Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

72 reviews

esimons18's review

adventurous dark 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

3.75

Really enjoyed this read! The first 100 or so pages were slow, a lot of setting the stage, but then by part 3 I was hooked. 

• Awesome plot/concept! 
• Some characters lacked substance, despite their relevance
• Queer love interest
• Dystopian classism

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Classism, Murder, and Sexual violence

traa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Abandonment, Child abuse, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Vomit

melodei3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Grief, Torture, Addiction, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

piphux's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Classism, Murder, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Vomit

larbster90's review

adventurous reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Body horror, Car accident, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Addiction, Classism, Drug abuse, Murder, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Gun violence, War, Dysphoria, and Sexual content

lyzz's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I enjoyed this novel! I think I would have enjoyed it better if I was more experienced listening to science fiction/fantasy on audiobook. (This is also a genre I do not read a lot in general.) The narrator, Nicole Lewis, is spectacular and perfectly embodies the scrapiness of Cara.  The challenging part on audio for me was that the author does an excellent job of world building but you have to keep track of multiple dimensions and the same characters in different dimensions. If I could go back in time, I think I would have told me to listen to the book and then read the eBook to help everything stick in my mind. 
 
What I particularly liked about this book: 

• World building is imaginative and explores themes of racism, classism and homophobia.  
• I loved that the author let us explore this world before diving into the main plot. The plot unfolds slowly and this allows us to immerse ourselves in this world.  
• Interesting character development that is meaningful - especially in the Cara character.  
• There were some interesting support characters like Gene and Del that are also well-developed and contribute meaningfully to the story. 
• Cara's voice is strong in this book.  She is a bit sarcastic, humorous, pragmatic, a little idealistic, and scrappy.  I loved her.  

I do want to emphasize that I would 100% recommend this book to someone looking for a science fiction read.  I would caution them about listening on audiobook unless they have experience listening to SFF on audio and can follow a complex world with multiple characters.  I definitely think this is a book I'll reread to capture some of the details I missed this go-round.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Murder, and Drug abuse

Minor: Homophobia

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

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

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

sarahwriteaway's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I absolutely loved this bittersweet exploration of one person’s possibilities through the lens of the multiverse. Cara was an intriguing protagonist, and became even more so as the twists and reveals continued. Her stakes grew from merely wanting the security of permanent residency in the relatively comfortable Wiley city, to something much more. 

A multiverse story could easily become unwieldy, but Johnson uses some clever worldbuilding tricks to make sure that doesn’t happen. It’s only possible to travel to 380 worlds that resonate with ‘Earth Zero’, the world where Cara lives. This means the worlds Cara travels to aren’t vastly different. The worlds where society is more equal are somewhere out of reach, as are the worlds where gun violence is prevalent. The same cast of characters fulfil different roles within much the same society, and this is resolutely a character-focused rather than a technology-focused story. If you want to know exactly how world walking works you’ll be out of luck. (I never understand why people want to know how things like this work in books, because of course it *doesn’t* work in reality, so any possible explanation would be made-up gobbledygook?)

So, if that doesn’t put you off, stay for the warmth of the mentorship between two world-weary people (Cara/Jean), stay for the understated but life-sustaining connection between two women (Cara/Dell), stay for the complexities of interacting with someone who in another life was your abuser — stay for a story about life. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Domestic abuse, and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse

kaitlinnoodles's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Classism, Body horror, Gore, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Colonisation, Sexual content, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Torture, Abandonment, Child abuse, Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, and Drug abuse

mandkips's review

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse

Minor: Drug abuse, Child death, and Addiction