I really enjoyed this book!

Just enough world-building of each traveled to the world that I knew what was going on but also didn't feel overwhelmed.

I cannot go into much detail on this one otherwise I will give way too much away.

Get your hands on this one if you like mind-bending, world-hoping, LGBTQA+ rep, and solid sci-fi!

Ok...I was very intrigued when reading the description of this book, then seeing all the award nominations coming out while I was reading. I've always liked the multiverse concept and this one sounded like it was going to be great. The beginning "world-building" was interesting but then it started to get flat for me after that. As much detail that was given and all the intricacies woven throughout, it just didn't deliver that 4-5 star roller-coaster I was expecting. I can see how many readers would like this a lot, just not exactly for me. 3 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC.

This book just did not pull me in at alllllll. I feel like it lacked in a lot of places. The romance, the drama, the sci fi. I wanted more from all of it. I finished it because I’m stubborn and needed to see how it would play out and even the ending felt... meh.

This is a great, captivating read. I couldn't put it down. Complex, beautifully written characters and a plot that keeps surprising. This book is a must read.

This book is why I love science fiction. Obviously multiverse isn't new, but I don't ever want it to get old. I also love a book that trickles just enough info to keep you turning pages and builds up to an end that leaves you thinking... I feel like that's a love it or hate it thing, but I'll take my books without perfectly tied ribbons every time. Looking forward to so much more from Micaiah Johnson!

I strayed a little too far from my comfort zone with this book and I did not enjoy it. I read this as part of a buddy read and many of our group wasn’t into it either.

The main character in this book is Cara, a transverse that travels between worlds to record information for others higher on the social hierarchy. The only worlds she or others can't travel to is one that has your doppelgänger still living. Cara has led. a hard life with a mother who was an addict. She has learned self preservation as a means of survival. She rarely lets anyone get close to her except for her supervisor Dell.

Some of the positives in this book was that it did have a bit of a love story that ramps up the last half of the book. The imagery of the world makes it easy for the reader to picture this world with 380 parallel earths. Some elements of gender fluidity, race and sexuality are present in the book without taking away from the plot.

This book was really hard for me to get into. It felt like a young adult book. Science fiction is not typically a genre that I read but lately I have read a few that I liked; Dark Matters, Recursion, and the Perfect Wife. What I liked about those books is that the reader is in a normal everyday setting and then the science fiction is sprinkled in and comes later once the characters are developed. Whereas in this book the reader is dropped in a very futuristic sci-fi setting. I found it very hard to get through. we did this as a buddy read with a group of my friends and all of us struggled. I have no. doubt that fans of science fiction and fantasy would love this book. T

I had such high hopes for this book, I wanted it to be like Dark Matter and transport me to a world of the unknown. Instead, I struggled to keep up with what world I was in! I had a difficult time figuring out where Cara was, what she was doing, and what was going to come next. I found the book extremely repetitive.

This book was excellent. The wordbuilding and the exploration fo themes surrounding racism, xenophobia, the perils of weaponized science, capitalism all while indulging the reader in a complicated character study. This is a perfect read for those looking for a "hard" scifi read that also has a deep and rich emotional core, and of course some queer romance. Can't recommend it enough.

(4.5)
Cara's multiverse travels are put at risk when secrets surface. Micaiah Johnson gives us a thought-provoking, heartfelt Sci-fi read discussing topics, such as identity, privilege, and belonging.
Highly recommend for multiverse lovers also looking for intriguing topics of discussion.

Thank you to #netgalley and #randomhousepublishing for the ecopy!

The Space Between Worlds is a unique and thrilling debut. I will be honest I struggled through the first half of this book. It is a slow build, but once it got going I couldn't stop. This book is a heart stopping thrill ride that will keep you turning pages. It is sci fi but Micaiah knows how to pull you in. Multiple dimensions is something that I have always thought was interesting and this book did that theory justice. A debut definitely worth checking out. The world building was stellar and the characters fantastic. Secretly hoping there is a sequel in the works because Micaiah Johnson is an author to watch.

hank you to the author Micaiah Johnson, the publisher Random House and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

I really enjoyed this sci-fi, futuristic story about the ability to travel to other parallel earths.....but only if you are dead on that earth. Or you explode into pieces. It is a story about true nature and about how a small thing can change your whole life.

It is the story of Caramenta's life and her travels to other earth's and about battling not only her demons, but demons on other earths.

It is a well-thought out adventure and I really enjoyed it.

"You can never know a single person fully, not even yourself. Even if you think you know yourself in your safe glass castle you don't' know yourself in the dirt."

