"I made a list of what I need to accomplish, which is long. Then I make a list of people I can trust, which is short."

This is a tale of survival and moral ambiguity in a near future where multiverse travel has been discovered. The catch is that you can only travel to one of the 382 known worlds if your self in that reality isn't among the living. Consequently, the privileged class has limited travel options with so few opportunities for their lives to be threatened. They must call upon the habitually oppressed, whose losses of life across the multiverse become an opportunity to travel, in an ironic twist.

Cara has grabbed onto this challenge with both hands. With only 8 versions of herself alive in the multiverse, she's one of the most travelled traversers in company history. She must reckon where she came from with her ambition and desire for more, always reaching. Cara is an unapologetic protagonist, whether she's flirting with her coworker, Dell, protecting herself, or making decisions that will ripple across the multiverse.

I can't say much else about the plot because the twists are abundant. So I'll just say expect action, queer slow burn romance, and both moral quandaries and hard line social critique. It's brutal in world-building and plot. The prose strikes you in the gut with harsh efficiency. In short, I highly recommend it.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Available August 4, 2020

This book was fascinating! Set in a future where we have discovered the existence of the multiverse, a group of scientists and explorers travel between the worlds documenting the similarities and differences between the worlds. Scientists quickly discovered that people could only travel to alternate worlds where their alternate has died. Within the 380 worlds that scientists can travel to, Cara has died on 373 of them, making her the perfect traverser. Those who grow up privileged in one world, tend to live privileged lives amongst all the alternate worlds. The same goes for the poor and impoverished, making poor people of color perfect for the program.
Cara has worked hard to establish her place within the city. She is on the path to citizenship, has an apartment, and is willing to work double shifts, even when it threatens her health. Her handler Dell keeps her at arm’s length, no matter how much flirting Cara throws her way.
It’s during a standard data pull on an alternate world that Cara realizes she’s been sent to a world where she still lives. Violating protocol, she struggles to stay alive long enough for someone to rescue her and allow Cara to further investigate the world. Meeting her doppleganger is a mind-bending experience and leads to Cara having to reckon with her deepest and darkest secrets. Secrets so big, they could tear her world apart.
This book was so good! It’s such a tightly written story that too much discussion will lead to spoilers. I loved the world-building and the way that Cara has to balance between two very different societies. Her family lives out in the desert where many of the poor live, and where Cara never felt like she fit in. But, Cara doesn’t feel like she belongs within the wealthy, walled city either. She has to change her language, her wardrobe, the way she holds herself when she is around her family. When she returns to the city, she has to again change her persona to match societal expectations. Neither persona feels real to Cara and that duality plagues her throughout the book.
The relationship between Dell and Cara is fraught with high emotions and cold responses. Dell, her handler and woman of her dreams, is way out of her league and Cara is constantly flirting and teasing her, almost she can’t help herself. Dell never responds in kind, in fact, she acts almost insulted everytime Cara flirts with her. Their relationship was fascinating to watch develop over the course of the story.
I loved how fast paced this story was. It’s a deeply woven story-there’s government conspiracies, corruption, societal unrest, personal secrets, and a slow burn romance. Cara has to constantly decide how her past and alternate selves will shape her future, all while trying to figure out who the person she wants to be now. The fact that Cara knows how her other selves have died on other worlds-what a weight to carry. The writing is just fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this story. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

That was… actually pretty good.

Cara is a traverser, able to travel to hundreds of alternate universes in which her in-world doppelganger has died. But when Cara is sent to a world she doesn’t belong in, she must unravel the secrets and mysteries behind traversing.

I’m not usually a sci fi fan, but I admit <i>The Space Between Worlds</i> rather unexpectedly won me over. The ideas aren’t exactly new; world hopping is well-trodden ground in both sci fi and fantasy, as are doppelgangers and gritty post-apocalypses.

But you know what? The plot is really good. Johnson knows how to hook her reader in, and she takes the story in very unexpected directions.

