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tangleroot_eli's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Even more brilliant in terms of worldbuilding than Space Between Worlds, though without quite the emotional grab-you-by-the-throatness. I don't know what, if anything, Johnson plans to write next, but I will devour every word of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Classism, Gore, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Death of parent, Grief, Child abuse, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Ableism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Transphobia, Child death, Gun violence, Addiction, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Police brutality
Graphic: Environmental degradation Moderate: Whorephobiacozyscones's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, Classism, Gore, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Torture, and Suicide
Minor: Transphobia
jess_justmaybeperfect's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-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
I loved the first book, The Space Between Worlds, in this series.
Those Beyond the Wall is even better. In this book, about a decade after the end of The Space Between Worlds, we meet the protagonist, Mr. Scales. Mr. Scales, a runner for the emperor of Ashtown, has secrets only few know and even fewer acknowledge. As conflict with the City comes closer and closer, Mr. Scales and her friends, family, enemies, and heroes scheme and eventually fight to protect their people. Relationships come full circle and flip back again. Truths come into shocking focus.
Johnson weaves for her readers a thoughtful, lyrical, and futuristic tale of family, obligation, violence, friendship, and what it really means to be an anti-hero. In fact, the entire book is from Mr. Scales's POV and so we see it all from her (anti-hero) perspective. Those Beyond the Wall addresses climate change, colonialism, racism, misogyny, police violence, the abuse of marginalized communities by the powerful, gender fluidity, consent, and trauma with such a graceful skill I really don't have the words to describe how moving it is.
Johnson is officially an auto-buy author for me.
While this novel certainly stands alone, I think the experience is made richer by reading book 1 first. Plus you get a glimpse of important characters from that book.
I read Those Beyond the Wall with my eyes and ears and while I certainly recommend both, I thought the narrator was perfect and added even more to the story.
Those Beyond the Wall is even better. In this book, about a decade after the end of The Space Between Worlds, we meet the protagonist, Mr. Scales. Mr. Scales, a runner for the emperor of Ashtown, has secrets only few know and even fewer acknowledge. As conflict with the City comes closer and closer, Mr. Scales and her friends, family, enemies, and heroes scheme and eventually fight to protect their people. Relationships come full circle and flip back again. Truths come into shocking focus.
Johnson weaves for her readers a thoughtful, lyrical, and futuristic tale of family, obligation, violence, friendship, and what it really means to be an anti-hero. In fact, the entire book is from Mr. Scales's POV and so we see it all from her (anti-hero) perspective. Those Beyond the Wall addresses climate change, colonialism, racism, misogyny, police violence, the abuse of marginalized communities by the powerful, gender fluidity, consent, and trauma with such a graceful skill I really don't have the words to describe how moving it is.
Johnson is officially an auto-buy author for me.
While this novel certainly stands alone, I think the experience is made richer by reading book 1 first. Plus you get a glimpse of important characters from that book.
I read Those Beyond the Wall with my eyes and ears and while I certainly recommend both, I thought the narrator was perfect and added even more to the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deadnaming, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, War, Addiction, Grief, Misogyny, Police brutality, Gun violence, Racism, Murder, Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Sexism, Blood, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Alcohol, Religious bigotry, Violence, Xenophobia, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse
yourbookishbff's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This was a stunning follow-up to The Space Between Worlds, and in many ways, functions as theoretical counterpoint to that narrative. Where TSBW tells us the story of a hero, Those Beyond the Wall tells us the story of an anti-hero. Where TSBW shows us evil being held accountable, Those Beyond the Wall shows us the extent to which evil will avoid accountability. Where TSBW focuses on change from within, Those Beyond the Wall focuses on revolution from without. Micaiah Johnson is explicit in her inspiration for this book, telling readers in the dedication that this book was born out of her experience as part of the 62-day sit-in at The People's Plaza in Nashville, and you feel it on every page. This is the book you write about revolution when your peaceful resistance was met with state-sanctioned violence.