Easily one of the best books that I read this year. Maybe ever. It was such an addictive, page turning, science fiction novel. I literally could not put it down. I had to know how the story played out. Plus the main character Cara was so dimensional, fierce, and morally grey that I instantly fell in love with her. She felt real and believable.

This book takes a look at race, class division, politics, corruption, identity , and so much more through the lens of a sci-fi novel. It is stunning. Did I mention this a debut? I look forward to Micaiah Jonson's future books.

Originally posted on my instagram. @book.lyst

This was so out of my comfort zone but I am so glad I read it! I know exactly what I was missing out on and I'm pretty surprised there isn't MORE buzz around this book. At first it was hard to follow, with all the names and Earth Numbers. I enjoyed Cara (all versions of her) she was a strong Main Character; strong, brave, caring. I could see this as a great movie or miniseries adaptation. Seeing the differences on each Earth was interesting; how characters names or careers were different and how differently each world reacted to violence.

Wow, I loved this. It almost felt like reading a TV show, everything just flowed so well! Pacing: perfection. Plot twists: many, surprising, and never boring. Characters: fantastic, flawed, and complicated. Social commentary: timely. This is one of the best, tightest plotted debuts I've read!

It would have been a super easy 5 stars, but I found the world building to be a little lacking. There were several times where I wished things were fleshed out a little better and I didn't have to make logic jumps to fill in the gaps for myself. (I also wish there had been more romantic moments between our main couple because the dynamic was *chef's kiss* )

But honestly, Caramenta can (in the words of Cara herself) "eat a whole dick". Like seriously. She can fuck RIGHT OFF with her self-righteous ass.

In a distant future, the lines between haves and have-nots has become increasingly clear. The haves live within the protective dome of Wiley City, either gainfully employed or taken care of by society. Meanwhile, the have-nots struggle to survive in the unprotected desert surrounding the city, ruled by a brutal emperor/gang-leader who metes out a cruel death to those who dare to contradict his rule.

In the midst of this, Wiley City tech genius Adam Bosch has created a method of traveling between parallel worlds, but with an interesting caveat — the only people who can survive the trip are those who have already died in the other world. This makes the desert-dwellers suddenly VERY valuable to Bosch and his company, and nobody is more valuable than Cara, a woman whose doppelgangers have died on all but 7 of the 380 known other worlds. When a routine trip to gather information from a "new" world (read: one in which Cara's doppelganger just died) goes awry, Cara begins to question her role in Bosch's company and in Wiley City itself.

The imaginative world-building and sharp social commentary of this novel are excellent, and the characters are nuanced — I'm honestly not sure if any of them were particularly likable, though all of their motivations are completely understandable. A great thought-provoking read.

This has got to be one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. Cara, the protagonist, was so real and relatable, I connected immediately with her. The story blew my mind and I literally had to put the book down a few times to think hard about how the multiverses worked. I’m so impressed with this storyline and the slow burn f/f romance was EVERYTHING I needed right now. My heart? Exploded. And that ending? Literally the most satisfying ending I think I’ve ever read. Micaiah Johnson is absolutely an auto-buy author for me now and I’ve requested the bookstore I work at to buy this one- will definitely be hand selling this one for years.

[a transcript of a video i need to refilm but I still want y’all to know my many many thoughts]

intro
“Why have I survived? Because I am a creature more devious than all the other mes put together. Because I saw myself bleeding out and instead of checking for a pulse, I began collecting her things. I survive the desert like a coyote survives, like all tricksters do.”


cover designer: jo myler
Before we get into the review, I received an e-arc from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All my opinions are my own.

In this video, I will be discussing: homophobia, racism, classism, physical abuse, warfare, and murder. If you want more information about how these triggers apply to the book itself, please DM on twitter or ask below. I’ll give you as much detail as I can or as much as you want.

This video will contain spoilers for the Space Between Worlds.

The Space Between Worlds was one of my most anticipated books of 2020. I heard about it from Charlotte from tealeafreads & readsrainbow towards the beginning of the year, and I’ve been waiting to read it since. It’s about a world while travel between alternate universes is possible. But only if the person is dead in the world they want to travel to. Cara is dead in all but 7 of the over 300 worlds that they can access, and she is one of the most prolific travelers. After another one of her doppelgangers is killed, she uncovers a plot that threatens herself and the multiverse as a whole.

summary
Early on, we learn that Cara, or at least the Cara we follow, is not the Cara of Earth-Zero and that Cara has been dead for the last six years. Instead she is Caralee from Earth 22. The Cara we follow is harder and less sheltered than the Cara of Earth 0—named Caramenta. While Caramenta lived in the Rurals, moved there after her mother married a pastor, and lived a life that, while not easy, gave her less callouses and scars than Caralee—who I’ll be calling Cara from now on and Earth 0 Caramenta.

