Reviews tagging 'War'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

42 reviews

readsandsuch's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Death of parent

Minor: War

noom's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse

Moderate: Violence, Murder, War, and Classism

solitaryfairy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much. The characters were very diverse in so many ways (race, sexuality, religion and class being the main ones). And the book managed to bring up societal issues in a really good way. I also liked the plot twists and how genuinely unpredictable the whole book was.

AND THE ENDING OMG it was perfect. The way it was very much a happy ending but not at all the way you'd expect. I was so happy that Cara ended up with Dell but still worked in Ash.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent, and War

manicpixl's review

challenging emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and War

dmbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Drug use

chapis's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Colonisation, War, and Classism

I've been looking for a book like this for so long.

e_austin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, and War

Minor: Murder

hngoodlett's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Vomit and War

emmyb's review

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

This was a fast-paced, well written story featuring multiverse travel and lots of intrigue. The world-building was a bit confusing through the beginning, having to learn about multiple different versions of the world before fully understanding the base one. There were lots of twists, and I'm interested in reading more from this author in the future.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and War

likeactualsoulmates's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for my honest review!

Let me just preface this by saying I went into this knowing very little because I KNEW I would love it. So when I read in the first chapter that it was a book about the multiverse and people were able to traverse them I was hooked. For the first few chapters, I was indeed bored, but as soon as we got to a huge revelation about Caramenta's life and being I couldn't stop reading from there. So if you're reading this and the first few chapters seem dull, give it a few more and see how invested the plot twists make you.

We meet a character absolutely selfish and fighting for their well-being, and it honestly is off-putting. I wanted to know more about how this person ended up valuing their benefit so strongly over others, and learn I did. Because many of Cara's character traits that seem offputting at first glance made so much sense once put in perspective with her character arc. The author did such a good job making a believable character reaction to her awful situation, I don't know if anything different would have felt right. Of course, Cara would value self-preservation at the point we meet her, and we get to go on her character arc in this book. 

What really threw me off though was how free form the plot was, which after having read it all I believe is what best fits how to tell this story. But for a long, while we had no real end goal, we had just met these characters and we're going along on a ride with them. Slowly at after the mid-way point, things get set in motion and then is when we get our end goal. Once I learned to let go of reaching for an overarching plot and just enjoyed this ride with these characters I really started enjoying this book. Without getting into spoilers, there were many molar dilemmas and genuinely awful situations presented to our characters and we got to see all their reactions and what consequences their actions had.

If you enjoy sci-fi books with a darker theme and don't mind some gore, I would definitely recommend this book!


Now I'd like to make a shortlist with all the quotes I highlighted for this book.

• "It shames me more than it shames them, but it does shame us both."
• "I am always pretending, always wearing costumes but never just clothes."
• "Maybe it's just easier to think something is impossible than to try."
• "A rotating black hole does not collapse to a dot. That's the old-fashioned thinking. It collapses to a ring, a ring of neutrons. And if you fall through the ring of neutrons vertically, you wind up in Wonderland. You wind up on the other side of forever." -Michio Kaku
• "That was true power. Not to kill a man, but to kill a man in front of his family and force them to agree you did not."
• "You can't ever know another person, which is why you should never admire anyone."
• "Sometimes, focusing on survival is necessary. Sometimes, it is just an excuse for selfishness."
• " "A fallen angel is a demon.", "A being who can enact great change, either way." "
• "What does it mean to crave something toxic?"
• "Sometimes you have to bleed to know you're human."
• "Somehow using someone's need to keep them in line is less awful than using fear."
• "The only due powerful men recognize is a life- in service or in sacrifice."
• "Dear Brother from another time, today some stars gave in to the black around them & i knew it was you." -Danez Smith
• This is grief because a powerful man killed someone I love but will never see consequences."
• "Our dead are only weights on our backs when we won't let them walk beside us, when we try to pretend they are ours or they are not dead."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and War