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gaymoonreader's review against another edition
4.0
(4.5)
This book was much more than I was expecting. I’ll be honest; most books with concepts like this don’t work. Most of the time they’re bland and quite boring. The story doesn’t really click and the characters are unrelatable. This book is very different from what I was expecting. I actually was incredibly interested in the overall plot of the story. I wanted to know how they would figure a way out of it, what something meant and how that could impact the story later, etc. But beyond that, I loved all of the representation we see in the book. Five doppelgängers does not mean five people who are the exact same person (hello? Have you seen The Vampire Diaries?) and while they all had elements of each other, each was their own unique person, which I honestly would not have expected.
There was representation for anxiety and the panic attacks that come along with anxiety. As someone who suffers from chronic panic attacks and generalized anxiety, I felt exactly how they felt when having a panic attack, this feeling of suffocating, not able to get breath in, needing air and to get away from everyone. That is my life every single day. This is a book that perfectly encapsulated that feeling, that experience. I haven’t had that in a book in a long time.
Beyond that, there is also LGBTQ+ representation in this book, one of which is so incredibly uncommon, especially in fantasy and science fiction novels, I think this might be the first book I have personally read featuring a character who identifies as this. We had some asexual representation in this book with an explanation on the spectrum that makes sense to people. I am ace, so I identified with this a lot, and it made me feel so seen and validated. Even though I am non-binary, I am also romantically attracted to women, and you saw this representation in the book as well. There was even a conversation about the difference between gender and sexuality and how those are two separate things, which I don’t think a lot of people seem to get.
Continuing with the LGBTQ+ rep, you saw both sides of the same coin when it comes to figuring out your sexuality, how terrifying that can be, and the process of coming out. I identified with that feeling of being terrified you will do or say something that will make people think you are gay (a stark contrast to me now who will do anything to be seen as gay and not hetero, but I digress). There’s this fear of other people’s reactions to you coming out, and after a certain point, you just have to do your own thing and say screw it to whatever anyone else thinks. It is your life, and you can choose how you want to live it. If someone has a problem with it, and you are in the position to do so, just cut them out of your life because you don’t need that level of negativity anywhere near you. That is something that one of the doppelgängers eventually figures out, and that is something the main doppelgänger eventually will figure out. It is something everyone can relate to who has faced something like the fear of coming out and being your authentic self.
I know I didn’t even cover half of what goes down in this book, but I could literally just keep going on and on about this book, and I need to stop. Overall, I really loved this book, I highly recommend it, and it will probably be on my list of favorites for this year.
This book was much more than I was expecting. I’ll be honest; most books with concepts like this don’t work. Most of the time they’re bland and quite boring. The story doesn’t really click and the characters are unrelatable. This book is very different from what I was expecting. I actually was incredibly interested in the overall plot of the story. I wanted to know how they would figure a way out of it, what something meant and how that could impact the story later, etc. But beyond that, I loved all of the representation we see in the book. Five doppelgängers does not mean five people who are the exact same person (hello? Have you seen The Vampire Diaries?) and while they all had elements of each other, each was their own unique person, which I honestly would not have expected.
There was representation for anxiety and the panic attacks that come along with anxiety. As someone who suffers from chronic panic attacks and generalized anxiety, I felt exactly how they felt when having a panic attack, this feeling of suffocating, not able to get breath in, needing air and to get away from everyone. That is my life every single day. This is a book that perfectly encapsulated that feeling, that experience. I haven’t had that in a book in a long time.
Beyond that, there is also LGBTQ+ representation in this book, one of which is so incredibly uncommon, especially in fantasy and science fiction novels, I think this might be the first book I have personally read featuring a character who identifies as this. We had some asexual representation in this book with an explanation on the spectrum that makes sense to people. I am ace, so I identified with this a lot, and it made me feel so seen and validated. Even though I am non-binary, I am also romantically attracted to women, and you saw this representation in the book as well. There was even a conversation about the difference between gender and sexuality and how those are two separate things, which I don’t think a lot of people seem to get.
Continuing with the LGBTQ+ rep, you saw both sides of the same coin when it comes to figuring out your sexuality, how terrifying that can be, and the process of coming out. I identified with that feeling of being terrified you will do or say something that will make people think you are gay (a stark contrast to me now who will do anything to be seen as gay and not hetero, but I digress). There’s this fear of other people’s reactions to you coming out, and after a certain point, you just have to do your own thing and say screw it to whatever anyone else thinks. It is your life, and you can choose how you want to live it. If someone has a problem with it, and you are in the position to do so, just cut them out of your life because you don’t need that level of negativity anywhere near you. That is something that one of the doppelgängers eventually figures out, and that is something the main doppelgänger eventually will figure out. It is something everyone can relate to who has faced something like the fear of coming out and being your authentic self.