I admit that the first quarter of the book is quite slow. Johnson takes a lot of time to set up her world, and the pacing drags. There are characters to meet, situations to explain, worldbuilding to do. There’s simply too much information being given to the reader without enough actually happening plot-wise.

But once the second section begins, things kick off properly and the plot doesn’t slow down again for a single second. Johnson is great at cliffhangers and at creating desperate challenges for her characters to escape from.

It helps that Cara is a great protagonist who is easy to root for. Cara is all rough edges and mistrust, but she’s also tenacious and clever. As a traverser she travels between different worlds, never truly at home in any. On a more metaphorical level, she travels between the different worlds of the wealthy Wiley City where she lives and works and the poor, warlord-ruled Rurals where she grew up. Cara thinks of herself as the consummate outsider, never at home anywhere she goes. Cara’s perspective is unusual and also really dynamic and interesting. She’s also an extremely unreliable narrator, although it takes a while for the reader to figure that out. Half the fun of reading is trying to determine how much of Cara’s insights are true and how much are colored by her biased views of her world.

With Cara and a fast-paced, no-holds-barred plot to speed things along, <i>The Space Between Worlds</i> flies by. The book ends on a solidly conclusive note, but I wouldn’t mind dipping back into Cara’s world for a sequel. Recommended for sci fi fans and non-sci fi fans alike.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

Rating 4.25.

This book started out slow for me. I wasn’t really interested nor was I entirely sure what the plot even was. Luckily it picked up quick, by 15-20%. After that, I was pretty sold. It’s such an interesting story and concept. I loved the MC and the twists and turns. They kept me wanting to know what happens next. The mix of fantasy and sci-fi threw me though. I knew it was sci-if with the worlds and tech, but mentions of a type of goddess and the emperors, confused me every time. Without that disconnect, I probably would’ve rated it higher. All-in-all, it was a great read.

I found this book fascinating, the characters relatable and easy to get attached to, the science not hard to digest, and the story arc engaging!

Having said this, I am also a huge sucker for inter-dimensional reads. I love the premise of going to other worlds and finding different versions of yourself. In The Space Between Worlds the different personalities of our main character seem at their core to be made from the same stock, but how they develop is vastly different depending on their circumstances. The characters are also only able to access a SMALL amount of dimensions (a little over 300) so they can only access the ones that are more closely mirroring their own dimension (you just have to be dead in that other universe in order to be able to visit). It is a nature vs. nurture debate, in which both aspects make up the being. There is also some philosophical discussions of "is the inter-dimensional travel possible due to science or religion"? Which prevails? Why not both? It also tackles racial prejudices, social-economical issues as both of these tend to play a hand on which people get to travel--the higher the risk in your life (too poor to afford basic needs, maybe living in a place full of danger, being discriminated against) the better chance you are to be able to travel. I found the discussion fascinating, and a nice way to mirror the problems in our own dimension.

I do feel the novel was divided into two parts basically--it felt like there were two overarching plots which could have easily been divided into two books. Both parts of the story got their time to shine, but maybe dividing it into a duology might have given the reader time to adjust and some characters more page time. As it is it still works great, it just felt weird how by the middle we kind of shifted gears in a sense, like if the novel had a "Part II" that wasn't stated as such. But that was pretty much my biggest hiccup with the novel and it wasn't such a big deal.

I really liked the romance aspects, though it definitely is a small part of the story we do get some LGBTQIA+ Rep! And their interactions are so juicy and multilayered. At first I wasn't sure what to make of the relationship, but there is a reason for everything in The Space Between Worlds, so just give Dell a chance.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this story! It is lite sci-fi so it ends up being a great gateway into adult sci-fi, giving teens and those who wouldn't normally pick up "sci-fi" books a taste into the genre. I love the idea, and I look forward to reading more of Micaiah Johnson.