Both Caras grew up in Ashetown, which is the land outside Wiley City’s wall, and with rough early lives. The key point of divergence is that Caramenta’s mother married a widowed pastor and merged their families while Cara’s mother died young, leaving Cara to survive on her own. Cara eventually got involved with Nik Nik, the leader of Ashetown, and suffered abuse at his hands—always going back until Caramenta, on her first traveling mission, is sent to her world and killed, and Cara decides to take her place.

At the start of the book, there are 8 versions of Cara still alive but another one is murdered, unlocking another world for Cara to travel to. This leads to another traveler, Starla Saeed, being let go from the company, and Cara being assigned the world. We also see Cara’s handler, Dell. Cara flirts with her, and continues to do so for the rest of the book and assumes that Dell’s discomfort with her, despite their mutual attraction being evident, is due to classism.

Before she travels to the new world, she visits Caramenta’s home to take part in a religious ceremony. We see just how much she cares about Caramenta’s family, especially her younger step-sister, Esther, who she would give the world for.

As soon as she returns, she is sent to the new world but something goes wrong—namely the Cara of that world, named Nelline, is still alive. Cara is injured gravely and it’s a miracle she even survived as no one else has ever survived a jump into a universe where their dop is still alive. She is nursed back to health by the Earth 175 version of Nik Nik. After that, she is quickly pulled into a conspiracy to take down the leader of that universe’s Ashetown—Nik Nik’s older brother, Adra, who is assumed to be dead in Earth 0 (and most worlds).

I won’t get into the specifics of it but their plan works. Most importantly, Cara learns that Adra is the Earth 22 version of Adam Bosch, the man who invented the technology to travel worlds, and uses that information to murder Adra, tricking him into travelling to Earth 0 with her which kills him. Nelline also tries to come, which ends up killing her as well.

Back on Earth 0, Cara gives Nelline a funeral, attended by Esther and Dell. It is then that Esher reveals to Cara that she has always known that Cara was not Caramenta, given that Cara has tattoos, which Esther knows Caramenta never had. The two end up talking and grow closer. It is also revealed that Caramenta hated Dell, going so far as to nearly file a complaint against her.

Adam Bosch recruits Cara to Maintenance, his group of interdimensional assassins and reveals that he has been killing off anyone in other universes close to figuring out how to travel between the worlds, including other versions of himself. He also tells her that he has had an eye on her for a while, and not Caramenta but Caralee, going so far to arrange Caramenta’s death in order to lure Cara to Earth 0.

Cara doesn’t give him an answer right away and goes to her mentor, Jean, for advice. Jean admits he knew about the program, used to be a part of it, and knew about Bosch’s interest in Cara for the program.

Before Cara gives her answer, before she even decides what to do, Bosch announces a new program—a interdimensional tourism program where five people a year will get to visit another world. However, she quickly comes to the conclusion that he intends to do this by killing off their dops in the worlds they are going to visit. And with that, she decides that she is going to risk it all and take Adam Bosch down.

Before she begins her plan, Dell confronts Cara. Earlier on, Dell lost one of the earnings her grandmother gave her, and Cara gave her one of the earrings that she took from a dop of Dell’s that she slept with. Dell confronts her about this, and reveals that she kissed Caramenta—who at that point she still thinks is Cara—and Cara threatened to report her to HR and called her a devil. During this, Cara slips up and refers to Caramenta in the 3rd person and confesses to Dell that she is not from Earth 0.

First she calls the police on him, which leads only to the brutal torture and murder of Jean—Bosch thinking it might be him that reported them but knowing that if it was Cara, Jean’s murder would get in line. Instead, it only made her more adamant in taking him down.

She teams up with the Nik Nik of Earth Zero and orchestrates a way to delay the tourism program without jeopardizing Traveling as a whole by destroying the pods used to Travel. Before the day comes, they sneak into a party at Bosch’s house. Cara goes to his room and finds the files he has on her, and, while she’s there, puts poison into the eyedrops he has to take every four hours because of the ocular implants he got.

At the party, as she is leaving, she runs into Dell and Dell, assuming she is with the runners from Ashtown against her free will, and follows them, trying to fight the runner for Cara’s honor. Later, the two hook up. What is a hopeful start to a relationship for Dell is a melancholic end for Cara, who has accepted her inevitable death when she tries to take down Bosch.

