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 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."
My Thoughts
Wow. This book was a twisting, turning adventure that I had no idea how it was going to end. It had A LOT going on with a sci-fi adventure through the multiverse, social commentary, conspiracy, and a low key sapphic love story through it all.
I really enjoyed so many elements of this story, and I never really knew what was going to happen next. Every part of this book felt like a slightly different story with new villains but it was all woven together so wonderfully.
There were also some elements of Cara's past and her deaths on other worlds, that were some of the most disturbing things I've read. Thankfully there wasn't enormous detail on all the myriad of ways she dies as a child but the overwhelming result of almost 400 deaths on other worlds is something that's hard to sit with.
This book is going to stay with me for a while and I definitely recommend it but you should definitely check the content warnings before diving into this one because there are some really intense moments.
Genre: lgbtqia+, sci-fi
Representation: Black MC, bi/pan MC, Asian-American, non-binary
Content Warnings: violence, graphic descriptions of physical domestic abuse, death, murder of children, panic attacks, misogyny