Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Space Between Worlds

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.

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tachyondecay's review

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The idea of the multiverse is captivating, no? The thought that there are infinitely-many yous out there, that at any moment the choice you make diverges you from them a little more. I do so love parallel-universe fiction and other, similar, world-hopping stories, so I was excited for The Space Between Worlds. The fact it has a queer protagonist of colour? Even better! Indeed, Micaiah Johnson isn’t just telling a multiverse thriller here. This is a postcolonial novel about not belonging, about belonging only when you are useful, and how you calibrate your life when that is all you know how to do.

Cara is one of a small number of people who are useful to the Eldridge corporation as traversers, world-walkers. She is useful because she has died in most of the nearly 400 worlds that the corporation can access. She travels to these worlds to collect information that could enrich Eldridge. But Cara has secrets—for one thing,

she isn’t Caramenta from this Earth 0; she is Caralee from Earth 22, who managed to impersonat Caramenta after the latter arrived, broken and dying, on Caralee’s Earth

(this is what happens when you try to visit an Earth where your counterpart lives). Matters at Eldridge are coming to a head, because Cara and all the other traversers might be out of a job soon. So she has to find a way to protect her interests, lest she is deported back to the impoverished town on the outskirts of Wiley City that she hails from (in any universe). Unfortunately for Cara, it isn’t even clear who her allies or—or her enemies.

Cara’s secret identity is revealed early in the book (this is why it’s a minor spoiler) and is what got me hooked on the whole plot. Up until that point, I wasn’t sure what Johnson was playing with here—there are so many directions a multiverse story can go in! When she revealed

Cara is not actually from this Earth,

holy wow, yes, I was so in for stakes like that. As Cara travels to visit her family in Ashtown, and flirts/spars with her handler, Dell, we see the cracks in her facade. It’s hard to pretend to be someone you’re not, even when that person is also you.

Indeed, Cara is a great example of an unlikable protagonist. She is very self-interested and spiky, a result of her rough and difficult upbringing, so she doesn’t fit into the mould of lovable heroine that we might want from a book like this. I like this choice by Johnson, just as I like that Johnson doesn’t shy away from social commentary about the way we (white people and corporations) use Black and brown bodies as labour to build our cities and businesses while simultaneously impoverishing and punishing those same bodies.

There’s also a queer romance hiding in here, although to be honest it was developed in a somewhat slapdash way with far too much of a helping of exposition. That would be my complaint about this book: the characters are cool, but the plotting that brings them together doesn’t always satisfy me. After electrifying me for the first few acts, the final act was convoluted and even anticlimactic.

In the end, I was left wanting more. More use of the multiverse and traversing. More poignant scenes between characters. More careful plotting and exposition in a way that didn’t leave everything so obvious. The Space Between Worlds is intriguing and enjoyable, yet there was something about it that didn’t quite gel for me.

Originally posted at Kara.Reviews.

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alas_aly's review

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adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don't read a lot of sci-fi, mostly because I don't know what I like in the genre. One thing that I know that I do like is multiverse stories which is the premise of this story. I know that all or most science fiction stories are allegories and this one is no exception. That being said, it is done with such a deft touch I could easily see this being a classic that students read and study in schools. There are lines in here are that are just gut punches but you didn't get to sit with them because the narrative keeps moving forward. I really appreciate that the story both gives you beautiful writing but doesn't force you to slow down and dwell in it.

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caseythereader's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

📚 Wow, what a premise! Multiverse travel, but make it hinge on race and class. If being dead in many worlds makes you a good traverser, then the poor and oppressed who are more likely to die are the best traversers, not the rich and privileged.

📚 Casual, built-in queerness, but it's not a coming out story.

📚 Several excellent twists, some of which I did not see coming.

📚 The writing is just superb. Excellent dialogue, and I could envision the world perfectly.

📚 I'll follow Micaiah Johnson into any world she creates.

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