She is caught the day they destroy the pods. Bosch claims that he has worked with Nik Nik, that the runners he sent to destroy the pods aren’t actually going to do it. The ways he talks and the things he says he dead leads Cara to believe that he did just the opposite and pissed his brother off more. Moments later, an explosion is felt throughout the building, proving her right. She then reveals that she poisoned the eyedrops, says that he will not die right away but he will have a terminal illness for the rest of his life, starting with the slow loss of his sight. This forces him to teach other people the technology behind Traveling or become lost to the pages of a history textbook.

He calls Maintence in to murder her. However, Dell comes in and says that Cara has violated a number of rules, leading to her termination and deportation from Wiley City—saving her life. She goes back to Ashetown and makes a life for herself in the place she swore never to return. Later she runs into Dell and the two start a relationship and a life together, living out their days on the edge of Wiley City.

i. “REASONS I HAVE LIVED: I don’t know. But there are eight.” (Johnson, pg 19)
At its core, the Space Between Worlds is a story about oppression and the ways it mirrors and echoes itself. Cara has gone through worse things than almost any else in her life. She had been under the boot of the more powerful, of the wealthier, since she was born. Across universes, her life is nearly always marked by tragedy. In many worlds, she died as a child. In many worlds, she died because of her mothers actions. In many worlds, she was utterly powerless to keep herself alive. In Cara, and in the difference between her and Caramenta, we see the ways that their lives have shaped them into different people but what is clear is this: in the systems they both grew up in, neither was ever able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They remained in poverty, always on the edge of losing it all.

It’s very clear that the main difference in their lives, in how they turned out, is who showed them kindness. Caralee was taken in and raised by the House, a sex worker co-op. And I want to be clear, she was never trafficked by them. They were simply her family. She learned how to survive from people who are accepting and open minded. She learned how to survive from people who know the grittiness of what it takes to survive in a world that wants you dead.

Caramenta’s mother survived. And that’s the main point of divergence I think. Caramenta’s mother ended up marrying a religious leader. And the two of them are welcomed into the religion. This shapes Caramenta undeniably. She is an outsider, marked as such by her name, her skin color, and her mannerisms. It’s not explored much in the book but it’s my opinion that this lead her to take the tenets of the religion more seriously than even her step-sister who is planning to become a religious leader in her own rite. It’s mentioned, briefly, that some of the Ruralites are homophobic, mostly those that are dedicated to the religion. And Caramenta is, goes so far as to call Dell the devil and essentially bully a girl she had a crush on when she was a teen.

There is also Nelline, Cara’s Earth 175 dop. Here the main point of divergence is that Adra never went on to become Adam Bosch nor did he die in the bogs, like he did in Cara’s Earth. In Earth 175, Ashtown remained the horrible and hopeless place that it was in both Caralee’s and Caramenta’s childhoods, perhaps even worse than that. If Caramenta is Caralee if she were softer, if her life was easier on, Nelline is the opposite. She is what happens when Caralee’s life is brutal in a way that is more sociological than the personal brutality that Caralee’s had.

However, the material circumstances that these women live in, that they grew up in, are not that different even if they are different people. All of them exist on the precipice of death. At any moment, they could lose their lives or lose the people they love or experience horrific trauma. No matter the differences they have, no matter how difference they are personally, the oppression they face is mirrored and reflected by each other. This does a great way of showing the ways of how individual circumstances matter less than the weight of systematic oppression that is ingrained into the very fabric of society. It shows that no matter what Caralee did, no matter what Nelline did, no matter what Caramenta did, their lives were always going to take a similar shape, end up in a similar place, unless there was great systematic change.

Of Cara’s dops, we only hear about one that is in a good place in society. Earth 225 Cara, also named Caralee, was taken in by a wealthy family of Wileyites. She was wandering around when shwas four after her mother kicked her out of the house when a Wiley City couple found her. They took her in. They didn’t ask about her parents, didn’t stop to think that they were abducting a child. It isn’t something that is focused on. There’s about a page dedicated to her. But in that short amount of time, it’s positively chilling. The Cara with the best life on paper is a victim of a horrendous violation of human rights, stolen from her mother without a single thought beyond the idea that her life would be better away from the people and culture she came from.

ii. “I just want you to understand that I’ve killed you in worlds where you meant something to me without a second thought. And you mean nothing to me here.” pg. 256
It also does not shy away from depicting the oppression and the corruption of the society, of all facets of it.

