I am a fan of Charlotte McConaghy. This is the third novel she’s written and the third I’ve read, and it more than the others can be called “a page turner.” McConaghy writes beautifully, seamlessly, making the art seem easy. Her novels include complex, strong, driven women and her plots revolve around a deep connection to the environment. The novel opens with a shipwrecked woman being rescued from the surf by a family, now the only inhabitants of an island. Her arrival is a mystery, and from the outset there is distrust in both directions. As the secrets she and the family harbor unfold, so does a story about parenthood and a story of loss, grief, and love.
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world's largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has…
I have been reading a lot of science fiction/speculative fiction in the last two years because that is the genre of my current work. The premise of “The Space between Worlds” is that parallel universes exist and that on planet Earth an individual has developed a technology to travel between universes. This is a well-written, page-turning novel in which Micaiah Johnson creates a complex, growing character and explores the wiles of individuals constantly challenged by survival. With this novel and its sequel, Johnson introduces an uncomfortable protagonist and allows the reader’s understanding of her to grow alongside her understanding of herself.
The Sunday Times bestseller. Winner of the Kitschies Golden Tentacle award.
A stunning science fiction debut, The Space Between Worlds is both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.
'My mother used to say I was born reaching, which is true. She also used to say it would get me killed, which it hasn't. Not yet, anyway.'
Born in the dirt of the wasteland, Cara has fought her entire life just to survive. Now she has done the impossible, and landed herself a comfortable life on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley…
Another work of speculative fiction, the title of this work, before reading, seemed uninspired, but the future we want to create is indeed integral to the novel. In a world not unlike our own, three tech giants keep expanding their reach as they find new ways to commoditize their users while the two protagonists counter their efforts by putting trust in relationships and community to build the future they want to see. A fast-paced, page-turning adventure that is also reflective and at its heart optimistic. Although its social commentary is obvious, the characters and plot keep the work from being ponderous.
“An absorbing, restorative tale of community and nature.” —Kirkus Reviews
Lizzy has largely retreated from the world: she tends her adopted strays and goes to work, but she has forsaken lifelong pastimes and declines invitations from old friends. On the day she buries Happy, the abandoned basset hound she adopted years before, she learns a real estate developer is threatening the heart of her rural community—a tranquil pond and a relict stand of hemlocks. For Lizzy this is a magical place, hidden from the modern world.
Coaxed by an old friend to join a group fighting the development, Lizzy is reluctant—she wants to avoid both hope and him. But she realizes she can no longer keep the outside world at bay. As the battle over the development unfolds, Lizzy opens herself to two young neighbors who share her love of the natural environment—an awkward sixteen-year-old and an inquisitive ten-year-old. And as Happy’s elements return to the earth, Lizzy experiences her own transformation as buried memories find their way to the surface in increasingly curious ways.
