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malloryfitz's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Grief, and Medical trauma
anigoose's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved this book. In that falling-hard-this-is-inevitable-bewitched-ardently kind of way. There's no rules or guidelines to this kind of love, you know? I can't tell you what was so good about it, just flutter and flap and push the book into your lap.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence
esmithumland's review
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I was disappointed that this was once again a psuedo-slave narrative, but I understand why these kinds of stories exist and why they're important. The world building was stunning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Child abuse and Child death
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Medical content
dianna_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, and Toxic relationship
micheala's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this version of multiverse travel. The idea that you can only have one "copy" of each person per world was great as it explains why it would have taken so long to have invented this technology and why its still so rare.
I enjoyed watching Cara change and grow and then settle into herself as the novel progressed. Finding out the reasoning behind her actions as the novel went was very satisfying.
I personally liked how neat the ending wrapped up, however if you're not a fan of all the loose ends getting tied up just be prepared that that is a thing to expect.
I enjoyed watching Cara change and grow and then settle into herself as the novel progressed. Finding out the reasoning behind her actions as the novel went was very satisfying.
I personally liked how neat the ending wrapped up, however if you're not a fan of all the loose ends getting tied up just be prepared that that is a thing to expect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Violence
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, and Toxic relationship
tachyondecay's review against another edition
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,
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
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Minor: Sexual content
la_xu's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Rating: 3.25 stars
I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about this novel and I think a lot of that stemmed from it not being what I expected. I was leaning towards a 3 star, but bumped it up a bit because I think it's unfair to rate the book based on something it wasn't meant to be.
Summary: In this world, technology allows people like Cara, our main character, to travel between alternate universes (called Traversers). Only, traverers can only go to universes where they have died. As Caras from other worlds start dying, the worlds increase for Cara. A routine jump goes wrong and Cara needs to figure out why that happened.
That was the best I could do without spoilers.
First, a few things I really loved about this book:
The novel was really beautifully written. It was really impressive for a debut novel. It was descriptive and lyrical without being too flowery. The concept was also really creative and provided a unique take on what traveling between multiverses can look like. The author did a great job at mixing science fiction with some mystery and thriller elements. I also thought it was really creative how she folded in issues such as race, socioeconomic status, and religion into the world she created. It paralleled those issues in real life such that the interactions between the rich Wileyites and poor Ashtowners made sense. Moreover, the explored themes were also so relatable to the real world, such as its emphasis on the importance of family (or found families), the double-edged sword of blind ambition, morality, and capitalism.
The novel was also incredibly diverse without being specifically about diversity. There were so many casual references to sexuality, gender, and race that so neatly and genuinely incorporated into the story.
Another impressive thing that the author did was how she kept the story moving throughout the story. I felt like she had dropped pieces and hints of the bigger picture here and there throughout that kept me reading. Starting from even just a two chapters in, we learn a big twist about Cara's past. Then as you keep reading, every few chapters reveal a new twist or just something I didn't really see coming. The reveals were done really well and each time I would be shocked until it all came together in the end.
So despite all my gushing for what the book did great, I still had such a hard time staying interested in the story. Despite those twists and reveals, the areas in between left me a bit frustrated. One of the biggest issues for me again was the book being different from what I expected: From the synopsis given on the back of the book/on Goodreads, it sounds like it is going to be a multiverse-traveling adventure. I thought we would see more of other worlds, their differences, and how Cara interacted with them. Instead, there was a lot more telling rather than showing. We would be told Cara is going on a jump to another world, then the next chapter or paragraph would start with her back on her world and telling us that the jump had happened. I guess I didn't realize that the story was not so much about adventures of traveling across different worlds, but rather we only see her traversing in detail to one world that becomes relevant to the plot of the story.
I also felt that while Cara herself was really well developed, all her relationships were not. All the other characters were not given enough time and just weren't fully fleshed out. For example, I always always always love a good sister relationship in novels. And while I still believed in and rooted for Esther and Cara's sister-relationship, I would have liked to see more of their relationship so that the impact Cara's travel to world 175 and such would have had a bigger impact. The same honestly goes for her entire family. I felt like the differences between her world and world 175 later in the story just could have been more impactful had we seen more of her family in her world. The only character that the 175 Earth successfully contrasted for me was Nik Nik. In addition to her relationship with her sister, I also felt like Cara's romantic relationship with Dell was just so underdeveloped that I honestly could not see the ending actually happening. I wish that their relationship was developed earlier on. I don't need straight-up romance in my books by any means but the sapphic relationship was hyped up and yet the characters don't even communicate (like at all) until the last few chapters of the book. I just couldn't even tell what their relationship was based on.
Another issue I had with the pacing of the novel is how the author would actually interrupt pivotal action scenes within her novel with detours of something else. For example, there was one scene where on Earth 175, Cara is traveling across the desert towards a port. It seems like it could be high stakes, the sun is unbearably hot, she might be caught, and there may be other runners or people around who can hurt her. Yet in the middle of that, we cut to Cara thinking about Dell and how much the sun's brightness reminds her of Dell... for 3 pages. This ties in with how the book is much more telling than showing. We don't see the action scenes, and we don't see the emotional, character-developing scenes. Instead we get action interrupted by Cara's thoughts and narration to TELL us about her past and feelings towards other characters. All that together made this book a slog to get through despite interesting concepts and unexpected twists.