I know I didn’t even cover half of what goes down in this book, but I could literally just keep going on and on about this book, and I need to stop. Overall, I really loved this book, I highly recommend it, and it will probably be on my list of favorites for this year.
sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
The premise and the characters promised so much! Hello, subverted Chosen One trope with a questioning asexual lesbian MC with anxiety and endometriosis rep! But the execution became increasingly wacky and it became too difficult for me to suspend belief.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Medical content, Lesbophobia, and Death
alongreader's review
4.0
This is a really clever read. It takes everything you think you're getting and turns it on its head. Hazel and her other selves are amazing, and I want to be on their team, please.
This book plays with all the tropes you expect from sci fi and fantasy stories and uproots them, leaving a fascinating read behind. I love the fact that Hazel is irritated by some of the things her doubles do. Who wouldn't be irritated by their own habits? I know I would be.
It's a really clever idea, melding fantasy and sci fi perfectly, and I want to read everything Corrine writes for the rest of my life, please. I can't wait to see what else she can come up with.
(Also, is it weird that I was picturing the farm from Smallville as I read this?)
This book plays with all the tropes you expect from sci fi and fantasy stories and uproots them, leaving a fascinating read behind. I love the fact that Hazel is irritated by some of the things her doubles do. Who wouldn't be irritated by their own habits? I know I would be.
It's a really clever idea, melding fantasy and sci fi perfectly, and I want to read everything Corrine writes for the rest of my life, please. I can't wait to see what else she can come up with.
(Also, is it weird that I was picturing the farm from Smallville as I read this?)
iam's review
5.0
I was drawn to this by the doppelgänger shenanigans and got an original view on the Chosen One trope and an intriguing and fresh take on the involvement of a mysterious government agency. Cannot recommend this enough!
Check out this review and more on the blog!
Content warnings include: violence and injury, (near) death experience, abduction/hostage situation/being held at gunpoint, imprisonment, panic and anxiety attack, medication; mentions of queerphobia, endometriosis.
I recently read and loved The Space Between Worlds, which also features different dimensions of the same world clashing, and one of the things I enjoyed about it most was seeing multiple versions of the same person, the effects small and big differences can have on the same person, and which things remain the same regardless of circumstances.
Now, despite both books having the same core concept, they couldn’t be more different.
The Space Between Worlds is adult fiction, for one, while The Art of Saving the World is YA. Thematically the former deals with class, priviledge, race and (im)migration, while the latter is centered around the Chosen One trope and finding out who you really are, and what defines you.
But the one central difference that I found most intriguing was that Cara (mostly) dealt with different versions of other people, while Hazel was surrounded by other versions of herself.
Not only did that spark a big chunk of the more introspective part of the plot and the central character arc, it also was just super fascinating to read. All the little things that Hazel notices about the other Hazels, and which she hates – because she recognizes them as her own habits. My initial reaction to Hazel’s almost repulsed reaction to her doppelgängers was shock, but then it hit me. Because I absolutely would react the same way. I hate watching videos of myself, hate seeing my mannerisms and gestures and way of talking and textured skin and my own feelings…. and seeing all of that reflected times four, surrouding me constantly and not just when I look into a mirror in a controlled way, or in one of the very few videos of myself, sounds excruciating.
It also made for a wonderful subject matter for a YA novel.
That internal plot was a great balance to the more action packed plot around the interdimensional rift and why the other Hazels appeared in the first place! I won’t go into that, because finding out the why is a big part of the plot, but I will say that I found it a very nice and fresh take on the good old Chosen One trope.
Another things that is common in a lot of novels but was handled in a super cool way here was the involvment of a ~mystery government agency~ (MGA – it really is called that in the book.) Because of course, if an interdimensional rift opens up in the US of A, the government would get its fingers into that pie ASAP.
It would have been easy (and let’s be real, fitting) to just make the MGA the antagonists, maybe throw in some investors or corrupt senators, and it would have made a great plot. But The Art of Saving the World chose a different route, and it was unlike anything I’ve read before, which I adored. Government agencies in fiction tend to be either the villains or the unquestionable heros (and sometimes both, starting out as one and ending as the other.) Here they are neither, because Hazel grew up with it. The MGA is a part of her life. It’s annoying to constantly have an agent breathing down her neck, but the agents are also the only people allowed in the house aside from her family, and they are the ones who sing her Happy Birthday songs and such. But they are also the ones who keep her from seeing anyone not her father, mother, or sister, and they also almost shot her sister the one time she sneaked out.
