looseleafellie's review
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.
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Classism
Minor: Suicide, Homophobia, Drug abuse, and Child abuse
genizah's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Violence and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Homophobia and Drug abuse
emily_mh's review against another edition
- 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
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, volcanocozyscones's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Classism, Death, Gore, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
erosabsens's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Homophobia
taylorgarcia's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Murder
Moderate: Racism and Domestic abuse
Minor: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and War
lyzz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
What I particularly liked about this book:
- World building is imaginative and explores themes of racism, classism and homophobia.
- I loved that the author let us explore this world before diving into the main plot. The plot unfolds slowly and this allows us to immerse ourselves in this world.
- Interesting character development that is meaningful - especially in the Cara character.
- There were some interesting support characters like Gene and Del that are also well-developed and contribute meaningfully to the story.
- Cara's voice is strong in this book. She is a bit sarcastic, humorous, pragmatic, a little idealistic, and scrappy. I loved her.
I do want to emphasize that I would 100% recommend this book to someone looking for a science fiction read. I would caution them about listening on audiobook unless they have experience listening to SFF on audio and can follow a complex world with multiple characters. I definitely think this is a book I'll reread to capture some of the details I missed this go-round.
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Murder, and Drug abuse
Minor: Homophobia
szuum's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Classism, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Homophobia
manicpixl's review
- 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
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Classism, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Child death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and War
dododenise's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I only wished for more Dell and had hoped to see her more, as i thought she was a great character with a glorious relationship to Cara. But there were also so many other fascinating characters that made the story so rich.
In the end, the world-building is what made this story so good.
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Murder, Death, and Classism
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Death of parent
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, and Drug abuse