book review: the space between

the space between by brenna yovanoff

official website

description: Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be.

review: i have a weird history with brenna yovanoff (not a real one, oh lord but that'd be rad!). i was extremely excited for the replacement, brenna's debut. i loved the premise and was impatiently awaiting its arrival in my library. but holy cow, when i got it ? it was so strange. i couldn't get in the story. brenna's writing style just throws you directly into the plot, leaving you to fend for yourself and it didn't work for me. one bit. i abandoned the replacement, bitter and unsuccessful.

however, i saw the space between in my library yesterday and read the summary and thought, hey, i'll give it another go! this sounds so cool! and i'm so glad i did. firstly, let's talk about the covers. they're gorgeous. for real. even paper valentine is so pretty. they have such creepy covers, to match the darkness within its pages. (hello corniness??)

the space between tells the story of daphne, daughter of lilith and lucifer. now, i have no idea about anything dealing with religion. seriously. the book that introduced me to religious things was the blue bloods series, and dude, i didn't even know that there were religious figures in the book. i thought melissa de la cruz made up those characters. i was christened (whatever that means) but was too lazy to get confirmed (also have no clue what that means) but on my island, it's important that i accomplish those two things, so i'm a pariah! anyway, they all live in hell. and have grey skin. but no, they are not homestuck characters. they live in hell, and daphne (loved her name, btw) hasn't discovered her calling yet. her sisters are all succubi, seducing earth men and being hot as hell (i'm so sorry mom for that bad pun, please stop crying). daphne's brother, obie, who works on earth, tells her that he's leaving hell, which they call Pandemonium, to live with an earth woman he loves. daphne can't stop him, and her mom "sees" that obie is is danger and sends daphne to get him.

the setting was really something. i pictured pandemonium as like a steampunkish place. there was this giant pit, which now that i think about it was something to do with religion, but it went right over my head. i liked the silver rivers and the ashy sky and i wished we could've spent some more time there. earth was pretty boring. the earth scenes were set in chicago and las vegas. those scenes reminded me of percy jackson, when they're in the hotel locus (or lotus?). and heaven was cool.

the main characters made me really sad. i liked daphne. i liked how she had no feelings, no emotions, and was just basing things off movies she watched from earth. she was also a fresh slate when it came to relationships and only knows her demon family. so her time on earth was fun. and truman, the half-human boy she falls in love him? he was so tragic. he almost died, and daphne saved him, yadda yadda. but their relationship just made my heart ache. they're such tender characters and i didn't wanna see them get hurt, but eventually they do because that's life, even in hell.

the plot was kinda dull. the reason i kept reading was to know what happened to daphne and truman. i was fascinated with their story (and like i said, hell) and i honestly wanted to see if a relationship between the two would work. all the characters were fragile and pitiful in their own ways. strangely, i didn't care for obie. i had no attachment to him, and that's unfortunate because the entire plot is centered on rescuing him.

i'm very fond of retellings and this one did not disappoint. the reason i couldn't get absorbed by the replacement was because yovanoff writes these grim, dark tales that usually involved characters that aren't human and i never know if the human know that this other world exists. for instance, truman (who we find out is half-human like halfway through the book) is so accepting of daphne's demon life. there's no lengthy paragraphs of him sitting in disbelief, wondering how hell could exist. he's fine with it. and there's other scene where daphne and truman travel to clubs and hotels and there's demon clubs there and everyone is so okay with it. demons are free to roam earth and it's acceptable.

in conclusion, i really loved this book. the characters kept me interested enough and i'm excited to see what else brenna yovanoff comes up with (i have a copy of paper valentine and i'll be reading it in the next week or so). pick up the space between if you're a fan of characters trying to redeem themselves, biblical references, and learning to love ~~

If she’d been a normal girl, he might have put his arm around her,pulled her close or smiled sympathetically or even just told her that the pain of loss would get better eventually. But she wasn't a normal girl and he could lie to a lot of people, but he couldn't lie to her. it didn't get better, it just got different.

the space between/brenna yovanoff