Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

4 reviews

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

This was SO GOOD. So many people have loved this book and I really hoped I could be one of them, and I am! It has such such a great combination of plot, character, and theme, and the writing style was great: it was filled with some wry observations that either make you see things in a new light or perfectly put into words how you might already think about something. 

The story was gripping right from the off. It’s the kind of plot where you don’t really know where things are going to go, but not at all in a bad way. There are intriguing twists and some great pacing. I will say that the ending felt a little rushed, though. 

I really liked the MC Cara, who embodied the reluctant hero trope. She goes through ethical dilemmas throughout the book, torn between self-preservation and her moral compass. It was interesting seeing her perspective on these dilemmas, seeing the thought process behind her actions. Moreover, in Cara (and other characters) we see a key theme played out: how different circumstances (as seen on alternate Earths) can lead someone to become a different person. Cara gets to observe how one event happening, or not happening, could have impacted her character. And through this Cara questions if the opposite cannot also be true, that is, if different circumstances can have no impact on a person’s development, because there are people and situations we will always be drawn to due to our nature. This was really fascinating to think about. 

Another great theme was this idea of “the space between worlds”, an idea that crops up in so many places within the novel. For example, it is a physical liminal space when Cara is traversing, but it is also the space which Cara occupies as an Ashtown-born person working in Wiley City. The theme embodies how Cara feels more at home in the space between worlds than she does on said worlds themselves. 

I also thought the romance was a great touch. I loved the mutual pining and how oblivious Cara was with the whole thing. I do wish I had gotten more of an idea as to why Cara and Dell were attracted to one another; we are shown that they are, but I wanted to know the why. 

Overall this was a fantastic read and I’m excited for the potential companion novel! 

Rep: Black sapphic MC, Japanese-American sapphic LI, Ivorian-American SC 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Racism, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Minor: nuclear warfare, volcano

immovabletype's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Deportation

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Medical content, and War

isleoflinds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Body horror, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness and Classism

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Racism, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, and Drug use