Reviews tagging 'Deportation'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

9 reviews

tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

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.

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

Graphic: Environmental degradation Minor: Whorephobia, Child labor

prosenheim's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Deportation, Gore, Child abuse, Addiction, and Abandonment

Minor: Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, and Suicide

workingdaley's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

I read this book for a book club that I was in, and I found it to be a fascinating read. Not my favorite by any means, but I find the concept of turning something as aspirational as dimension traveling into grunt work for the poor that (mild spoilers)

the rich are actively trying to replace

to be deeply interesting. It's one of the things that I love about Afrofuturism. It's important to take these concepts that we are aspiring to and consider who it is being built off of and what the consequences of that are for society at large. This book does a great job of exploring that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Classism, Death, and Deportation

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual violence, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Emotional abuse, Murder, and War

Minor: Abandonment, Death of parent, and Sexual content

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Deportation, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug abuse, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Drug use

Minor: Sexual content

ciaomara's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Deportation, Trafficking, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Violence, War, Toxic relationship, and Emotional abuse

fin_pilot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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: Toxic relationship, Violence, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Deportation

Moderate: Gore, Classism, and Drug abuse

Minor: Racism

gameoftomes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

I absolutely loved this book. It’s a stellar scifi novel about the multiverse and about identity. How different circumstances change the choices we might make and how to know someone to their core in spite of their multiversal selves. 

Cara is really smart, you get to see her thought process. It never feels like the author is just telling when she’s doing this. It’s so interesting to be in Cara’s head, her decisions always make sense with her character. Cara is wayyyy to hard on herself throughout the book though, but it checks out with her past that includes the death of her parents, a toxic and abusive relationship, and the horrible conditions of the place she grew up in. 

Great plot twists throughout the book. 3 big ones in the first 100 pages. The plot twists are spaced well, with foreshadowing and good writing that makes the twists make perfect sense within the story. 

Fully fledged science fiction world, never feels like info-dumping, it feels like discovery the way Micaiah Johnson writes it. I loved being absorbed into the world. 

I thought this was YA based on the cover, but it’s adult science fiction even though there is no gratuitous descriptions of violence and no explicit sex scenes. The protagonist is 26 and the plot is more complex then typical YA scifi, which tends to focus more on character and/or world building than plot. 

10/10 for me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cultural appropriation, Deportation, Grief, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Child death, Violence, Biphobia, Death of parent, Death, and Classism

immovabletype's review against another edition

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

brainloo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Murder, Classism, and Deportation