Most interesting is the return of Cara from TSBW as an on-page foil to our main character and narrator in Those Beyond the Wall, Mr. Scales. As Scales and Cara circle each other on page, you can see warring philosophies played out, and as readers, we are challenged with uncomfortable questions: can abusive people be redeemed in their lifetimes, does violence ever engender peace, can apartheid states ever achieve equity without retribution? This is a violent narrative, dark and unforgiving and at times incredibly bleak, but Johnson has this unparalleled ability to weave into even the darkest moments glimmers of human connection and community. She credits this, too, to her experience in resistance movements, and you can feel its authenticity.
Foundational to Johnson's beyond-the-wall community is The House. We were introduced to The House and its sex workers in TSBW, but we see so much more of its rehabilitative work in this installment, and Johnson's portrayal of healing - physical, sexual, emotional, communal - is remarkably nuanced. We also have a broader discussion of gender identity and gender fluidity in this installment that speaks to the battles we've seen play out over trans rights in the years since TSBW was published.
This duo should, ideally, be read in order, because the two books are speaking to each other in a way that evidences Johnson's own political experiences and the years in which they were written. That said, she does an excellent job rebuilding the world in a way that I think even a new reader would be able to connect to the world-building and character arcs in Those Beyond the Wall as an entry point.
This book is an example of sci fi at its most relevant and its most insightful. As Johnson notes in her author's note at the book's start:
"Science fiction is fueled by dreams of a different, but possible, future. The same is true for Rage. While bitterness is an isolator, a repellent to community, Rage is a beacon calling out to others. It is as much a communal invitation as any bonfire.
Come join me, Rage says, at this spark that is lit by the distance between what the world is, and what we could make it."
Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for an advanced reader's copy.
Most interesting is the return of Cara from TSBW as an on-page foil to our main character and narrator in Those Beyond the Wall, Mr. Scales. As Scales and Cara circle each other on page, you can see warring philosophies played out, and as readers, we are challenged with uncomfortable questions: can abusive people be redeemed in their lifetimes, does violence ever engender peace, can apartheid states ever achieve equity without retribution? This is a violent narrative, dark and unforgiving and at times incredibly bleak, but Johnson has this unparalleled ability to weave into even the darkest moments glimmers of human connection and community. She credits this, too, to her experience in resistance movements, and you can feel its authenticity.
Foundational to Johnson's beyond-the-wall community is The House. We were introduced to The House and its sex workers in TSBW, but we see so much more of its rehabilitative work in this installment, and Johnson's portrayal of healing - physical, sexual, emotional, communal - is remarkably nuanced. We also have a broader discussion of gender identity and gender fluidity in this installment that speaks to the battles we've seen play out over trans rights in the years since TSBW was published.
This duo should, ideally, be read in order, because the two books are speaking to each other in a way that evidences Johnson's own political experiences and the years in which they were written. That said, she does an excellent job rebuilding the world in a way that I think even a new reader would be able to connect to the world-building and character arcs in Those Beyond the Wall as an entry point.
This book is an example of sci fi at its most relevant and its most insightful. As Johnson notes in her author's note at the book's start:
"Science fiction is fueled by dreams of a different, but possible, future. The same is true for Rage. While bitterness is an isolator, a repellent to community, Rage is a beacon calling out to others. It is as much a communal invitation as any bonfire.
Come join me, Rage says, at this spark that is lit by the distance between what the world is, and what we could make it."
Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for an advanced reader's copy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Death, Police brutality, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Racism, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, War, Blood, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Child death, Grief, Murder, Child abuse, and Classism
Moderate: Sexual content, Drug use, Transphobia, and Addiction
Minor: Gun violence
lprongs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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
Holy shit. This book is a righteous rage filled answer to an unjust world. There are plenty of real world references, some more overt than others, that tune you into what it's really about. But the thing that gets me is that despite all of the violence - the murder, the gore, the rage - it never feels heavy. It feels just and restorative and satisfying all the way through. It is full of violence, but also care and introspection, and in the end, a hope for the future.
The characters have created a system that uses insider violence to protect against outsider violence, but have also created such a thorough system of care for each other. The runners, though trained to be terrifying and efficient killers, are also trained in conflict management, in how to spot depression in their peers and care for them. The casual depiction of complex community based care was amazing. The characters are also so complex in such good ways - having to present one way for the good of the people, even if they hate you, knowing that what you're doing is morally wrong but if you didn't do it, you'd do something worse. The salvation the protagonist finds in sanctioned and celebrated violence so they don't lose themselves in their own uncontrolled rage, the way they heal by giving unconditionally to someone who doesn't flinch from them. It's all just so...perfect. And given how the real world feels like it's falling apart and only getting angrier, this was a surprisingly therapeutic read. This is both the angriest and most honest book I've resd in a long time.
The inspiration from ballroom culture is outstanding, with what I assume are Panther references, climate injustices, general injustices toward the global south and of course the obvious commentary on white supremacy and its systems which are sometimes heavy handed but well deserved and well articulated for a fictional world without being too preachy about our current one. They rang more as affirmations than lectures.
Overall, if you're angry at the world and its injustices, if it has wounded you, read this book.
The characters have created a system that uses insider violence to protect against outsider violence, but have also created such a thorough system of care for each other. The runners, though trained to be terrifying and efficient killers, are also trained in conflict management, in how to spot depression in their peers and care for them. The casual depiction of complex community based care was amazing. The characters are also so complex in such good ways - having to present one way for the good of the people, even if they hate you, knowing that what you're doing is morally wrong but if you didn't do it, you'd do something worse. The salvation the protagonist finds in sanctioned and celebrated violence so they don't lose themselves in their own uncontrolled rage, the way they heal by giving unconditionally to someone who doesn't flinch from them. It's all just so...perfect. And given how the real world feels like it's falling apart and only getting angrier, this was a surprisingly therapeutic read. This is both the angriest and most honest book I've resd in a long time.
The inspiration from ballroom culture is outstanding, with what I assume are Panther references, climate injustices, general injustices toward the global south and of course the obvious commentary on white supremacy and its systems which are sometimes heavy handed but well deserved and well articulated for a fictional world without being too preachy about our current one. They rang more as affirmations than lectures.
Overall, if you're angry at the world and its injustices, if it has wounded you, read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Child abuse, Toxic friendship, and Physical abuse
Minor: Cultural appropriation, Sexual content, Slavery, Transphobia, and Addiction
Further content warnings: religious trauma, shaming of sex workers, depression.caseythereader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-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
3.75
Thanks to Del Rey Books for the free copy of this book.
- I never thought we’d get to return to Ashtown and Wiley! THOSE BEYOND THE WALL brings us back to the universe of THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS about ten years after the events of the first book, and things are different yet completely the same.
- The crew of the first book is back, this time with Mr. Scales as the narrator. She’s smart and hardheaded, but sometimes more ruthless than Cara was in the first book, which leads to a few good shocks in the story.
- Overall, I don’t think this was as tightly plotted as the first book, and occasionally heavy-handed in drawing parallels to our world. Still, I enjoyed being back in this world and Johnson’s mind, who somehow found even higher stakes for this book.
- I never thought we’d get to return to Ashtown and Wiley! THOSE BEYOND THE WALL brings us back to the universe of THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS about ten years after the events of the first book, and things are different yet completely the same.
- The crew of the first book is back, this time with Mr. Scales as the narrator. She’s smart and hardheaded, but sometimes more ruthless than Cara was in the first book, which leads to a few good shocks in the story.
- Overall, I don’t think this was as tightly plotted as the first book, and occasionally heavy-handed in drawing parallels to our world. Still, I enjoyed being back in this world and Johnson’s mind, who somehow found even higher stakes for this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Cursing, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, and Violence
Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Slavery
Minor: Addiction
booksthatburn's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
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
4.5
*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.
THOSE BEYOND THE WALL is a stunning follow-up to THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, building on many of the same themes of classism, racism, xenophobia, protection, abuse, and exploitation from a very different angle. It tells the story of an Ashtown runner trying to stop an existential threat from another world without being trampled by the city of Wiley in the process.
This focuses on Ashtown and its power structures through the perspective of Mr. Scales, a runner who is close friends with Mr. Cheeks and can’t stand former Ruralite, Mr. Cross. Scales is an engaging and somewhat unreliable narrator, using the idea of truth and stories in a metatexual way to complicate her tale, while engaging with the essence of what happened.
The main storyline is new, set up by events in the previous book, but at a distance of years, and with a different main character, which makes a huge difference to the tone and feel of the book. THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS established the idea that in order to travel between worlds, you can only go to a place where your doppelgänger is dead. This means that many white, rich (or even just middle-class) people in Wiley were likely to be alive on too many worlds to make good travelers. This meant that poor, brown, Ashtowners who had been exploited for generations were recruited to be travelers. In THOSE BEYOND THE WALL, Scales is differently concerned with power. She's not asking Wiley city for legitimacy or recognition. Her understanding of the give-and-take of power in relationships doesn’t shy away from the pervasive nature of power dynamics, and she's willing to manipulate the flow of that power as much as she's aware of it. Scales is a fascinating and mostly (but not completely) trustworthy narrator. She seems to be telling the story from the perspective of being at its end and relaying what happened, something not uncommon for first person narratives, though the way she omits, elides, or shifts around information means there's room for some future narrator to disagree with her telling.
I like how deliberately sex work positive this book is. It goes beyond the presence of the House, and the importance of Exlee, deliberately pushing back against the bigoted attitudes of the ruralites, and a former ruralite in particular.
THOSE BEYOND THE WALL can probably be read on its own, with the relevant backstory explained succinctly enough to make sense to anyone who hasn't read THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, or serving as a welcome refresher to anyone for whom it's been a while. As a sort-of sequel, this gives updates and closure for many of the significant characters from the first book. For some, those answers are found in their deaths, but for many of them, this is the story of what happens when Ashtown has to protect themselves from other worlds, and from the classist xenophobes in the city who have benefited from and upheld an apartheid regime. The specific plot would make sense to someone who hadn’t read the first one, partly because it’s a completely different narrator with a completely different perspective on those events, which allows Scales to be an entry point for someone who knows nothing about the first book. However, the ending of THOSE BEYOND THE WALL provides closure to several things that are emotionally left open at the end of THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS. Getting those answers without having asked a question is much less satisfying than it would be for someone who has reason to care about those details. Also, now that I’ve read this, I need to go do a reread of both books in order, because characters who are very important here had different levels of importance in that first book, but I’m pretty sure several of them were present there, beyond the obvious ones like Nik Nik and Cara. Scales has a completely different relationship to Nik Nik than Cara did, in a way that’s fascinating but never let me forget that even the less abusive version of Nik Nik is soaked in death and violence. When looking at sequels, tracking changes in narrative voice has felt more and more perfunctory as I’ve read books that keep the same narrator across the series or have broadly similar ideological goals, such that they’re working in similar directions. This was not the case for THOSE BEYOND THE WALL. Mr. Scales is not the same person as Cara from the first book. They have such fundamentally disparate perspectives that they may as well have grown up in different worlds, even if they technically are from the same one. I’m pretty certain that this particular world is the same one where Cara and Dell made their stand against Adam, but even if I'm wrong about that it doesn't matter much for the experience of reading THOSE BEYOND THE WALL. By closely interacting with an all-consuming and abusive person at different stages of his life, both Cara and Scales were shaped by their relationships to Nik Nik in ways that left indelible marks, but he is so different with each of them that they're unable to relate to each other's experiences as if they were with the same person. Given all the parallel worlds, it probably isn't even technically the same man, but I'd need to do a much closer read (and maybe make a chart or spreadsheet) in order to be certain.
I don’t know if this will be the last book, it feels like it could be, and I hope, for the characters' sakes, that what happens next isn’t exciting enough to require someone to be a main character ever again. That being said, I will happily devoured any and all books set in this world, as they are truly stunning.
THOSE BEYOND THE WALL is a stunning follow-up to THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, building on many of the same themes of classism, racism, xenophobia, protection, abuse, and exploitation from a very different angle. It tells the story of an Ashtown runner trying to stop an existential threat from another world without being trampled by the city of Wiley in the process.