I don’t want to give more away, but I really adored the way it was handled!
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The short chapters make it readable and lend themselves both to binging because they fly by so fast and to reading slowly or in between other things because it’s always easy to find your way back into the story and get a quick feeling of triumph for finishing a chapter after a short time.
I highly recommend the book, both because of the above mentioned plot points that intrigued me, but also because it has quite lovely questioning rep, as the protagonist is a questioning asexual lesbian. She also had undiagnosed anxiety, which is thematized, and endometriosis is a topic as well.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Check out this review and more on the blog!
Content warnings include: violence and injury, (near) death experience, abduction/hostage situation/being held at gunpoint, imprisonment, panic and anxiety attack, medication; mentions of queerphobia, endometriosis.
I recently read and loved The Space Between Worlds, which also features different dimensions of the same world clashing, and one of the things I enjoyed about it most was seeing multiple versions of the same person, the effects small and big differences can have on the same person, and which things remain the same regardless of circumstances.
Now, despite both books having the same core concept, they couldn’t be more different.
The Space Between Worlds is adult fiction, for one, while The Art of Saving the World is YA. Thematically the former deals with class, priviledge, race and (im)migration, while the latter is centered around the Chosen One trope and finding out who you really are, and what defines you.
But the one central difference that I found most intriguing was that Cara (mostly) dealt with different versions of other people, while Hazel was surrounded by other versions of herself.
Not only did that spark a big chunk of the more introspective part of the plot and the central character arc, it also was just super fascinating to read. All the little things that Hazel notices about the other Hazels, and which she hates – because she recognizes them as her own habits. My initial reaction to Hazel’s almost repulsed reaction to her doppelgängers was shock, but then it hit me. Because I absolutely would react the same way. I hate watching videos of myself, hate seeing my mannerisms and gestures and way of talking and textured skin and my own feelings…. and seeing all of that reflected times four, surrouding me constantly and not just when I look into a mirror in a controlled way, or in one of the very few videos of myself, sounds excruciating.
It also made for a wonderful subject matter for a YA novel.
That internal plot was a great balance to the more action packed plot around the interdimensional rift and why the other Hazels appeared in the first place! I won’t go into that, because finding out the why is a big part of the plot, but I will say that I found it a very nice and fresh take on the good old Chosen One trope.
Another things that is common in a lot of novels but was handled in a super cool way here was the involvment of a ~mystery government agency~ (MGA – it really is called that in the book.) Because of course, if an interdimensional rift opens up in the US of A, the government would get its fingers into that pie ASAP.
It would have been easy (and let’s be real, fitting) to just make the MGA the antagonists, maybe throw in some investors or corrupt senators, and it would have made a great plot. But The Art of Saving the World chose a different route, and it was unlike anything I’ve read before, which I adored. Government agencies in fiction tend to be either the villains or the unquestionable heros (and sometimes both, starting out as one and ending as the other.) Here they are neither, because Hazel grew up with it. The MGA is a part of her life. It’s annoying to constantly have an agent breathing down her neck, but the agents are also the only people allowed in the house aside from her family, and they are the ones who sing her Happy Birthday songs and such. But they are also the ones who keep her from seeing anyone not her father, mother, or sister, and they also almost shot her sister the one time she sneaked out.
I don’t want to give more away, but I really adored the way it was handled!
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The short chapters make it readable and lend themselves both to binging because they fly by so fast and to reading slowly or in between other things because it’s always easy to find your way back into the story and get a quick feeling of triumph for finishing a chapter after a short time.
I highly recommend the book, both because of the above mentioned plot points that intrigued me, but also because it has quite lovely questioning rep, as the protagonist is a questioning asexual lesbian. She also had undiagnosed anxiety, which is thematized, and endometriosis is a topic as well.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
spottymae's review against another edition
2.0
Almost DNF’d this so many times. It just drags so much and has so many cliché moments. Glad to be done with it.
marikabarth's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Solidly enjoyable read. A more sci-fi take on common fantasy tropes. Some fairly clever writing that didn't try too hard to be something it's not. Coming of age with a bit of a twist.
lyriclorelei's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I read the first half of this so quickly and then just got stuck.