The Short Version: A dramatically ambitious debut novel about finding meaning in nothingness. A book that has all the right notes but is a little more music theory than a beautiful symphony.

The Long Version: I got to listen to the audiobook version of this novel thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio.

Myrra is an indentured servant on a spaceship flying to a new world. When they arrive in 50 years she’ll be set free, but until that time she works for the Carlyles. One night, the Carlyles ask her to take care of their infant daughter, Charlotte, and when they’re suddenly gone, Myrra is forced to reckon with what’s happened and where to go from there.

This was a weird and tough one for me. Most of the time I felt rather MEH listening to it, but when I looked at my notes and really thought on it, there wasn’t much of anything glaringly poor or wrong about this book.

The protagonists were both likable. They had layered stories that informed their actions pretty well. Their character arcs made sense and were nicely drawn, coming to sensible and satisfying conclusions.

The prose was well written, though the third person limited occasionally drifted into more of an omniscient tone, and there were moments with too much telling vs. showing.

The plot moved at a reasonable pace and given all the circumstances, each move made logical sense even if there were a few convenient plot twists.

I wanted to say that this book just never hooked me, but that would be inaccurate. The first few chapters were a firecracker start, and instantly establish life or death stakes. The ending too, was really something great. I feared for a lot of the book we were headed toward a fairy tale ending, but the author spared that injustice and wrote something tragic and beautiful instead.

So what went wrong? Sounds pretty awesome so far right? In the end, I think it was a lot of little things that nagged at me.

Considering the high stakes, the middle of the book sagged pretty hard. Myrra was on a journey of discovering meaning, and while it’s not like nothing happened, there was this feeling of “so what?” constantly cloying at me.

This book examines big topics and big questions, so there were a number of moments where the story felt melodramatic instead of profound, like it was close to something greater but was pushing too hard.

Myrra too was flawed in her construction because she did not seem flawed enough. She was an uneducated servant, and while she was ambitious and clever, she’s written essentially flawless. She has to improvise a plan once the Carlyles go missing, but every move works out in her favor and she’s always one step ahead. She seems too prescient at times as well and I couldn’t get behind her like I wanted to.

This is definitely not a book for die hard sci-fi fans as the sci-fi aspects are mostly window dressing and set pieces. Additionally, as Myrra travels to the new parts of the world, there are short chapters that explain the composition and construction of each region which was very clunky as a world building technique.

The narrator of the audiobook did not help in this situation either as far as I can tell. It may be because the last three audiobooks I listened to had pretty killer narrators enhancing the story, but here everything felt muted. Considering the life and death stakes, the moments of emotion were more foothills than peaks and valleys. The narrator did do a nice job differentiating character voices and each felt distinct and easy to track. Overall though I wasn’t pulled in by her.

I think there may be two things going on here that left me feeling differently than some other reviewers. First is that perhaps this book is a mirror of the reader. For the more glass half full crowd, the ones who find beauty in the mundane, this is a rich emotional journey and a sure fire winner. For the glass half empty group however, the entirety of the journey feels pointless and it’s a struggle to find the meaning Myrra is searching for. The second possibility is that those reading the book can put their own emotion into it whereas I was having mine filtered through an audiobook narration that did not convey the richness of narrative.

Overall a solid 3 out of 5. If you’re in a book rut and need a safe read that’s unlikely to bomb, this is a good choice. I definitely recommend a print or digital version so you can pour your own emotion into it. Again, do not recommend for hardcore sci-fi fans...I would expect this to come up short to that crowd.

Component Ratings
Idea/Concept: 4 out of 5
Female Protagonist: 3 out of 5
Male Protagonist: 3 out of 5
Pacing: 3.5 out of 5
Prose: 3.5 out of 5
Plot: 2 out of 5
World Building: 2.5 out of 5
Narrator Performance: 2.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 3.5 out of 5
Ending: 4.5 out of 5

The World Gives Way is a beautifully written story about Myrra, who is a contract worker where her life belongs to the highest bidder. Something happens to her current "employers", leaving her with their baby and a horrifying secret about the world she lives in.

The writing in this book was phenomenal. Every character had so much depth and seeing their motivations was heartbreaking. Myrra living her whole life with one hardship after the next but still having hope for Charlotte was beautiful. Tobias really helped juxtaposition someone who had also had a rough life but nowhere near the extent of those essentially in slavery. I loved that the book did not center around some romantic relationship between the two the whole time. It was hard to not empathize with every character in the book. I saw the ending coming because I couldn't see an alternative but it still somehow was fulfilling. For me, this book is a 4.5/5.