Lastly, the ending just felt way too abrupt to me. Everything wrapped up in like 25 pages. I just could not believe that Earth 0 Nik Nik would so easily believe Cara and suddenly decide to go after Adam Bosch who he had no idea existed or was related to him until that point. I also felt like everything was just a bit too convenient at the end. Bosch seems like the type of guy who has planned everything meticulously since the beginning and yet Cara still got away with so many convenient things in the end, ranging from sneaking onto Floor 88, to sneaking into his house, to poisoning him. It was just such a fast ending that it didn't give the reader time to sit with the outcome of Bosch's poisoning. It was also too convenient to Cara how Bosch reacted to her stunt. We go from highly intense action for 20 pages of the climax to a sudden epilogue that tried to be open-ended but seemed to suggest that everything worked out perfectly in the end.
I think that the author has so much potential for her sophomore novel and I will still be interested in picking up what she writes in the future. I just hope she can incorporate a bit more showing rather than telling in her writing, as well as pacing out the conclusion of her stories a bit better.
I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about this novel and I think a lot of that stemmed from it not being what I expected. I was leaning towards a 3 star, but bumped it up a bit because I think it's unfair to rate the book based on something it wasn't meant to be.
Summary: In this world, technology allows people like Cara, our main character, to travel between alternate universes (called Traversers). Only, traverers can only go to universes where they have died. As Caras from other worlds start dying, the worlds increase for Cara. A routine jump goes wrong and Cara needs to figure out why that happened.
That was the best I could do without spoilers.
First, a few things I really loved about this book:
The novel was really beautifully written. It was really impressive for a debut novel. It was descriptive and lyrical without being too flowery. The concept was also really creative and provided a unique take on what traveling between multiverses can look like. The author did a great job at mixing science fiction with some mystery and thriller elements. I also thought it was really creative how she folded in issues such as race, socioeconomic status, and religion into the world she created. It paralleled those issues in real life such that the interactions between the rich Wileyites and poor Ashtowners made sense. Moreover, the explored themes were also so relatable to the real world, such as its emphasis on the importance of family (or found families), the double-edged sword of blind ambition, morality, and capitalism.
The novel was also incredibly diverse without being specifically about diversity. There were so many casual references to sexuality, gender, and race that so neatly and genuinely incorporated into the story.
Another impressive thing that the author did was how she kept the story moving throughout the story. I felt like she had dropped pieces and hints of the bigger picture here and there throughout that kept me reading. Starting from even just a two chapters in, we learn a big twist about Cara's past. Then as you keep reading, every few chapters reveal a new twist or just something I didn't really see coming. The reveals were done really well and each time I would be shocked until it all came together in the end.
So despite all my gushing for what the book did great, I still had such a hard time staying interested in the story. Despite those twists and reveals, the areas in between left me a bit frustrated. One of the biggest issues for me again was the book being different from what I expected: From the synopsis given on the back of the book/on Goodreads, it sounds like it is going to be a multiverse-traveling adventure. I thought we would see more of other worlds, their differences, and how Cara interacted with them. Instead, there was a lot more telling rather than showing. We would be told Cara is going on a jump to another world, then the next chapter or paragraph would start with her back on her world and telling us that the jump had happened. I guess I didn't realize that the story was not so much about adventures of traveling across different worlds, but rather we only see her traversing in detail to one world that becomes relevant to the plot of the story.
I also felt that while Cara herself was really well developed, all her relationships were not. All the other characters were not given enough time and just weren't fully fleshed out. For example, I always always always love a good sister relationship in novels. And while I still believed in and rooted for Esther and Cara's sister-relationship, I would have liked to see more of their relationship so that the impact Cara's travel to world 175 and such would have had a bigger impact. The same honestly goes for her entire family. I felt like the differences between her world and world 175 later in the story just could have been more impactful had we seen more of her family in her world. The only character that the 175 Earth successfully contrasted for me was Nik Nik. In addition to her relationship with her sister, I also felt like Cara's romantic relationship with Dell was just so underdeveloped that I honestly could not see the ending actually happening. I wish that their relationship was developed earlier on. I don't need straight-up romance in my books by any means but the sapphic relationship was hyped up and yet the characters don't even communicate (like at all) until the last few chapters of the book. I just couldn't even tell what their relationship was based on.
Another issue I had with the pacing of the novel is how the author would actually interrupt pivotal action scenes within her novel with detours of something else. For example, there was one scene where on Earth 175, Cara is traveling across the desert towards a port. It seems like it could be high stakes, the sun is unbearably hot, she might be caught, and there may be other runners or people around who can hurt her. Yet in the middle of that, we cut to Cara thinking about Dell and how much the sun's brightness reminds her of Dell... for 3 pages. This ties in with how the book is much more telling than showing. We don't see the action scenes, and we don't see the emotional, character-developing scenes. Instead we get action interrupted by Cara's thoughts and narration to TELL us about her past and feelings towards other characters. All that together made this book a slog to get through despite interesting concepts and unexpected twists.
Lastly, the ending just felt way too abrupt to me. Everything wrapped up in like 25 pages. I just could not believe that
I think that the author has so much potential for her sophomore novel and I will still be interested in picking up what she writes in the future. I just hope she can incorporate a bit more showing rather than telling in her writing, as well as pacing out the conclusion of her stories a bit better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma
catsy2022's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Rating: B+
I turn away, trying to remember the last time I cared about anything to scream for it.
The Space Between Worlds is a refreshing and unexpected read for 2020. I'd place this in the same camp as The Last Policeman and The Gone World which I also read this year. This book is about Cara, a traverser who works for the mysterious Eldridge company; a traverser is someone who travels between worlds. Their purpose is usually analytical, but Cara becomes embroiled in something that's bigger than she expected. She comes from a poor city named Ashtown that has grown into the rival empire of Wiley Town, where pale-skilled rich people live.
I really enjoyed the elements of this story, the characters and world were great, I loved reading about them and how Cara thinks. I loved the complexities of their life and how starkly different from our own life they were. The bounds of the world are limited to Wiley and Ashtown and so we never really go beyond their individual goals. I still really enjoyed this and I liked the myth and mystery around Nyame, the god who inhabits the space between worlds.
There are a few different groups in play in this story, each playing their important part and being explained through the book's modest 320 pages. I think what fell short for me in this book is the direction the story went. I found that the middle of the book could have been something big and immense but it started randomly and I felt that it was ultimately not that major to the course of the story. I really felt the story falling apart around 250 and couldn't really see the motivation to why the story went the direction it did. I was surprised honestly about one change to their way of life late in the story; after it is all pieced together I wondered, was that really all worth it?
Still a decent read, I had a lot of fun and powered through it.
I turn away, trying to remember the last time I cared about anything to scream for it.
The Space Between Worlds is a refreshing and unexpected read for 2020. I'd place this in the same camp as The Last Policeman and The Gone World which I also read this year. This book is about Cara, a traverser who works for the mysterious Eldridge company; a traverser is someone who travels between worlds. Their purpose is usually analytical, but Cara becomes embroiled in something that's bigger than she expected. She comes from a poor city named Ashtown that has grown into the rival empire of Wiley Town, where pale-skilled rich people live.
I really enjoyed the elements of this story, the characters and world were great, I loved reading about them and how Cara thinks. I loved the complexities of their life and how starkly different from our own life they were. The bounds of the world are limited to Wiley and Ashtown and so we never really go beyond their individual goals. I still really enjoyed this and I liked the myth and mystery around Nyame, the god who inhabits the space between worlds.
There are a few different groups in play in this story, each playing their important part and being explained through the book's modest 320 pages. I think what fell short for me in this book is the direction the story went. I found that the middle of the book could have been something big and immense but it started randomly and I felt that it was ultimately not that major to the course of the story. I really felt the story falling apart around 250 and couldn't really see the motivation to why the story went the direction it did. I was surprised honestly about one change to their way of life late in the story; after it is all pieced together I wondered, was that really all worth it?
Still a decent read, I had a lot of fun and powered through it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, and Blood
Minor: Child abuse and Drug abuse
alas_aly's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Grief
Minor: Child death and Cursing
lilifane's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I didn't know much about this book when I started reading it, only that it takes place in a world where the multiverse is confirmed and where it's possible to travel between the different earths.
Cara, the protagonist, is one of the few people who get the chance to experience this, because there is one catch: you have to be dead on the other earth, to be able to survive the journey to it. And from the 380 worlds that are similar enough to travel to, Cara is dead on all but 8. So she is hired by the inventor of the technology that makes traversing possible to travel to other worlds and gather information on them, intel that will help her own world to learn and thrive. But then she makes a discovery that changes everything.
I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot. It's a little much at the beginning but the worldbuilding is phenomenal, the cast is diverse and I loved Cara's voice from the start. She is such an amazing complex character. She is strong, smart, ambitious, fragile, makes bad decisions. You get frustrated with her sometimes but she also surprises you when you expect it the least. The writing is beautiful and full of details that get important later. The plot is unexpected, it switches between slow and fast pace, between action and contemplation (it gets a little generic in the second half though). For me it was never about the plot. It's about the world and it's rules, about the character developments, about the struggles between what is right and what is easy to do, about fittng in vs. belonging. I really liked all the characters, even the villains, because due to the multiple earths and versions, you get to know a lot of different aspects of them. I loved the sibling dynamics throught the whole book, the found families, even the spiritual aspects which fit surprisingly well with everything. And then there is this slow burn wlw subplot...
It's really hard for me to describe the book because I haven't read anything like it before and there is so much to think about and discuss. And even though I think the second half was weaker than the first half, the ending was just perfect for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use