This focuses on Ashtown and its power structures through the perspective of Mr. Scales, a runner who is close friends with Mr. Cheeks and can’t stand former Ruralite, Mr. Cross. Scales is an engaging and somewhat unreliable narrator, using the idea of truth and stories in a metatexual way to complicate her tale, while engaging with the essence of what happened.
The main storyline is new, set up by events in the previous book, but at a distance of years, and with a different main character, which makes a huge difference to the tone and feel of the book. THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS established the idea that in order to travel between worlds, you can only go to a place where your doppelgänger is dead. This means that many white, rich (or even just middle-class) people in Wiley were likely to be alive on too many worlds to make good travelers. This meant that poor, brown, Ashtowners who had been exploited for generations were recruited to be travelers. In THOSE BEYOND THE WALL, Scales is differently concerned with power. She's not asking Wiley city for legitimacy or recognition. Her understanding of the give-and-take of power in relationships doesn’t shy away from the pervasive nature of power dynamics, and she's willing to manipulate the flow of that power as much as she's aware of it. Scales is a fascinating and mostly (but not completely) trustworthy narrator. She seems to be telling the story from the perspective of being at its end and relaying what happened, something not uncommon for first person narratives, though the way she omits, elides, or shifts around information means there's room for some future narrator to disagree with her telling.
I like how deliberately sex work positive this book is. It goes beyond the presence of the House, and the importance of Exlee, deliberately pushing back against the bigoted attitudes of the ruralites, and a former ruralite in particular.
THOSE BEYOND THE WALL can probably be read on its own, with the relevant backstory explained succinctly enough to make sense to anyone who hasn't read THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, or serving as a welcome refresher to anyone for whom it's been a while. As a sort-of sequel, this gives updates and closure for many of the significant characters from the first book. For some, those answers are found in their deaths, but for many of them, this is the story of what happens when Ashtown has to protect themselves from other worlds, and from the classist xenophobes in the city who have benefited from and upheld an apartheid regime. The specific plot would make sense to someone who hadn’t read the first one, partly because it’s a completely different narrator with a completely different perspective on those events, which allows Scales to be an entry point for someone who knows nothing about the first book. However, the ending of THOSE BEYOND THE WALL provides closure to several things that are emotionally left open at the end of THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS. Getting those answers without having asked a question is much less satisfying than it would be for someone who has reason to care about those details. Also, now that I’ve read this, I need to go do a reread of both books in order, because characters who are very important here had different levels of importance in that first book, but I’m pretty sure several of them were present there, beyond the obvious ones like Nik Nik and Cara. Scales has a completely different relationship to Nik Nik than Cara did, in a way that’s fascinating but never let me forget that even the less abusive version of Nik Nik is soaked in death and violence. When looking at sequels, tracking changes in narrative voice has felt more and more perfunctory as I’ve read books that keep the same narrator across the series or have broadly similar ideological goals, such that they’re working in similar directions. This was not the case for THOSE BEYOND THE WALL. Mr. Scales is not the same person as Cara from the first book. They have such fundamentally disparate perspectives that they may as well have grown up in different worlds, even if they technically are from the same one. I’m pretty certain that this particular world is the same one where Cara and Dell made their stand against Adam, but even if I'm wrong about that it doesn't matter much for the experience of reading THOSE BEYOND THE WALL. By closely interacting with an all-consuming and abusive person at different stages of his life, both Cara and Scales were shaped by their relationships to Nik Nik in ways that left indelible marks, but he is so different with each of them that they're unable to relate to each other's experiences as if they were with the same person. Given all the parallel worlds, it probably isn't even technically the same man, but I'd need to do a much closer read (and maybe make a chart or spreadsheet) in order to be certain.
I don’t know if this will be the last book, it feels like it could be, and I hope, for the characters' sakes, that what happens next isn’t exciting enough to require someone to be a main character ever again. That being said, I will happily devoured any and all books set in this world, as they are truly stunning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Classism, Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Police brutality
Moderate: Cursing, Confinement, Transphobia, War, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Racism, and Gun violence
Minor: Ableism, Infidelity, Sexual content, Drug use, and Drug abuse
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