Michelle L. Teichman

Everything's great for Harper Isabelle, the most popular girl in grade nine. That is, until she meets Sarah Jamieson. Sarah is a reclusive artist, a loner who wears black makeup and doesn't have any friends, but for some reason, Harper can't stop thinking about her. Sarah isn't used to people looking her way, especially popular girls like Harper Isabelle. Scared, religious, and unsure of herself, when Sarah begins to realize that her feelings for Harper might go beyond friendship, she is afraid to take the plunge and tell Harper how she feels. Emotions build between these young women until they both reach their breaking points, and they need to make a choice about coming to terms with who they really are, and what they can and cannot live without.

The Space Between

"Why did I request this arc?" to "it's kinda interesting" to "oh god, so cute, I love them!" is how my thoughts changed about this book.

At first it is nothing special, popular girl, really unpopular girl, insta-love and a love triangle. But bear with that. The love triangle makes sense - coming from me, a passionate hater - and even the insta-love can be forgotten. Mostly because the relationship between Harper and Sarah is so cute. And the reader learns which little quirks are so loveable about the other person. I just really rooted for them.

There is a lot of drama and going back and forth but it didn't feel forced. Sadly there was nothing really surprising about it. Otherwise it would have been a definitive 5 stars read.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

Abi Baker

** spoiler alert **
           Whilst reading this book there were multiple times that I shouted out loud (in enjoyable exasperation) at some of the events that transpired in The Space Between. Mutual pining is one of my favourite writing tropes and this book didn’t disappoint at all, piling tons of it in from start to finish. It combines fluff and angst perfectly and is a great tale about first love.

The Space Between follows Harper Isabelle and Sarah Jamieson, both 14 at the start of the novel, as they meet and are immediately, although secretly, attracted to each other. Through the book we see them fall in love and fall apart. This book definitely gave me flashbacks to the feelings of my first crushes and the excitement of being drawn to someone and experiencing new feelings. I like that chapters switched between both Harper’s and Sarah’s point of view so we got to see it from both of their thoughts and opinions on events that transpired such as their first kiss and their struggles with how to define their relationship. 

Although I did love this story, I felt a tiny bit icky reading about 14/15 year olds having sex, and I think if they were aged up to 16 I would have been more comfortable. Although this is my opinion, this kind of thing is realistic in real life, and it didn’t overly detract from the wonderful arc of their relationship and them falling in love. I can understand that some readers might have issues with the love triangle (albeit mostly unrequited), especially seeing as Harper is firstly dating Tyler, and then goes on to date his sister Sarah in secret. I personally did not have much of a problem with this, as I could see it from both Harper’s and Sarah’s viewpoints, however the idea of cheating will not appeal to some readers, especially when it is with siblings.
The book also focused extremely heavily on the feelings and relationship between Harper and Sarah and I did walk away feeling like I didn’t know much about these characters outside of their relationships and their identity issues, and I wish we could have got a better glimpse at them.

Part of me also wishes that we could have seen how both Harper and Sarah adjusted to school life after they came out, and how treatment of them differed. I did enjoy the epilogue and it was nice to see that they were still happy after three years together. I’m really glad this is an enjoyable queer YA book with a happy ending and I think a lot of people will enjoy it as much as I did.

The Space Between

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