If you like end of the world but we have to keep the hope alive, beautiful writing, and complex characters this book is for you. I also had access to the audiobook and it was extremely well done. The narrator was phenomenal and I always find tragic stories to make great audiobooks.

I received a copy of this audiobook for free from NetGalley and Hachette Audio in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very good quick enjoyable audio book!
I was immediately hooked when I heard the narrator first!
And as the story started in couldn't stop listening!
This was some science fiction and crime! But nonetheless an amazing one!
The character development I also enjoyed reading and growing with Myrra.was so awesome!
I really got into this book!

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for this great audio book!.

This audiobook was narrated by Christine Lakin and she did a very good job. She pulled off the male voices better than most. I recommend the narrator.
Now on to the novel. This debut was a dystopia and it started out great. I was invested. It made a lot of sense and I was interested in how they got there. Why they were there. You know, all that kind of stuff. And then it just…. Well it just….. I refuse to give any spoilers so you just have to trust me when I say I didn’t like the ending!
This author has great potential and I’d definitely listen to another novel of hers.
Thanks Redhook via Netgalley.

I really thought this was going to be a different story in a lot of ways. I was expecting more dystopian/sci-fi action, and it was all there, but it was different. I feel like when I dig down, this book was about finding people to connect with. I enjoyed the story, and the cat and mouse storyline, but towards the end, this detoured into what felt like a new storyline. I ultimately enjoyed that as well, it took me a bit by surprise though.

I think that readers that enjoy a story with a foundation in character relationships and a mix of sci-fi/futuristic timelines, will enjoy this one!

This is unlike any dystopian novel I've ever read before. A lot of dystopian novels are about rivalry against the government, action-packed, filled with violence, death, and a lot of other action-packed events. This was definitely one of the slower dystopian novels I have read, which was more about the experience of reading it and less about the plot and action.

The book started off very strongly with jumping right into Myrra finding her boss’s seconds away from dying and leaving her with the secret that will end the world and their infant daughter. Mira takes this opportunity 2 leave the grueling contract that she's been under and take her boss's daughter leaving everything behind. she really didn't have a destination or it wasn't well portrayed what her goal was she just kind of seems to be wandering aimlessly. The book also follows an officer who is put in charge of finding Myrra because she broke her contract, could possibly have been involved in the death of her bosses and the kidnapping of a child.

The start of the book does well in introducing the world. In a lot of other dystopian books you just have to continue to read and slowly gather information but this book comes right out in the beginning and sets the world up. Even though the book starts out in the world building there really isn't a lot of information to go on. this is because all the information is practically given at the start but throughout the book, you really don't know a lot about the world. It wasn't the best world-building. There were a lot of things thrown in that you had no idea were even a part of this dystopian future. There was no context or build-up to a lot of the environment around them. To be honest this book neither had good worldbuilding, character building, or plot building

There was no end goal to the story. We just follow them as they wait for the world to end nothing really more happening. For half of the book, Tobias is trying to find Myrra, but after that happens there isn't anything you're waiting for to happen, except the end. I found a lot of a book pretty pointless not a lot of action happens in the book it's mainly about just slowly revealing their step-by-step actions and contains a lot of details and random rambling on about their feelings, their past, and a lot of other things that didn't really add a lot to the story

The narration was almost like poetry. The narrator had a very soft-spoken voice with not a lot of emphasis. So it was nice listening to the voice. It was soothing to listen to, but because there wasn't a lot of dramatic changing in the volume or tone of the voice to show the seriousness of some of the situations, I did find my mind wandering a little bit. My mind wandering wasn't just because of the narration but mainly had to do with the book and long sections of details and explanations without dialogue and action.

One thing I did enjoy was that the relationships grown between different characters were not forced. The relationships that were developed were natural and you could see the slow progression. The story didn't push their relationship past what was natural for it to occur.

The ending may be very disappointing to a lot of people but for me, I feel like it fit the book very well. Just like the rest of the book, it was very gradual and slow, stirring the deep inner emotion with the readers. It wasn't a shocking sterling ending, but one that you could see was slowly building towards throughout the whole book. It was more of a book that you finished and you take a deep breath and think about what you just read because you can find peace in the ending and not a book that you finish and you gasp and yell and throw the book across the room because you can't believe that just happened.

I expected a lot more from this book, but it was a nice change of pace than I am used to in these types of stories. Unlike any book of these genres I have read before, which was both good and bad.

TW: Suicide

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.