All Jamie Allenby ever wanted was space. Even though she wasn’t forced to emigrate from Earth, she willingly left the overpopulated, claustrophobic planet. And when a long relationship devolved into silence and suffocating sadness, she found work on a frontier world on the edges of civilization. Then the virus hit...
Now Jamie finds herself dreadfully alone, with all that’s left of the dead. Until a garbled message from Earth gives her hope that someone from her past might still be alive.
Soon Jamie finds other survivors, and their ragtag group will travel through the vast reaches of space, drawn to the promise of a new beginning on Earth. But their dream will pit them against those desperately clinging to the old ways. And Jamie’s own journey home will help her close the distance between who she has become and who she is meant to be...
I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. Like other reviewers that I have come across, I thought this would focus more on the virus and the decimation of the human population. Space sickness is cool to read about. But I was pleasantly surprised when it ended up being about survival in more than just one way and found myself enjoying it more than I probably would have if it had focused more on the virus.
This is Anne Corlett's first novel, and it reads as if she has multiple novels under her belt. Everything was so carefully plotted out and the characters were so human it ached. To say it was well-written would be saying that the Titanic was a minor boating accident. While the summary hinted that there would be a lot of isolation in the literal sense, this was not the case, however, it was the case in a metaphorical one. Although she soon finds herself in the midst of a motley crew of people, they all have demons and flaws. Each of the characters is so realistically developed and layered. While there were a few moments where specific characters felt more like caricatures, this book is more so about human nature/interactions and coming together after a tragedy or disaster and learning to live after it. In this way The Space Between the Stars reminded me of Station Eleven, another book that I love with a similar setup.
As I already mentioned, the characters are so flawed and layered. While this would have been overbearing in other novels, it is important and necessary here in order to establish connections and rivalries. If the characters were cheerful and happy all the time, it would have been a farce. I love how I don't always like certain characters' actions because it makes them more human and realistic. I enjoyed the dynamics between all of the characters, and it made for a compelling read. If they had been perfect people or less flawed, it woudn't have been quite so engaging, especially since it is an examination of humanity and human nature.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Had it not been for a family gathering, I would have read this book in one fell swoop, but I did manage to finish it in one day (well, technically I finished it following midnight, but semantics). While I had a few quibbles, they were minor, and did not detract so much that I had to deduct from my star rating. This is an incredible novel about loneliness and isolation and coming together as well as an examination of human nature and what humanity would do in the face of unmitigated disaster. The characters were carefully developed and realistically portrayed. With rich, beautiful, and aching writing and an incredible examination of what it means to be human, this book is a stunner, and I'm going to give it 5/5 - I highly recommend it.
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