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internationalreads's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence
blakethebookeater's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
This book is perfect. It took a second for me to adjust to the worldbuilding, but once I did holy crap it just FLOWED. Cara is a traverser, which means she travels to other parallel Earths to collect data for the Eldridge company. She’s valuable because of her hard life, many of her other selves have died (and you can’t travel to other worlds where you exist).
The dichotomy in this book was RIDICULOUSLY well-written. We have the people of Ashtown (where Cara is from) who live in poverty and are looked down upon as savages by the citizens of the walled neighboring city of Wiley. The classism of this book is so poignant, and seeing Cara trying to weave her way between these two worlds was just as important and interesting as seeing her actually travel to different worlds.
I don’t want to give away much about the plot because of how shook it made me, but if you’re looking for extremely well-written and well-plotted sapphic sci-fi that will make you think long after closing the cover, than this one’s for you.
5/5 stars
The dichotomy in this book was RIDICULOUSLY well-written. We have the people of Ashtown (where Cara is from) who live in poverty and are looked down upon as savages by the citizens of the walled neighboring city of Wiley. The classism of this book is so poignant, and seeing Cara trying to weave her way between these two worlds was just as important and interesting as seeing her actually travel to different worlds.
I don’t want to give away much about the plot because of how shook it made me, but if you’re looking for extremely well-written and well-plotted sapphic sci-fi that will make you think long after closing the cover, than this one’s for you.
5/5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Cursing
Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Racism
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, and Drug use
thechiaraface's review
adventurous
hopeful
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
4.25
This is science-fiction novel where we follow Cara, who is a traverser – or a person who can travel between worlds (at least using her companies technology). In this story and this particular world, the technolgy to travel the multi-verse is real, BUT you can't visit another world where your counterpart (or dop) is still alive. Cara makes an excellent traverser because she is dead on so many other worlds. This follows Cara's story as she delves deeper into traversing and finds herself in some sticky situations after one of her few dops left dies mysteriously.
This book was not what I expected but I really liked it. I think if you aren't a big sci-fi person you could still get into this book as it's not too science-y and not too 'out there' (the world in this book is pretty similar to our own, just a little more futuristic). This book explores the class, wealth, and privilege in an interesting way. Cara is good traverser because 'she' dies so frequently, but why is that? - because she is poor and her mother is/was a drug addict. And so many of the other traversers have just as unfortunate stories. The premise itself leads to interesting commentary and musings, and the direction the story ended up going led to even more interesting conversations. I really liked this book, and in particular how many times it surprised me. There were some parts that I found predictable, but I really loved the handful of BIG moments that took me by surprise. The pacing in this was a little off at times in my opinion, part 2 was too long, and in the the last part some things wrapped up too fast. But overall, I really liked this and think it balanced plot, character development, and commentary really well.
This book was not what I expected but I really liked it. I think if you aren't a big sci-fi person you could still get into this book as it's not too science-y and not too 'out there' (the world in this book is pretty similar to our own, just a little more futuristic). This book explores the class, wealth, and privilege in an interesting way. Cara is good traverser because 'she' dies so frequently, but why is that? - because she is poor and her mother is/was a drug addict. And so many of the other traversers have just as unfortunate stories. The premise itself leads to interesting commentary and musings, and the direction the story ended up going led to even more interesting conversations. I really liked this book, and in particular how many times it surprised me. There were some parts that I found predictable, but I really loved the handful of BIG moments that took me by surprise. The pacing in this was a little off at times in my opinion, part 2 was too long, and in the the last part some things wrapped up too fast. But overall, I really liked this and think it balanced plot, character development, and commentary really well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence
blissofalife's review
adventurous
mysterious
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? No
Well written, plenty of plot twists but each was set up so well that it wasn't quite unexpected but entirely believable. The whole premise was an interesting one to explore!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse
kelecoo's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Dimensional travel is possible, but only if your doppelganger is dead. The MC travels to a world where her double was recently murdered, and the plot gets going in earnest from there. I was pleasantly surprised by how deliberate the pacing is, it doesn't rush to get us to that very important journey. Instead we linger in the setup, getting to know the hub world and at least one other before she goes to the plot-important one for the first time.
The MC is mostly a reliable narrator, but when she travels she can be very wrong about what’s happening in a particular world. This is used to its full advantage, creating subversion and surprise as she discovers mistakes in her assumptions and the new possibilities opened by those gaps. The plot which I thought would take the whole book to tell turned out to just be the first half before twisting all that was set up before to tell an even more interesting story. I would have been content with the story I thought I was getting, but I love what it turned out to be. This even included two of my favorite things: heists and interpersonal politics. So much of this book is built on understanding people, cultures, and how shifts in either between worlds change what can and cannot be done, what words to use, and how things will go down once they’re in motion.
The world-building (heh) is really good! It focuses on two main places and then gradually describes them by talking about how things (and people) are the same or different in the parallel worlds. It creates a feeling where every description of the background or a character is there for a reason. Would we normally care that this house is white? Maybe, maybe not, but if it’s a different color on most worlds and this time that indicates something important because of the knock-on effects of changes like [pick whatever spoiler you want], that makes it feel like the details matter. And, hey, even if you won’t remember what that house color was it still did its job and informed the world. This could have been and info-dumping nightmare of a book and instead it uses everything to make the worlds feel significant with its focus. It keeps the number of frequently referenced worlds low enough for the important ones to be memorable, but also giving little tidbits about ones we won’t actually get to see. I love parallel worlds and time travel stories and this was fantastic. The number of secondary characters whose variants I had to track was mercifully short, letting me enjoy the machinations without getting confused about which versions did or said which thing.
The backstory (and, increasingly, the main story) is chock-full of trauma, for the MC and most of the secondary characters as well. Check the CWs, because the book’s MC is dead on over 370 worlds and we find out many of the common reasons. It’s a steady drip of sometimes horrific details that fit the story and matter to current events, but none of the worlds are kind to children, and many of them were especially rough on the MC. It’s a great premise, and I appreciate how the book uses it to comment on the classism and racism inherent in a system which requires people who are dead elsewhere, which means they’re probably not privileged in the main world either. Little details like that are used really well throughout the book and I loved every minute of it.
The MC is mostly a reliable narrator, but when she travels she can be very wrong about what’s happening in a particular world. This is used to its full advantage, creating subversion and surprise as she discovers mistakes in her assumptions and the new possibilities opened by those gaps. The plot which I thought would take the whole book to tell turned out to just be the first half before twisting all that was set up before to tell an even more interesting story. I would have been content with the story I thought I was getting, but I love what it turned out to be. This even included two of my favorite things: heists and interpersonal politics. So much of this book is built on understanding people, cultures, and how shifts in either between worlds change what can and cannot be done, what words to use, and how things will go down once they’re in motion.
The world-building (heh) is really good! It focuses on two main places and then gradually describes them by talking about how things (and people) are the same or different in the parallel worlds. It creates a feeling where every description of the background or a character is there for a reason. Would we normally care that this house is white? Maybe, maybe not, but if it’s a different color on most worlds and this time that indicates something important because of the knock-on effects of changes like [pick whatever spoiler you want], that makes it feel like the details matter. And, hey, even if you won’t remember what that house color was it still did its job and informed the world. This could have been and info-dumping nightmare of a book and instead it uses everything to make the worlds feel significant with its focus. It keeps the number of frequently referenced worlds low enough for the important ones to be memorable, but also giving little tidbits about ones we won’t actually get to see. I love parallel worlds and time travel stories and this was fantastic. The number of secondary characters whose variants I had to track was mercifully short, letting me enjoy the machinations without getting confused about which versions did or said which thing.
The backstory (and, increasingly, the main story) is chock-full of trauma, for the MC and most of the secondary characters as well. Check the CWs, because the book’s MC is dead on over 370 worlds and we find out many of the common reasons. It’s a steady drip of sometimes horrific details that fit the story and matter to current events, but none of the worlds are kind to children, and many of them were especially rough on the MC. It’s a great premise, and I appreciate how the book uses it to comment on the classism and racism inherent in a system which requires people who are dead elsewhere, which means they’re probably not privileged in the main world either. Little details like that are used really well throughout the book and I loved every minute of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Blood, Torture, and Death
Moderate: Racism, Homophobia, Confinement, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, and Addiction
CW for colonialism, racism, homophobia, gaslighting, confinement, child abuse (backstory), addiction (backstory), child death (not depicted), domestic abuse, violence, gore, blood, torture, major character death, death.kylieqrada's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
First of all, I checked this book out from work, and it was one of the first books I had covered (that's how I discovered it actually), and the horribleness of my covering job bugged me the whole time I was reading it. But that is neither here nor there because this was super enjoyable!!! This does not in any way read like a debut, and I'll definitely read more from Micaiah Johnson in the future. This is just the kind of sci-fi I like: on the soft side, heavy on the characters and world-building, throw in some social commentary, and I'm sold. This was also SUPER diverse, and even though this follows multiple universes, it's easy to follow. Love love loved it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence
malloryfitz's review
dark
reflective
tense
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Premise- (3.5/5) Alternate universes are such a cool concept. I mean, I never want to get deep into the science and technicalities of it, but I think it always has a lot of potential. Including here! The parallel universes coupled with the mystery-plot was definitely intriguing for me, though it's not exactly my usual genre.
Characters- (4/5) Cara was a really interesting protagonist, especially because we got to see her thoughts and ruminations on the other versions of herself. She was clever and pithy and really self-reflective without ever being weepy or melodramatic or too meta about it. And it was so fascinating to see her relationships with her family, friends, and enemies across different worlds. It really opened those relationships up to deeper depths. It also raised a lot of interesting thought about nature/nurture, and whether people can change, and how much they're shaped by their circumstances. Wrestles with those questions a lot, and Cara's voice was really strong for that.
Plot- (3/5) The thing was, I liked the alternate world plot a lot more than the "actual" plot that the book ended with. The alternate world plot was just a lot more interesting to me than the Earth-0 plot, which was well done, just didn't hold my attention as much. Maybe it was just because I liked the way Johnson played with the idea of a world that's almost yours--if a few things changed that had major shifting consequences. Like I said, the Earth-0 plot, which ended up being the main plot for the second half of the book was well constructed, I just didn't like it as much.
World- (5/5) I really enjoyed Johnson's world building. It wasn't too technical, but the subtleties that were developed between parallel universes gave the worlds a lot of depth. I also liked that we got a good understanding each sector of the world--the city, the Rurals, the Wastes, the desert. And Cara's extensive experience was the perfect way to draw attention to the differences between those settings.
Writing- (4/5) Johnson's writing wasn't flowery, but she had some really poignant lines. And she created a lot of dialogue about important themes like whose lives matter the most, the way class dynamics can play out, and the violence and trauma of growing up in really terrible situations. She was also able to get the book title in there a lot.
Overall- (3.9/5) The Space Between Worlds was a fascinating character study, thanks to the multiverse concept and the protagonist's unique position between these universes. The world building and characters went hand in hand for this book, building on each other to create many-faceted characters and raise questions about how circumstances can shape our personalities. There were a lot of other themes Johnson was able to incorporate too, and Cara was a great protagonist to bring them to light. I did find the main plot to be less compelling than the initial mystery plot, but the character portraits were excellent, and I loved exploring the differences between the parallel universes.
Characters- (4/5) Cara was a really interesting protagonist, especially because we got to see her thoughts and ruminations on the other versions of herself. She was clever and pithy and really self-reflective without ever being weepy or melodramatic or too meta about it. And it was so fascinating to see her relationships with her family, friends, and enemies across different worlds. It really opened those relationships up to deeper depths. It also raised a lot of interesting thought about nature/nurture, and whether people can change, and how much they're shaped by their circumstances. Wrestles with those questions a lot, and Cara's voice was really strong for that.
Plot- (3/5) The thing was, I liked the alternate world plot a lot more than the "actual" plot that the book ended with. The alternate world plot was just a lot more interesting to me than the Earth-0 plot, which was well done, just didn't hold my attention as much. Maybe it was just because I liked the way Johnson played with the idea of a world that's almost yours--if a few things changed that had major shifting consequences. Like I said, the Earth-0 plot, which ended up being the main plot for the second half of the book was well constructed, I just didn't like it as much.
World- (5/5) I really enjoyed Johnson's world building. It wasn't too technical, but the subtleties that were developed between parallel universes gave the worlds a lot of depth. I also liked that we got a good understanding each sector of the world--the city, the Rurals, the Wastes, the desert. And Cara's extensive experience was the perfect way to draw attention to the differences between those settings.
Writing- (4/5) Johnson's writing wasn't flowery, but she had some really poignant lines. And she created a lot of dialogue about important themes like whose lives matter the most, the way class dynamics can play out, and the violence and trauma of growing up in really terrible situations. She was also able to get the book title in there a lot.
Overall- (3.9/5) The Space Between Worlds was a fascinating character study, thanks to the multiverse concept and the protagonist's unique position between these universes. The world building and characters went hand in hand for this book, building on each other to create many-faceted characters and raise questions about how circumstances can shape our personalities. There were a lot of other themes Johnson was able to incorporate too, and Cara was a great protagonist to bring them to light. I did find the main plot to be less compelling than the initial mystery plot, but the character portraits were excellent, and I loved exploring the differences between the parallel universes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, and Sexual content
esmithumland's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I was disappointed that this was once again a psuedo-slave narrative, but I understand why these kinds of stories exist and why they're important. The world building was stunning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Child death and Child abuse
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content
dianna_reads's review
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Racism, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Physical abuse