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prosenheim's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, War, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Classism
Moderate: Deportation, Gore, Child abuse, Addiction, and Abandonment
Minor: Terminal illness, Adult/minor relationship, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, and Suicide
emily_mh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
4.5
This was SO GOOD. So many people have loved this book and I really hoped I could be one of them, and I am! It has such such a great combination of plot, character, and theme, and the writing style was great: it was filled with some wry observations that either make you see things in a new light or perfectly put into words how you might already think about something.
The story was gripping right from the off. It’s the kind of plot where you don’t really know where things are going to go, but not at all in a bad way. There are intriguing twists and some great pacing. I will say that the ending felt a little rushed, though.
I really liked the MC Cara, who embodied the reluctant hero trope. She goes through ethical dilemmas throughout the book, torn between self-preservation and her moral compass. It was interesting seeing her perspective on these dilemmas, seeing the thought process behind her actions. Moreover, in Cara (and other characters) we see a key theme played out: how different circumstances (as seen on alternate Earths) can lead someone to become a different person. Cara gets to observe how one event happening, or not happening, could have impacted her character. And through this Cara questions if the opposite cannot also be true, that is, if different circumstances can have no impact on a person’s development, because there are people and situations we will always be drawn to due to our nature. This was really fascinating to think about.
Another great theme was this idea of “the space between worlds”, an idea that crops up in so many places within the novel. For example, it is a physical liminal space when Cara is traversing, but it is also the space which Cara occupies as an Ashtown-born person working in Wiley City. The theme embodies how Cara feels more at home in the space between worlds than she does on said worlds themselves.
I also thought the romance was a great touch. I loved the mutual pining and how oblivious Cara was with the whole thing. I do wish I had gotten more of an idea as to why Cara and Dell were attracted to one another; we are shown that they are, but I wanted to know the why.
Overall this was a fantastic read and I’m excited for the potential companion novel!
Rep: Black sapphic MC, Japanese-American sapphic LI, Ivorian-American SC
Content Warnings
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, volcanobookishwondergoth'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.
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.
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
likeactualsoulmates's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing me with a free ebook in exchange for my honest review!
Let me just preface this by saying I went into this knowing very little because I KNEW I would love it. So when I read in the first chapter that it was a book about the multiverse and people were able to traverse them I was hooked. For the first few chapters, I was indeed bored, but as soon as we got to a huge revelation about Caramenta's life and being I couldn't stop reading from there. So if you're reading this and the first few chapters seem dull, give it a few more and see how invested the plot twists make you.
We meet a character absolutely selfish and fighting for their well-being, and it honestly is off-putting. I wanted to know more about how this person ended up valuing their benefit so strongly over others, and learn I did. Because many of Cara's character traits that seem offputting at first glance made so much sense once put in perspective with her character arc. The author did such a good job making a believable character reaction to her awful situation, I don't know if anything different would have felt right. Of course, Cara would value self-preservation at the point we meet her, and we get to go on her character arc in this book.
What really threw me off though was how free form the plot was, which after having read it all I believe is what best fits how to tell this story. But for a long, while we had no real end goal, we had just met these characters and we're going along on a ride with them. Slowly at after the mid-way point, things get set in motion and then is when we get our end goal. Once I learned to let go of reaching for an overarching plot and just enjoyed this ride with these characters I really started enjoying this book. Without getting into spoilers, there were many molar dilemmas and genuinely awful situations presented to our characters and we got to see all their reactions and what consequences their actions had.
If you enjoy sci-fi books with a darker theme and don't mind some gore, I would definitely recommend this book!
Now I'd like to make a shortlist with all the quotes I highlighted for this book.
Let me just preface this by saying I went into this knowing very little because I KNEW I would love it. So when I read in the first chapter that it was a book about the multiverse and people were able to traverse them I was hooked. For the first few chapters, I was indeed bored, but as soon as we got to a huge revelation about Caramenta's life and being I couldn't stop reading from there. So if you're reading this and the first few chapters seem dull, give it a few more and see how invested the plot twists make you.
We meet a character absolutely selfish and fighting for their well-being, and it honestly is off-putting. I wanted to know more about how this person ended up valuing their benefit so strongly over others, and learn I did. Because many of Cara's character traits that seem offputting at first glance made so much sense once put in perspective with her character arc. The author did such a good job making a believable character reaction to her awful situation, I don't know if anything different would have felt right. Of course, Cara would value self-preservation at the point we meet her, and we get to go on her character arc in this book.
What really threw me off though was how free form the plot was, which after having read it all I believe is what best fits how to tell this story. But for a long, while we had no real end goal, we had just met these characters and we're going along on a ride with them. Slowly at after the mid-way point, things get set in motion and then is when we get our end goal. Once I learned to let go of reaching for an overarching plot and just enjoyed this ride with these characters I really started enjoying this book. Without getting into spoilers, there were many molar dilemmas and genuinely awful situations presented to our characters and we got to see all their reactions and what consequences their actions had.