Wylie City is a walled city. We never get much information on how it is formed but it was created after some sort of catastrophe, I think an environmental one but I could be reading into that. It is a walled city inhabited by the rich. Wylie citizens are guaranteed healthcare, a job, and the essentials of life. There is very little they want for. Yet, the citizens of Ashtown are not awarded any of the same benefits despite the fact that they provide labor and resources that Wylie City needs to keep going. They are essential to Wylie City and it’s prosperity but they are not given a second thought, are treated as less than human.

We see this in the general worldbuilding implicitly but most explicitly we see in the Travelers. The travelers are, more often than not, the people who have been the most mistreated by society. They are child soldiers. They are miners. They are children raised in poverty. They are refugees and poor migrants. They are, to be blunt, poor people and people of color. Because of this, because their rate of survival is so low, they are the most valuable Travelers, and they can go to the most worlds. Eldridge, the company that controls Traveling, offers them the chance to become Wylie Citizens if they become Travelers and even if they do not become citizens, they are still residents for however long they work for the company. But they have to risk their lives. Many people, including Caramenta, take the job only because they are desperate for money for themselves and their families.

We see just how far that Adam Bosch is willing to go to keep his power. He is willing to kill other versions of himself, willing to kill innocent people in the same of profit and making a name for himself in the history books. It doesn’t matter if he has to kill people, exploit them, leave them to die, or manipulate them across the worlds. It is an amazing look into the bedrock of capitalism, into the inevitable exploitation and carnage that it brings, especially to the most vulnerable members of society.

iii. “Sometimes to kill a dragon, you have to remember that you breath fire too. This isn’t a becoming; its a revealing. I’ve been a monster all along.”
The Space Between Worlds is a story about revolution. We open with a Cara who is not content with the shape of the world, who is not happy with the hands she has been dealt in her life or any one of the lives she has lived in any of the worlds, but she has accepted these things. She’s accepted the circumstances of her few lives, of her many death. For her, it is not a thing that she can change. Her goal is simply to survive. It’s not that she doesn’t care about other people, it’s that she thinks it won’t matter if she tries to change things.

During her time on Earth 175, Cara helps overthrow a government. She is instrumental to it, and she learns just how far she is willing to go to survive and more importantly, to help those around her. Her motives are never really altruistic. Even if she doesn’t know the citizens of Ash in Earth 175, she knows and cares about versions of them. It doesn’t matter, not really. What matters to the narrative that this pushes her to change. This shows her that her actions, if she works in concert with other people, can change the world, can chip away at the systems that hold her and people like her down.

At the end of the story, her revolution is not a large, society-altering one. It is one that makes changes possible, however, one that, in fact, forces changes. It is not a godsend. It is not a promise. It is a prayer. It is hope that one day the world might reshape itself. At the end of the day, her revolution amounts to taking down one man and the corporation that he controls. But is still something that saves lives, that leaves a pathway for more permanent change. And, personally, I find that incredibly hopeful.
.

I took a chance on this book since a friend liked it, but I didn’t feel that way at all. It drags, it’s confusing, and I really struggled with it.

Cara is a traverser - an individual who ventures to other Earths for a career. At this time, 380 other Earths have been identified and traversers can only successfully travel to those on which their “dops” have already died. Cara is particularly valuable because she has died on nearly all the other Earths, making it possible for her to travel to more worlds.

What I loved:
- the entire concept of other Earths and traversing
- the imagery - the setting was a dystopian world completely unlike our own and I loved the vivid images created and incredibly unique landscapes
- I really liked the plot line. The first half of the story focused on world building and understanding traversing. The second half created more of a villain/ hero narrative that added a complexity to the storyline
- there was a bit of a “twist” with Cara’s character in the very beginning that felt very obvious to me and I was relieved it wasn’t some big reveal or drawn out surprise
- there was just enough of a love story to make the novel hopefully without taking away from the overall plot
- I loved the fluidity with gender, sexuality, and race and how it was just assumed rather than discussed or harped on

What I didn’t love:
- the book felt very YA to me which was unexpected
- with so many characters and their dops, I had a hard time keeping everyone straight
- I could have used more explanation as to how the other Earths were found and why there were only 380. Theoretically, there should be infinite
- I struggled to connect to the characters and this may be related to that fact that there were so many and I had difficulty remembering them all

I definitely recommend this one for anyone drawn toward young adult, dystopian novels. The sci-fi element wasn’t over the top and would probably be a great introduction for someone wanting to expand their genre exploration.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel and the concept was incredibly unique and intriguing. It’s a thought provoking read and one that is great for discussion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this novel.