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oh_neens's review
adventurous
dark
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? It's complicated
4.25
Delightfully gay and has an excellent focus on classism and technology/innovation in a sci-fi setting. Love the concept of other world traveling and the rules behind it along with exploring multiple worlds. Would def recommend to friends and read again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Drug abuse
Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, and Violence
emmagrace's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Gore, Miscarriage, and Death of parent
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
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
meggs1005's review
adventurous
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
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.
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."
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
beccaand's review
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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Murder
Minor: Addiction and Drug abuse
massivepizzacrust's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I love all of the ideas in this book but the writing dragged for me.
That's basically my whole thought but still, I think the premise, the setting, the relationships between the characters were great. The discussion of racism in this setting was really great, I especially liked the detail about Wileyites appropriating Ashtown fashion without understanding any of the meaning behind it as I don't see that mentioned as much in fantasy.
The plot was good but didn't really surprise me or pull me in and I found it a little hard to get through the writing at times, especially in the long section on a different world. I don't really know what I needed that this book didn't give me, but I just didn't fall in love with any part of it.
That's basically my whole thought but still, I think the premise, the setting, the relationships between the characters were great. The discussion of racism in this setting was really great, I especially liked the detail about Wileyites appropriating Ashtown fashion without understanding any of the meaning behind it as I don't see that mentioned as much in fantasy.
The plot was good but didn't really surprise me or pull me in and I found it a little hard to get through the writing at times, especially in the long section on a different world. I don't really know what I needed that this book didn't give me, but I just didn't fall in love with any part of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Abandonment
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Gun violence and Death of parent
banrions's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
I NEED EVERYONE I KNOW TO READ THIS BOOK AND TALK TO ME ABOUT IT.
I’m gonna be thinking about this book for fucking weeks. This is such a perfect amalgamation of things specifically designed to HURT ME and draw me into the story which i ducking devoured in like a day and a half. If I had had time, i would have read this in a single setting. I just… I don’t even know what to SAY yet about how I feel about this—I feel fucking everything. I adore Cara as a protagonist, she felt like a punch to the gut, a mirror held up at your worst and most uncomfortable moment, a tight almost painful hug, I just… I love her. I love her. I love her. I loved being inside of her head, I loved seeing her with her sister, with Dell, fighting against Nik Nik and Adra, and walking through the infinite worlds. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS BECAUSE IT HAS RENDERED ME PRETTY MUCH INCOHERENT.
So, bullet points:
-I fucking LOVE the way they bring in parallel universes to this. It is one of my favorite tropes and concepts to explore and I really love the way it was in this story.
-I shall reiterate, I LOVE CARA AS A PROTAGONIST
-I also fucking LOVE dell, and their relationship
-I also fucking ADORE Esther and the sister relationship with Cara.
-I love the exploration of class and capitalism and the environment that is peppered into this story about world hopping
-I love the prose in this. Several lines hit me like a gut punch, some of them made me groan out loud and then get yelled at by my mother, the single highest praise I can give.
I want to read everything this author ever writes and I want to read this book again about 8 million times.
I’m gonna be thinking about this book for fucking weeks. This is such a perfect amalgamation of things specifically designed to HURT ME and draw me into the story which i ducking devoured in like a day and a half. If I had had time, i would have read this in a single setting. I just… I don’t even know what to SAY yet about how I feel about this—I feel fucking everything. I adore Cara as a protagonist, she felt like a punch to the gut, a mirror held up at your worst and most uncomfortable moment, a tight almost painful hug, I just… I love her. I love her. I love her. I loved being inside of her head, I loved seeing her with her sister, with Dell, fighting against Nik Nik and Adra, and walking through the infinite worlds. I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS BECAUSE IT HAS RENDERED ME PRETTY MUCH INCOHERENT.
So, bullet points:
-I fucking LOVE the way they bring in parallel universes to this. It is one of my favorite tropes and concepts to explore and I really love the way it was in this story.
-I shall reiterate, I LOVE CARA AS A PROTAGONIST
-I also fucking LOVE dell, and their relationship
-I also fucking ADORE Esther and the sister relationship with Cara.
-I love the exploration of class and capitalism and the environment that is peppered into this story about world hopping
-I love the prose in this. Several lines hit me like a gut punch, some of them made me groan out loud and then get yelled at by my mother, the single highest praise I can give.
I want to read everything this author ever writes and I want to read this book again about 8 million times.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Murder
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
mar's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
5.0
o|-<
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Racism, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
spacebot3000's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
4.5
This is an amazing book - not only because of the premise and the world building, but also because of the complex character dynamics. There is so much subtlety in the way the characters are developed, and every single character is brought to life. Also, the way the parallel universes are set up is very unique and intriguing; I can't think of any other story that uses a system like this. This book does not sacrifice characters for plot or vice versa - both are so interesting and well-written that I can't think of a way to make it any better.
This book is definitely worth reading but you do have to be in the right space for it, since there is challenging content (see the content warnings). The content did contribute a lot to character development and plot, and I understand why it needed to be present.
This book is definitely worth reading but you do have to be in the right space for it, since there is challenging content (see the content warnings). The content did contribute a lot to character development and plot, and I understand why it needed to be present.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction and Drug abuse
Minor: Child death