Written by contributor Uma Shankari
Trigger Warnings: Physical and emotional domestic abuse, past trauma
Have you ever read a book and been unable to form any thoughts whatsoever for the next couple of hours because it was absolutely brilliant? This was that book for me. It gripped me from page one and I couldn’t stop reading until I reached the final page.
Complex Characters One Can’t Help But Root For
Cara is a force to be reckoned with. She is a multilayered character with so much depth that it’s so easy to forget she’s a fictional character in a book. She is strong, driven, and a survivor. She is also a dreamer and as her mother puts it, “she was born reaching”. Cara is a traverser, one of those few who get to travel parallel worlds and collect. Some would call it lucky but that’s such an irony considering a traverser can only go to a world where their parallel self is dead; and Cara is dead in more than 350 worlds.
All of the characters were incredibly three dimensional, even Dell who seems so aloof and stony most of the time. The fact that there are many parallel universes makes it all the more interesting. Hundreds of variations of the same person, but having a slightly different life because of the choices they made. The characters were all incredibly diverse with the main character being Black and bisexual, plus there are multiple PoC characters, an f/f romance, and non binary secondary characters.
My favourite part about the book were all the different relationships and the sisterhood between Cara and Esther was a delight to read about. Esther is one of the best secondary characters I’ve ever read as she is strong in her quiet way, polite and kind, but also brilliant and ruthless when the need arises. She’s the kind of person who will always be there for the people she loves, regardless of how hard it is.
I also adored the mentor/mentee relationship between Jean and Cara. Jean is the clever and understanding elderly uncle to Cara’s turbulent and cheeky personality. He more than just taught her about traversing; he taught her to be human, to soften and show compassion, and at times to take a stand and fight back.
I will not say much about the romance so as to not give away anything, but I loved it. I loved the complex and rocky development of trust, the confusion, the heartache, and the slow burn which was frustrating in a really good way! It was so cleverly done and like a jigsaw puzzle that was slowly put together.
“We coexist, parallel but never touching, and if one of us goes too far, or if I ever get too close, the Eridanus Void opens between us. We both withdraw and leave a cold dark in the space we almost touched that three suns couldn’t light.”
Plot Twists That Will Take You For A Spin
Even though the main plot was a science fiction/dystopian thriller, the book also dealt with philosophical questions in a subtle way; how the smallest choices can make the biggest differences and how different situations shape us into different people.
This book surprised me in more ways than one. Just 9% into the book, the author quietly dropped a plot twist that shocked me. This continued throughout the book, at the best places, and plot twists were presented that made my head spin in the best way possible. There is foreshadowing too and I think I’ll be reading the book again to pick up on those.
While the science fiction aspect of the story might be considered light by hardcore sci-fi lovers, I personally loved the explanations the author gives for how traversing works and the laws she puts forth. I also loved the spiritual aspect of how traversers believe it is Goddess Nyame who guides them across different universes, that it is she who they feel in that space between worlds. After reading the book, I looked it up and found out Nyame is the God of the Akan people of Ghana. I wonder if that is the mythology the author has drawn from.
Writing That Will Keep You Mesmerised
The writing is utterly brilliant and I couldn’t stop marvelling at how simple yet powerful the writing was. The little paragraph at the beginning of each part comparing the way people of the scientific world and spiritual world saw things was so fascinating.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the subtle ways in which the author foreshadowed some twists; so subtle that you realise them for what they are only after you’ve see the twist. Both the fast paced plot and engaging writing is sure to keep readers at the edge of their seats as they read this book!
The Space Between Worlds is a story with multiverses and interdimensional travel, but it’s also the story of one survivor, her people, and her lives across the multiverse. Micaiah Johnson beautifully brings these two together to give us a riveting story filled with adventures and emotions.
The Space Between Worlds is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up The Space Between Worlds? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.
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.
