Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

50 reviews

martinatan's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

So so excellently crafted from the narrator voice to the build up of MULTIPLE worlds and the mechanics of traversing and the interactions between natives of different Earths, to the character development of the protagonist and the not quite expected ending. This story gave me so much and I’m in awe of the careful weaving that went into every reveal of circumstance and dialogue. Maybe it’s because I’m queer but the ending made me so very happy. I felt like everything was fought for through the plot and the characters’ very active scheming against one another. I can’t believe I actually read through this so slowly at first, but then got more intrigued about the conflict with each Part after I got used to the setting. That shows me how much I value good endings. Incredible story :)

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Deportation

Minor: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

salicer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Racism, Torture, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Homophobia

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.75

This is my second read through in preparation for the authors next book. I loved it even more, even though I knew all the twists and turns it would make. A truly believable and horrible world with truly beautiful people. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Violence, War, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, and Sexual content

squibney's review

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.75

The ending was slightly lackluster for how profound the rest of the book was, but it didn’t ruin it for me and I would definitely read this again. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Murder

mj1588's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

lilybees's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Physical abuse

deetabz's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, and War

tangleroot_eli's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

It's only March, but the books I read for the rest of 2024 will have a hard fight to unseat this one as my favorite of the year.

Johnson's worldbuilding is exquisite. I got attached to her characters within paragraphs of their introductions. Her portrayals of classism, racism, and colonialism felt like constant gut-punches. If Spouse weren't waiting to read it before we have to return this copy to the library, I might've flipped right back to the beginning and started reading it again the moment I finished it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Minor: Gun violence, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and War

Graphic: Environmental degradation Minor: Whorephobia, Child labor

athnyx230's review

reflective 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Blood, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Miscarriage

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

This wasn't quite what I expected.  I was expecting it to be set on contemporary earth or maybe the near future.   That was probably my fault for making an assumption and this misalignment of expectations may have influenced how I felt about the book.

The idea that travel is limited to a few hundred worlds because otherwise they're too dissimilar to the traveler's world (and that they can start closely aligned enough for travel but become misaligned enough to make it impossible) is interesting.   And it doesn't seem tied to the particular traveler, the present circumstances of the Earth as a whole has to be pretty similar.    Consequently, most people's circumstances are pretty similar from world to world.   It's certainly different from most alternate reality books where someone tries on various lives completely different from their own (only to realize the life they'd been living was the best one all along).   It does mean that big historical moments and conditions have to be somewhat similar.  For example, just as a world with nuclear war would take itself out of alignment, so would one with much greater  equality, where some of the biggest problems have been solved. 

There's also some romance to it, the notion that the same people come together across multiple worlds.  Of course, those relationships aren't always healthy sometimes they're quite toxic.  

But mostly, of course, it's about exploiting other worlds.   Obtaining resources the prime world can't (or won't) extract on its own.    And letting things play out on other worlds so they can decide what to do (or not) on their own.   It's not quite clear how the data the travelers retrieve is gathered, but I suppose that's a minor detail.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, and Murder