Book Review: "The Space Between Worlds" by Micaiah Johnson
“The Space Between Worlds” by Micaiah Johnson
Synopsis: Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there's just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying--from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn't outrun. Cara's life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.
On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works--and shamelessly flirts--with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.
But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined--and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.
Rating: 3.75
Trigger warnings: domestic abuse, murder, misogyny, violence
Review: This was on my list of most anticipated reads of the summer — it sounds like “Dark Matter” with a dystopian bent and a strong female lead — and it ended up being so much more than I expected. Maybe a little too much more; there was a lot crammed into this book, and honestly, it was hard to keep up with sometimes. While I felt the author may have been over-ambitious, the universe she created was incredibly immersive and unlike Blake Crouch, I didn’t feel like I needed a physics textbook to understand the conclusion! So, let’s get into it, shall we?
The premise of this book is that some people can walk through worlds — go from one Earth into parallel universes — and of course, this is done through a corporation with a mysterious and charismatic male leader (shocking!). You can only go to worlds where you have died, and so many of the Traversers come from the bad side of town; or here, literally the other side of the fence where they live in a hellscape. We are spoiler free over here, but I really, really loved the premise of this — I just think that the author over-complicated it with too many themes: closeted lesbian relationships, familial betrayal, faith, prostitution, climate change, racism, evil corporations, education, etc. etc. I appreciate her ambition, but it was hard to follow all of the plot points and even harder to get immersed in the world that she created.
Beneath the sci-fi elements and world-hopping is a familiar story: the haves versus the have-nots, with our main character being caught in between the two aspects of society (in all known worlds). What I found more compelling however was the “butterfly effect” — how one small choice can so drastically change a path for a whole host of people. Watching Cara not only come to terms with that but also learn how to survive and thrive was the best part of the story for me, and I’m surprised by that. Normally when I read a book that leans into the sci-fi dystopian archetype, I enjoy the world building the most; it’s always nice to have a break from Earth 1. This isn’t to say that Johnson’s conceit is unenjoyable, just that the people story was better to me.
That said, this one is a wild ride, and I genuinely didn’t see the plot twist coming. I had a little bit of book-induced whiplash, which is the best kind imo.
TL;DR: Come for the clever sci-fi, stay for the social justice motivated plot starring one of the more dynamic women I can remember reading - all in all, a great debut, and I can’t wait to see what is next from Micaiah Johnson.
If You Liked This, Try These:
“Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch (Bookshop | Kindle | My Review)
“The First 15 Lives of Henry August” by Claire North (Bookshop | Kindle)
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