK if you aren’t ready
The world can wait
For you
You’re worth waiting for.”

What a beautiful book. The love between Alice and Beth is captured so wonderfully.

izzymcdade's review against another edition

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4.0

if meg grehan has a million fans i am one of them. if meg grehan has ten fans i am one of them. if meg grehan has only one fan that is me. if meg grehan has no fans, that means i am dead. if the world is against meg grehan, i am against the world.

niamhbrown00's review

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lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

2.0

foggy_rosamund's review against another edition

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4.0

Beth has decided to give herself a break from everything: she gives herself a year to retreat to the safety of her house, seeing only the person who delivers her groceries once a week. But as time passes, her escape begins to feel more like a prison, and her intrusive thoughts and depression do not diminish. She is gradually coaxed from her hiding place by Mouse, a gentle dog, and Mouse's owner, the compassionate Alice. I really appreciated the rawness of this story: Beth's mental illness is not glossed over, and the details of living with this kind of anguish are given space in the narrative. I also really appreciated the women's relationship with one another: how gradually the friendship develops, and how Beth struggles to trust, and how the reader realises that while Beth doesn't understand why Alice wants to be around her, Alice actually gains a lot from Beth's presence and kindness. It also has a very genuine approach to bodies -- touching on menstruation, masturbation, leg hair -- in a way that feels freeing. The gradual romantic relationship that develops between them, and how they slowly figure out how to make space for each other alongside mental illness, is really moving. This book is told in third-person, and I think it might have worked better in first person, as it's very much inside Beth's head. Also, at times the free-verse format felt a little forced, and I wondered if it would have worked better with passages of prose interspersed with poems. Overall though, this is a surprising and moving little book, and I recommend it.

always_need_more_books's review against another edition

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3.0

Picked this up from the library - I've discovered verse books this year (but have only read Sarah Crossan) and thought it'd be good to give it a go.
The Space Between is the story of Beth who suffers from anxiety and has made the decision to lock herself away in her home for a year away from the outside world. Verse is an excellent way of getting across emotions and we really feel Beth's anxiety and sadness.

frmeden's review against another edition

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5.0

i am under the firm belief that every time i read a meg grehan book i get gayer

circlesofflame's review against another edition

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2.0

This is a cute romance with interesting exploration of mental health, depression and agoraphobia. I loved how the progression of the friendship into a relationship was so easy and natural and how it wasn't something that needed further detail, drama or justification, as with some LGBTQIA+ fiction. The story was perhaps a little too simple and the resolution too easy, but I really enjoyed getting to know these characters.

Unfortunately, one big thing that I didn't understand was why the novel had to be told in verse. The language wasn't complicated or descriptive and the structure wasn't particularly unique or complex- I don't think anything about the story really lent itself to poetry, the protagonist didn't seem to be using poetry as a creative or psychological outlet. The style left me bemused, so even though it was a cute story I think I'll be setting this one free so that more people can benefit from and have access to it.

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