If you enjoy sci-fi books with a darker theme and don't mind some gore, I would definitely recommend this book!
Now I'd like to make a shortlist with all the quotes I highlighted for this book.
- "It shames me more than it shames them, but it does shame us both."
- "I am always pretending, always wearing costumes but never just clothes."
- "Maybe it's just easier to think something is impossible than to try."
- "A rotating black hole does not collapse to a dot. That's the old-fashioned thinking. It collapses to a ring, a ring of neutrons. And if you fall through the ring of neutrons vertically, you wind up in Wonderland. You wind up on the other side of forever." -Michio Kaku
- "That was true power. Not to kill a man, but to kill a man in front of his family and force them to agree you did not."
- "You can't ever know another person, which is why you should never admire anyone."
- "Sometimes, focusing on survival is necessary. Sometimes, it is just an excuse for selfishness."
- " "A fallen angel is a demon.", "A being who can enact great change, either way." "
- "What does it mean to crave something toxic?"
- "Sometimes you have to bleed to know you're human."
- "Somehow using someone's need to keep them in line is less awful than using fear."
- "The only due powerful men recognize is a life- in service or in sacrifice."
- "Dear Brother from another time, today some stars gave in to the black around them & i knew it was you." -Danez Smith
This is grief because a powerful man killed someone I love but will never see consequences." - "Our dead are only weights on our backs when we won't let them walk beside us, when we try to pretend they are ours or they are not dead."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Child death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual content, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Grief, Violence, War, Addiction, Gun violence, and Terminal illness
troisha's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Xenophobia
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Vomit
alouette's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-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
5.0
I've always believed, like all rational people, that my selves are separate. That they- we- exist independently. But sometimes when life is too still, when I lie in bed in the quiet, I can feel it all happening.
it might take me awhile to sort out my feelings about this book in a legible way, so for now here's a quick list:
- worldbuilding was amazingly immersive and confronted issues of poverty, segregation, etc. with a full-on approach as well as going about the multiverse in a way that could be understood without much difficulty
- the characters were super diverse and had a lot of depth, with an exploration of ethics and an examination of their values across different worlds and different situations
- the plot twists were awesome, the plot itself with good pacing
- the main romance as well as other character interactions were brilliant (even if i feel like the big misunderstanding between the main romance couple was a bit silly)
- the author covered some very heavy subjects with a lot of care but also the honesty that such trauma encompasses
- for once i could feel positively about the existentialism in a novel
slightly ambiguous ending was perfect for the type of book this is
make sure to check content warnings before you read this!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Medical content
Minor: Miscarriage and Terminal illness
bookmaddie's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I haven’t read sci-fi in AGES, but the parallel world premise of this book really sparked my interest. I don’t know what it is about parallel worlds, but sign me up, I am ready. I loved how Caralee, the main character, was able to have so many different experiences of people in her community—those she loved and those she hated. It was really beautiful how she was able to find closure for some past relationships as she forged new ones, with the ‘same’ individual. The way parallel worlds allows for a variety of relationships with the same person to be explored is really beautiful, and I am obsessed with this concept.
Also, Caralee is just amazing! She is so strong, brave, determined, loving, observant, clever and moRE. I love how her queerness was totally accepted and not an issue at all. This was such a departure from how queerness is often perceived in our world, and it was so refreshing and beautiful.
This was a more plot-heavy book than I am used to, and while I enjoyed the constant problems and solutions, I did find some plot points a bit confusing. Also, I just wanted more history and in-depth world building. I wanted to know the history of this entire place and how it came to be. I do wonder if that’s a carryover from my love of literary fiction that tends to go really deep in characterization of a person and place. I do think the book could’ve been a bit longer and answered a few of those questions.. but also are we meant to be a bit confused, just as Caralee is when she visits a new world?
If you are at all intrigued by parallel worlds, planet traversing, and political and family subterfuge, definitely give this one a go! It is tender, exciting and brazen. Such an amazing read, and I can’t wait for more work from Johnson!!
Also, Caralee is just amazing! She is so strong, brave, determined, loving, observant, clever and moRE. I love how her queerness was totally accepted and not an issue at all. This was such a departure from how queerness is often perceived in our world, and it was so refreshing and beautiful.
This was a more plot-heavy book than I am used to, and while I enjoyed the constant problems and solutions, I did find some plot points a bit confusing. Also, I just wanted more history and in-depth world building. I wanted to know the history of this entire place and how it came to be. I do wonder if that’s a carryover from my love of literary fiction that tends to go really deep in characterization of a person and place. I do think the book could’ve been a bit longer and answered a few of those questions.. but also are we meant to be a bit confused, just as Caralee is when she visits a new world?
If you are at all intrigued by parallel worlds, planet traversing, and political and family subterfuge, definitely give this one a go! It is tender, exciting and brazen. Such an amazing read, and I can’t wait for more work from Johnson!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Terminal illness
gemmagetson's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, and Addiction
Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Terminal illness
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