I was provided an e-ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an HONEST review, which I totally honestly really liked this book and recommend

Cara is a traverser. She travels to different versions of Earth to collect data. She can travel to any other Earth as long as she is dead there already. Cara is unique because she is dead on 372. She only has 8 doppelgangers left.
Most of the worlds hold a different version of her life of hardship and suffering. But, they are mostly the same. Except for one. One of the doppelgangers dies and Cara can't help but think something isn't right. She sets out to find answers and finds more than she could've imagined.

This is a great book! There were so many plot twists that I didn't see coming. When I could find time to read, I didn't want to stop. This was such a breath of fresh air! So unique, so well written. I just really enjoyed myself.

I wonderful sci-fi (not normally what I gravitate towards - but I'm down for any time alternate timelines/worlds are involved) that explores sexuality and classism in a way that doesn't feel forced. I can't wait for more publications by this author.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Cara lives in a world (worlds) where there are parallel dimensions and, in the right circumstances, people can travel between them. The right circumstances-meaning that the "you" in the alternate dimension must already be dead or you're going to die a pretty awful death when you get there. Since many of Cara's iterations are dead (in each world, she grows up in a fairly rough environment, often dying young), she's a top traverser (person who can travel between worlds). Her life in the city is fairly easy, thanks to a nice paycheck. One day, it goes wrong. She's sent to a world where her dop (doppelganger) is still alive. Cara manages to survive, due to some good instincts and luck. But because of this, she starts seeing the cracks in the system in the world she came from-and the system that keeps her traveling.
I'm not sure what it was-the book's premise was pretty interesting. But I just didn't care for this book. I had to trudge through the story because I did want to know what happened in the end.

Even after finishing The Space Between Worlds I'm still in love with the concept. That's how you know that a book is unique and the social commentary in The Space Between Worlds is sharp and gripping. When you can only travel to worlds where that copy of you is dead, it means that those with the most privilege are basically still alive there. So all of a sudden there's many opportunities for employment for those from poor POC backgrounds so that they can travel to the most worlds.

What I also loved about The Space Between Worlds is that it never lets you forget this inherent difference. It motivates Cara and the events of the world, continuously reminding you of the ways the prejudice against the poor marginalized communities pervades even as they need them. And what happens to the travelers? This queer SFF is one of those stories which has a strong world concept and sticks to it.

There's no denying I was going to love Cara, not only is she bisexual and still, despite her status, navigating her identity as a formerly poor POC, but she's resilient, clever, and snarky. Just when you thought you had a handle on The Space Between Worlds, it ends up turning into a mystery and story of secrets.

this book was very interesting. the concept of interplanar travel was done in a way i’ve never read before. i thought the protagonist was strongly written with a clear voice and vivid personality.
i do wish there had been more depth to the world building because what we did get was so fascinating.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The Space Between Worlds

Author: Micah Johnson

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 4/5

Diversity: Black bi main character, nonbinarary side characters, Japanese lesbian characters, many ethnicities in this book

Recommended For...: sci-fi, romance, LGBT, space

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Genre: Sci-Fi

Recommended Age: 17+ (romance, slight sexual content, TW abuse, gore, violence)

Publisher: Del Ray

Pages: 336

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 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 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.

Review: Holy cow this book was very well done! The book had a lot of sci-fi concepts that I don’t normally read about and I thought were very imaginative and well done. The character development was excellent and the world building was amazing. The book had me hooked from the first page!

However, I did feel like the romance was a bit off and the pacing can be a bit uneven, it switches between fast and slow throughout the book.

Verdict: A well done sci-fi!

The main character Cara's drive for a better life and ennui with the mundane after her traumatic past cause her to act with ruthlessness. This puts her in conflict with her coworkers in elite, sheltered Wiley City and psychs her out from turning her snarky banter with her coworker Dell into something more serious. Cara and Dell's relationship is intriguing, although there's not much romance because they spend so much time keeping each other at bay. I think the most compelling relationship in the book is between Cara and her otherworld selves. There is some social commentary in here about borders as imaginary divides (in terms of virtue and empathy), the role of environment and chance in a person's life trajectory, and the extractive nature of large businesses, but it felt surface level. I think one of the most intriguing aspects of the societies depicted is Ashtown's respect for sex workers and their centrality to society. The closest thing I've seen to the House providers in speculative fiction would be the Sisters of Hananja from N. K. Jemisin's The Killing Moon. At its heart, this story is a thriller where readers learn about Cara's origins, the tensions between Wiley City and Ashtown, and what is actually going on at Eldridge Corp. I was excited for every twist and turn and gasped aloud at several reveals. The ending was a bit anti-climatic. Caralee causes the main conflict by developing a conscience, and the resolution felt a bit simple. On the whole, a solid book that I look forward to discussing with others.

a 4.5 for me - I was impressed and amazed at the concept and then at how well it was developed. The idea of multiple worlds existing on the same time plane isn't new, but to me this treatment was very creative. Cara, the amazing heroine, is an outcast but weasels her way into a job in the "city" where she becomes a world traveler. In fact, the most widely traveled traveler. And that's for a simple reason - travelers can only visit worlds where they are already dead so there's no dissonance of coexistence. And she's dead on LOTS of worlds! The way that affects her, her feelings, her future, are explored very well.

The writing is almost poetic sometimes and harsh and angry at other times. I sometimes had a bit of trouble keeping the characters straight as they appeared on multiple worlds with slightly different traits, but that wasn't distracting.

A thoroughly readable, intriguing, and well written story. Highly recommended.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #RandomHouse #Ballantine for the advance copy of #theSpaceBetweenWorlds - which I really enjoyed! The expanded review will appear on my blog, Bookshelf Journeys, soon.

The Space Between Worlds was only an alright kind of read for me, I'll be honest I wasn't probably the target audience for this one, but I'm all about the multiverse. The multiverse concept this author brought forward was what I thought was the book's strongest portion. It wasn't the world that existed in the multiverse but the multiverse itself. The idea is that you have the original world as world 0 and every other subsequent world (1-300 something) is slightly different from the next, where 0 isn't very different from 1 and where 0 is wildly different from 300. One can travel and learn from the worlds as long as they do not exist in that world. The technology to travel to and from different worlds is glanced over at best and that's ok. There is a romance aspect to the book that's kind of weak and nonorganic. There were a few plot holes that should have been addressed but weren't because the plot needed them to exist. I felt that this was a bit in the mature YA genre rather than adult Sci/Fi. Either way it was only OK for me. One of the main reasons for two stars is simple...staying power. This book took me a good 2-2.5 months to finish, I read a lot before bed and while reading this one I would fall asleep after only a few moments of reading where I would normally read for an hour or two. I would put it down and not pick it up again for another few days rather than read through in a week or two as I do for most books.

The Space Between Worlds is a story about 380 known different versions of Earth.

I love multi-verse theory. I find it completely and utterly fascinating. And, I cannot get enough of stories about traveling to multiple versions of Earth. In this story, you can only go to other Earths where you are already dead. If you are still alive in a world that you jump to, it results in severe injury upon arrival, and the return trip will kill you if you even make it to that point. The main character, Cara, is a professional traverser. She is dead in 372 of the 380 worlds, so she is the perfect candidate for this job. Traversers go to other worlds to collect data about that version and return with it for Earth Zero’s database. The are other things traversing is used for, but that isn’t revealed until later.

The characters are all intricately detailed and diverse, with a plethora of scars - physical, mental, and emotional. Life is hard in this dystopian world - even if you grew up in the city, which is civilized and environmentally enhanced for optimum conditions. Outside the city is a hot, barren land where people live a harsh life – almost a Wild West type of existence. Inside the city, people live a very controlled life. The level you live on denotes your position in society, and even visiting upper levels are forbidden unless you are there at the request of the person who lives there. Class and privilege are everything.

The Space Between Worlds is a story about privilege and discovering where you belong.

Some people have privilege by birth, but most people want it and do almost anything to get it. It is the reason that Cara became a traverser.
She was permitted to live in the city while she worked in it, and she wants to work at least the number of years it takes to become a permanent resident. People in the city are well-taken care of. They want for nothing, which is the exact opposite of life outside the city. Cara has to ask herself whether all that glitters is gold, or can you make a fulfilled life for yourself in an area where every day is a struggle. And, where do you draw the line to what you will do to have that city life?

The Space Between Worlds is a story about self-discovery.

What better way to learn who you are than by studying 379 other versions of yourself? Cara thinks she is on a quest to become a city resident. What she discovers, though, in her journey is that she is actually on a quest to find the various layers that make up her true self – those parts of her that are true in all worlds and those which are different and why they are different. Once she learns more about herself, she starts to learn about the intricacies of others in her life, which is eye-opening beyond her belief.

To Read or Not to Read

Layered above these deep-seated themes is a story that is suspenseful and action-filled. It is a story that will leave you at times, on the edge of your seat, and at other times with your mouth agape and sometimes both at the same time. Buckle yourself up, because reading this story is a journey that you won’t soon forget.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely devoured this book. The plot is fast paced, but the characters are complex and memorable even given that. The world building is super interesting, too. I love the way Johnson handles the problem of multiple realities having the same people in them. It's novel and very clever. I also love the way she shows that any one of a million choices can change these characters' lives -- that both where you come from and who you choose to be are important.
Eminently readable and absolutely addictive. If I could give it more than 5 stars, I would.

Recommended for anyone who likes the possibilities of a multiverse in their narratives, including complex relationships and social commentary.

The romance didn't read organically for me, the weird caste system was problematic, and the ending was a bit of a let down. But I was caught up in my read as I read it.

I can't get over this book.
It was so beautifully written even though it was dark and twisty. I could never assume I knew what was going on, but I loved discovering it through Cara and her travels into the multiverses. I loved all of the different representations we were gifted: Black characters, a bi main character, and non-binary side characters.
This book hit me in my emotions over and over again.
AND it has one of the most satisfying endings I've ever read.
LOVE!
(Love so much that I can hardly express how much!)

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I sincerely enjoyed this book. When I started reading I had no idea what the book was even about. I didn't read the synopsis and I think that added to my reading experience. I recommend going in blind with this book. No way can I believe this is a debut novel, it was too good! Bravo Micaiah Johnson.

Along with some impressive multiverse world building, 'The Space Between Worlds' had me firmly in its grasp from the Brian Greene quote on page one. The Caramenta twist was a pleasant surprise. Actual tears were shed when certain characters died. It was seriously hard to put this book down. What a fascinating take on parallel universes and endless possibilities for a series to come I hope. It also get points from me for being LGBTQ friendly.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group for gifting me with an Advance Review Copy. The Space Between Worlds be Micaiah Johnson Releases August 2, 2020.

This review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon (after release), three different places on Instagram (my highlight story, a post on reading and finally a post with the book cover), twitter and at least three places on facebook (my personal page, story and a few novel groups I'm a part of). I will absolutely be buying a copy of this when it releases. Fantastic debut!

Imagine a parallel universe that is very similar to the one in which you live...strike that,...imagine 342 parallel universes. While such a world may not be an original concept, Micaiah Johnson's tale of travelers to and from these universes is definitely an original take that opens many possibilities. There's really only one rule, you have to have died in the parallel to travel there. Enter Cara, a young woman who has had such a hard life, she has died in all but 8 of those versions of earth. This gives her an ability that few others have. Her determination to live and succeed in this Earth give her the courage to travel into worlds that were so violent, it killed the version of her that lived there. WOW! try explaining that quickly....it's almost a tongue twister!
The story line is brilliant. The character development was well above average and the writing pulled you into this young woman's world to fight every step of the journey from poverty to success. A very good debut for a very promising author.