A review by just_one_more_paige
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

adventurous inspiring mysterious 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

 
 
I’d seen a couple (though not many) reviews for this one saying that it was spectacular. And if you enjoy SFF, you know how hard it is to find a great standalone in the genre. Though I did recently read another really wonderful one, The Vanished Birds, if you are looking. Anyways, I joined the waitlist for it at the library and here we are. 
 
Cara is a traverser. Able to travel between worlds because she has a unique characteristic that very few other share: she has died so many times. Since a person cannot traverse to another world where they are still alive, the fact that Cara has died on 372 other worlds, but not in this world, makes her an ideal candidate. So, she’s temporarily escaped her life in the wastelands and is living within the walls of the Wiley City. Cara spends years trying to fit in better in Wiley City, visiting her family in the wastes but feeling more and more out of place there as well, and flirting with her handler, Dell, who studiously remains as distant as ever. But when one of her few remaining selves dies (under questionable circumstances) in another world and Cara travels there for the first time, she gets embroiled in some serious multiverse evil and plotting. Plus, some of her own buried (at least, Cara thinks they’re buried) secrets are about to rise back up. 
 
Well, hello to you, my gorgeous new favorite book! What a story, what an adventure, what world-building, what creativity and what searing social commentary! Beginning with some of the best opening lives I’ve read since those about Kell’s coat in ADSOM (and repeated, fantastically, in style/substance at the beginning of each subsequent section) and with phenomenal page-turning pacing all the way to the very end, this novel grabbed me, swept me up inside it, and (I can tell) is never going to let me go. Johnson walks a fine line perfectly, in making a world that resembles our own just enough to make the world-building easily digestible (important for a stand-alone, IMO), but with enough time spent developing its own attributes that it absolutely feels original and new. That mix of familiar and exotic is a aspect of sci-fi that, when done right, I cannot get enough of. Also, as far as the concept of the multiverse and the way its detailed here, I loved the clear explanations – enough to satisfy curiosity and create depth, but not so much that the story and characters (and my interest) get lost in the minutiae. Plus, the way that new mythology, grown to explain the new phenomena, is thrown in is something I will always love.   
 
I liked the way that the “multiple selves in a single world” situation was dealt with and worked around, as well. I’m not into theoretical science/philosophy, so my personal investigation (as it were) in questioning those aspects was fairly limited, but Johnson did more than enough to satisfy my cursory questions re: potential plot holes. It was also so fascinating, the way each of the characters carried traits from world to world that were inherent to who they were, to their lives/stories, and yet the environments of each world developed those traits out in [slightly] different ways. That piece was so well written and complexly portrayed. So impressive. Definitely one of my favorite things about this book, and likely under-acknowledged, as it’s a subtle thing. As for the plot itself: I loved it. And Cara was a freaking awesome protagonist leading it. She had the perfect mix of reluctance and harshness juxtaposed with a sense of justice that, despite her best efforts, she couldn’t ignore. However, she is also no “chosen one” or “savior,” just a person with the right skills and connections in the right place to do something if she wanted to. But the choice to do so, or not, was always in her hands alone (and no one would have known, really, if she had done nothing). That’s something I don’t often see and I really appreciated. A last note about Cara, on a very personal level, her casual bisexuality was just really buoying to me, as a reader.  
 
Finally, I want to mention a couple major themes in relation to my point earlier that Johnson’s social commentary is on point, discerning, and biting. Addressing social themes in familiar but foreign ways is a cornerstone of good sci-fi, in my opinion, and Johnson has shown that she’s a master at it. Primarily Johnson focuses in on class, and the welfare received by those of a “deserving” class to help keep them in that high position, while those of “lower” classes get less and are then blamed for the trouble when they attempt to create it for themselves is spot on. She explores this theme from faith-based, intergenerational wealth, careers/jobs, race and color, clothing/style, perceived intelligence and motivations, and more. And she is able to touch on the overt displays, as well as the internationalization of these beliefs, and the way those actions and assumptions perpetuate the system (from all perspectives). In addition, there is clear exploration of both external and interpersonal consequences of these class lines that began (as always) as arbitrary lines drawn to keep those with power in power. Phew. Cara’s role in this novel, both as a traverser of worlds and a Wiley City dweller from the wastelands (and, within that Ashtown and Rurals), takes the idea of being split between, of belonging nowhere and everywhere, to a whole new level. It’s not a new concept, but the dual-meaning of Johnson’s title, and the clear messages about the roles only Cara can play, because of the interwoven spaces she occupies. Crossing those arbitrary lines, from both sides, will be the only way to make progress, to bring down the powers that be, in whatever form they take (but always causing the same divides).     
 
I don’t even know how to properly sum all this up. I feel like the review had so many words and yet did nothing to scratch the surface of how amazing this book was, how much ground it covered or how much I loved it! I loved all of it. So much! The characters were so compelling (Cara is everything!), the plot was mind-blowing and so well-paced, the commentary was fresh and profound, the cover is straight gorgeous (and perfect), the writing was just lovely. So. Much. Yes. I don’t even know what else to say. You know I’m about to go buy my own copy because it was too damn good for me to not have on my own shelves! Go get your hands on this book ASAP! 
 
“The darkness is worth it, because I know what waits on the other side.” 
 
“…human beings are unknowable. You can never know a single person fully, not even yourself. Even if you think you know yourself in your safe glass castle, you don’t know yourself in the dirt. Even if you hustle and make it in the rough, you have no idea if you would thrive or die in the light of real riches, if your cleverness would outlive your desperation.” 
 
“It is possible to love a monster, even if you spend every day reminding yourself that they are a monster.” 
 
“Sometimes, focusing on survival is necessary. Sometimes, it is just an excuse for selfishness.” 
 
“‘Not a miracle [...] Science.’ / ‘What do you call science when it answers a prayer.’” 
 
“If so many people are killed with so little effort, is it easier to pretend they aren’t lives? That everything is fine? [...] No, killing should take longer than a heartbeat. Murder should be unignorable, always.” 
 
“But I think, I believe, there is a reason for those who live. Death can be senseless, but life never is.” 
 
“Warlord, emperor, CEO [...] No difference.” (hot DAMN what a ‘rose by any other name’ moment) 
 
“...because all of us who were told we were nothing will never stop trying to be everything.” 
 
“...our dead are only weights on our backs when we won’t let them walk beside us, when we try to pretend they are not ours or they are not dead.” 
 
“Rage is dirty fuel, but it burns hotter than grief ever could.” 
 
“They say hunting monsters will turn you into one. That isn’t what’s happening now. Sometimes to kill a dragon, you have to remember that you breathe fire too. This isn’t a becoming; it’s a revealing. I’ve been a monster all along.” 
 
 
 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings