Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

34 reviews

lbelow's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

5.0

This book packs a wallop. The constant tension of the plot kept me turning the pages, watching as Caralee grappled with her emotions and learned to see people as multifaceted, as deserving of love and empathy. In so doing, she learns to see herself in the same way, to stop thinking of herself as nothing and trying to prove she is something by way of a script other people have written. The settings come alive like characters themselves, but it's the people in the book and the choices they make in different realities that gripped my heart and squeezed. I cannot wait to read more from this author because this book was next level! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Xenophobia, and Grief

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

rustylasagna's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is one of the best books I have ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

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

templetoncecelia's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Classism, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

uwadisblog's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Gore

Moderate: Grief and Violence

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

3.0

This wasn’t at all what I expected, but in a good way. I thought I was going to get a load of cool spacey world-hopping stuff. Whilst there was a little of that, it was mostly a really thought provoking examination of things like race, class, poverty, assimilation, code-switching and social mobility. Also Mad Max.

Cara is an excellent, flawed and deeply determined main character and I couldn’t help but root for her. She quite literally inhabits the space between worlds, not just by jumping between them, but also the city of Wiley and all its light-skinned, privileged wealthy inhabitants, and the darker-skinned, poorer inhabitants of Ashtown. Her confusion, guilt, disgust, pride and internalised classism is extremely well done; you can absolutely tell Micaiah Johnson studies this stuff, both at actual university and the university of life too.

All of the side characters, including the antagonists, were also really excellent.

The reason why I’ve rated this book 3/5 stars instead of 4/5 is that as a story, I was less interested in what was happening. It wasn’t exactly a struggle to read but I did still find it a little boring. And although there was a canonical reason as to why the worlds were all so similar, I would dearly have loved to see more unique worlds, and more numerous worlds on page in general. We primarily hang out on Earth 0 and Earth 175. Though Cara travels to other worlds, we don’t see much of her actually in them.

Overall this is a solid standalone about those who traverse worlds both in a science-fiction sense, and in a literal, social-mobility sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Grief, Classism, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Drug abuse, Gore, Addiction, and Gaslighting

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Terminal illness, and Infidelity

traa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Abandonment, Child abuse, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Vomit

melodei3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Grief, Torture, Addiction, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship