Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

47 reviews

looseleafellie's review

dark reflective tense fast-paced

Cara works at a company that sends people to alternate universes to collect data. You can only travel to universes where you’re dead, so Cara is the ideal candidate for multiverse travel. But when one of her few living alternate selves dies mysteriously, Cara begins to unravel a conspiracy that threatens the multiverse.

My favorite book is This Is How You Lose the Time War, and I picked up The Space Between Worlds because it seemed similar. It’s a short-ish sci-fi book with alternate universes, sapphic yearning, and evil organizations to thwart.

However, The Space Between Worlds is more character-focused and contained. I loved how none of the characters — including Cara — are all good or all bad, especially when their alternate selves come into play. The book explores how your background and relative privilege can shape your personality and motivations, even if you’re technically the same person, which was very interesting. The romantic tension between Cara and Dell weaves throughout, but as a side plot to the main story.

Even in 330-ish pages, the world drew me in. The setting is grounded in the neighboring cities of Ashtown and Wiley City: one an impoverished community of survivors, the other a high-tech utopia (for those who have citizenship). While I expected a wider scale, the focused setting strengthened the book by allowing for exploration of the themes in a confined space.

One drawback of the short length is I found the ending a bit rushed. When I had 30 pages left, I thought, “they have to end all this in 30 pages?” I still enjoyed the ending, but would have liked extra time to sit in the emotions and feel things out more.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I think it’s great for fans of This Is How You Lose the Time War — or people who like character-focused stories about alternate universes in general.

CWs: Gore, violence, death, domestic abuse, classism, and mentions of drug addiction, homophobia, child neglect, and suicide.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Classism

Minor: Suicide, Homophobia, Drug abuse, and Child abuse

raptorq's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Classism, Domestic abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Gun violence, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts

katequiet's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

Why didn't I read this sooner??? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Suicide, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, War, Child abuse, and Classism

oddityoverseer's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The pacing was a bit odd to me though. It felt like the big climax was halfway through the book, then the smaller climax came later, which is the opposite of most stories.

But the story was interesting for sure. I really liked the world-building, with the technology, and the politics and personal relationships. I could've done with a few less characters (it was hard to keep track of everyone).

I also liked the social commentary throughout, and the explorations of "upper class" Wiley City and "lower class" Ashtown.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism and Physical abuse

nquinlan's review against another edition

dark hopeful 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Abandonment, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: War

marioosa517's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Domestic abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Classism, Blood, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Grief, War, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Cursing

leannanecdote's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, War, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death, Abandonment, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Murder, Racism, Self harm, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, Trafficking, and Vomit

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

This was SO GOOD. So many people have loved this book and I really hoped I could be one of them, and I am! It has such such a great combination of plot, character, and theme, and the writing style was great: it was filled with some wry observations that either make you see things in a new light or perfectly put into words how you might already think about something. 

The story was gripping right from the off. It’s the kind of plot where you don’t really know where things are going to go, but not at all in a bad way. There are intriguing twists and some great pacing. I will say that the ending felt a little rushed, though. 

I really liked the MC Cara, who embodied the reluctant hero trope. She goes through ethical dilemmas throughout the book, torn between self-preservation and her moral compass. It was interesting seeing her perspective on these dilemmas, seeing the thought process behind her actions. Moreover, in Cara (and other characters) we see a key theme played out: how different circumstances (as seen on alternate Earths) can lead someone to become a different person. Cara gets to observe how one event happening, or not happening, could have impacted her character. And through this Cara questions if the opposite cannot also be true, that is, if different circumstances can have no impact on a person’s development, because there are people and situations we will always be drawn to due to our nature. This was really fascinating to think about. 

Another great theme was this idea of “the space between worlds”, an idea that crops up in so many places within the novel. For example, it is a physical liminal space when Cara is traversing, but it is also the space which Cara occupies as an Ashtown-born person working in Wiley City. The theme embodies how Cara feels more at home in the space between worlds than she does on said worlds themselves. 

I also thought the romance was a great touch. I loved the mutual pining and how oblivious Cara was with the whole thing. I do wish I had gotten more of an idea as to why Cara and Dell were attracted to one another; we are shown that they are, but I wanted to know the why. 

Overall this was a fantastic read and I’m excited for the potential companion novel! 

Rep: Black sapphic MC, Japanese-American sapphic LI, Ivorian-American SC 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Racism, Drug abuse, Body horror, Drug use, and Addiction

Minor: War, Child abuse, Sexual content, Colonisation, Suicide, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Body shaming, Medical content, Miscarriage, Vomit, Ableism, Pedophilia, Emotional abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Minor: nuclear warfare, volcano

ciaomara's review

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