Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

95 reviews

deetabz's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Sexual content, War, and Racism

widowrites's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

This book absolutely blew me away. I love a complicated character who isn’t perfect and this story nails that. The premise itself is interesting and it’s executed brilliantly. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Child death, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Addiction

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Murder, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death of parent

Minor: War, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Vomit, Child death, and Suicide

secre's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

A Space Between Worlds is a riveting and entertaining science fiction novel that starts as one thing and quickly spirals into a much deeper and wider conspiracy net. The opening pages confused me as I struggled to understand what was going on, but once I got past that hurdle I was absolutely hooked. It's got an interesting set-up; the Earth Cara lives on is Earth zero. However technology has advanced to the point that people can travel to alternate worlds... but only if their alternate self no longer exists. Cara is therefore valuable as for one reason or another, nearly all of her alternate selves are dead. She can travel to almost all of the alternate worlds. Only on her latest available world, Cara hits a snag. And that snag leads to discoveries that will change the shape of her own world.

This is a book that is both poignant and entertaining. It's also beautifully written. Johnson builds up the worlds beautifully, with each change potentially having a ripple effect that has long lasting effects. Along with the world building, the characterisations are exceptionally done and the romance angle was enough in the background to not niggle at me. No problems with queer romance, I just find any romance that takes over the story to be annoying. I particularly appreciated how real many of the side characters were, when they could have just faded into the background almost anonymously.

All in all, I really enjoyed this and will certainly seek out more of Micaiah Johnson's work. I felt it was a clever narrative that drew on themes of racial and social inequalities and disparities without standing on a soap box yelling about them. The characters were lively and interesting and I was genuinely invested in their well-being. And the narrative was interesting and unexpected at points, without ever having to rely on sudden shock twists without build up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Death of parent and Murder

Minor: Drug abuse

hybridhavoc's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

5.0

Absolutely loved this one. It's not often that a sci-fi novel gets a really great premise and complex characters with complex relationships. This book delivers.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Murder, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Drug use

pferdina's review against another edition

challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Traveling between worlds, Cara also translates between her people in Ashtown and her coworkers in Wiley City. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

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

crownoflaurel's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Murder and Violence

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

5.0

5 ⭐ CW: violence, death, murder, abuse, sex work, suicidal ideation 

The Space Between Worlds by Michiah Johnson is a dystopian scifi story that is gripping and brutal. One of my friends has been bugging me to read this, and I finally got around to it. Let's just say this friend is two for two in the scifi recs. 

Earth has figured out that multiverses do exist, and Adam Bosch has created a way to traverse them. The catch is that in order to travel to these other Earths, your doppelganger has to have already died. We follow Cara, a traverser that is special, because out of the 300 and some Earths, she has died in most of them. 

As Cara traverses these different versions of Earth, she meets the same people living different lives, but discovers there are a lot of commonalities. Every world has a Wiley City, a walled city for the rich and elite progressives that denies access to those living in Ashtown. Ashtown, where Cara is originally from, is desolate and full of violence. When Cara starts to question why no other Earths have discovered how to travel, she finds herself enmeshed in corporate sabotage involving the multiverse. 

This was such a brutal read, but it was also so beautifully written. We learn so much about Cara on Earth Zero as well as a lot about her other selves. We also get a thread about her being in love with her distant handler, Dell, but that isn't what it seems either. So much sapphic pining. I loved seeing Cara's character growth and her growing morals all while being tough and ruthless. There is some nonbinary representation on the side, but it was nice to see how it was integrated into the world. 

I don't want to give too much away, but it's definitely worth the read if you were a fan of This is How You Lose the Time War (with less romance focus). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual content

kshertz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed the whole concept! Multiverse but only available if you’re dead on earth and in most multiverses. So minorities become valuable because of the high mortality. 

I got confused a lot and not enough romance. But excellent commentary on Earth and lots of fantastic one liners reflecting our social world and all that’s wrong with Earth and it’s humans. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Abandonment, Murder, Body horror, Death of parent, Death, Violence, War, and Gun violence