The World Gives Way by Marissa Levien

In fifty years, Myrra will be free.

Until then, she’s a contract worker. Ever since she was five, her life and labor have belonged to the highest bidder on her contract–butchers, laundries, and now the powerful, secretive Carlyles.

But when one night finds the Carlyles dead, Myrra is suddenly free a lot sooner than she anticipated–and at a cost she never could have imagined. Burdened with the Carlyles’ orphaned daughter and the terrible secret they died to escape, she runs. With time running out, Myrra must come face to face with the truth about her world–and embrace what’s left before it’s too late.

(cw: onscreen suicide, offscreen suicide but detailed description of the result — beginning of the book)

General thoughts

This book is one that took me by surprise. Of course I was hoping I’d like it; I requested a copy of it. But wow, I did not realize how absorbed I would be in this story. The major thread running through this book is finding hope in a hopeless world. It’s told in dual POV: Myrra’s and Tobias’. Myrra is a contract worker (essentially an indentured servant) whose employers kill themselves suddenly, leaving their infant daughter Charlotte behind. Myrra takes Charlotte with her and runs away, knowing a horrible secret she was just told. Meanwhile, Tobias is an agent whose first assignment is to catch Myrra Dal for breaking contract and kidnapping.

I really enjoyed reading Tobias’ sections because of his character development. He goes from an almost naïve rule follower. Everything must be by the book. However, as the book progresses, he comes face to face with the truths of his world. I liked how his sections went from him enthusiastically trying to catch Myrra Dal (with a slight interest into why she did what she did) to him coming to grips with the reality around him and his own internal beliefs free from preconceived notions.

Throughout the book, we explore different cities and towns. I loved the variety of each place. My favorite was a small town built into the side of cliffs, located just off the shore. Then not far from there, we see an underwater, Vegas-like city that stole the limelight away from the cliff-side city. We start out in a big metropolitan city full of multicultural influences. Myrra’s employers lived here in a high-rise apartment: the wealthiest of the wealthy. There is so much more of the world that we see throughout the book, too. I thought each place was unique and had great personality.

Some complaints

The book is of average length, but sometimes the pacing did make it feel a bit long. Specifically, there’s a chapter where Myrra goes with Charlotte to a mountainous city to hide. The city itself is a place of spiritualism for anyone to retreat to. I thought the setting was great. However, the actual content of the chapter just felt like we were stalling in the book. It seemed to just be a big setup for something later on and hindered the flow of the book. It wasn’t egregious, but it was still noticeable to me.

Throughout the book there’s a very minor subplot of Myrra wondering if she could ever reunite with her mother. She doesn’t even know if her mother is alive or dead. We get small snippets of what she was like — or at least how Myrra remembers her. I wish the book explored this mother-daughter relationship more. It kind of makes a parallel with Charlotte and her mother, plus Charlotte and Myrra. But I think it could have hammered the comparisons in even more and still been fine.

Final thoughts

I hardly ever do this in my reviews, but I want to talk about spoilers in the next section. Before I do that, I just want to say that this book was incredible. It was heartbreaking. It was bittersweet. And I eagerly await the day the author hopefully writes another book because her writing enthralled me.

(Buy the book: BookShop | Misc

We received an ARC from the publisher.)

This next section contains spoilers ranging from minor to major.

Minor spoiler talk

MINOR SPOILER: The world is a world, but it is not our world. It is a ship on its way to a new, inhabitable planet. The rich families of the past paid their way on board. The poor families sold themselves and their descendants under contracts for 150 years. Myrra’s employers kill themselves because they found out the world (the ship) has irreparable damage. We learn this near the beginning, but because it’s not explicitly mentioned in the blurb, I decided to include it here. Occasionally, we’ll read about a location in the world and learn about its history along with its inevitable downfall.

Major spoiler talk

THIS SECTION CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

Throughout the book, it seems as though somehow Myrra, Charlotte, and even Tobias will make it out. Someone will find a way to repair the ship. They’ll find escape pods. We’ll learn that they were near the destination planet anyway. No. It’s all wrong. The ending stressed me out, and it still does if I think about it too much. (This is not a knock against the book by the way!) Myrra and Tobias sit with Charlotte at the top of the ship near the sky. Nesting pigeons are all around them. And the world ends. They found peace. But the world still ends, and they don’t make it. No one survives. It’s literally bittersweet and poignant. It’s such a good ending, but it’s such a stressful one to dwell on. And I had to talk about it.