Name: The Between
Rating: 3.269230769230769 (13 reviews)
ISBN: 9780060819842

Tananarive Due

Thirty years after his grandmother sacrifices her life to save him, Hilton becomes alarmed when his prosecutor wife begins receiving racist hate mail and Hilton starts experiencing troublesome nightmares. Reprint.

The Between

When Hilton was just a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. When Hilton's wife, the only elected African-American judge in Dade County, FL, begins to receive racist hate mail, he becomes obsessed with protecting his family. Soon, however, he begins to have horrible nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are the strange dreams trying to tell him something? His sense of reality begins to slip away as he battles both the psychotic threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep. Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between follows the struggles of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves, but may have already lost. The compelling plot holds readers in suspense until the final, profound moment of resolution.

Novel, A

there were many things i liked in this book. i really liked when we ended up in hilton’s dreams. i liked all the parts with hilton’s nana. i liked that it was set in miami. i thought the world building was quite interesting. but i did feel like i expected a bit more from the book. i thought it would be more groundbreaking and mindbending and innovative — and maybe it would have been in 1995! i think by now, with the multiverse such a big part of many large-scale stories, my reaction to ideas like this is less “whoaaaaaa!” and more “oh. another one.” still, this book definitely wasn’t all bad! i liked the bit about how hilton wasnt the only one, and loooved the convo with the other traveler he encounters at work near the end of the book. BUT, i did feel like i could predict the solution to hilton’s dilemma VERY early on, and it did annoy me how much hilton was in denial abt what was going on and what he had to do to end it. he was talking himself into circles lol. AND, i wish more had been done with the kids, bc i thought that aspect was super interesting and one that def hasn’t been as explored in all the recent multiverse content. just saying, not too late for due to write a sequel with the kids!

lucia

“An extraordinary work of humane imagination . . . call it magic realism with soul.”—Locus “Finely honed . . . always engages and frequently surprises.”—New York Times Book Review A man risks his soul and his sanity to save his family from malevolent forces in this brilliant novel of horror and the supernatural from the award-winning pioneer of speculative fiction and author of the classic My Soul to Keep. When Hilton was a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. When Hilton's wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, begins to receive racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, Hilton becomes obsessed with protecting his family. The demons lurking outside are matched by his internal terrors—macabre nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are these bizarre dreams the dark imaginings of a man losing his hold on sanity—or are they harbingers of terrible events to come? As Hilton battles both the sociopath threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep, the line between reality and fantasy dissolves . . . Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between is the haunting story of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves as he slowly loses himself.

A Novel

When Hilton was a young boy, his grandmother saved him from drowning at the beach, which in turn killed her. Now as an adult, Hilton wants to honor her legacy by saving others. He believes it’s his mission. However, he starts to wonder if he was meant to survive that drowning. His reality begins to crumble around him as he questions his sanity.

After “The Reformatory”, this was a step down in writing in my opinion. It makes sense because this was written well before that book. The main character wasn’t likable, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, he wasn’t that interesting either. The things happening to him were interesting, but he wasn’t. While Due did a good job of creating a creepy, atmospheric novel, I don’t think I’d categorize this as horror. It felt more like a psychological thriller, and I may have enjoyed it more if I had gone into it with that mindset.

The pacing of this book is what really made the middle section drag along for me. Not much happened, and it honestly could’ve been 75 pages shorter. I’m being purposely vague to avoid plot spoilers, but if you want a slow-paced psychological thriller, you’d enjoy this. If you go into this wanting something with lots of action and horror elements, I’d suggest looking elsewhere. It’s nice to know that Due has perfected her writing style after this, so I’m still very interesting in exploring her works.

Nik ✨

When Hilton was a young boy, his grandmother saved him from drowning at the beach, which in turn killed her. Now as an adult, Hilton wants to honor her legacy by saving others. He believes it’s his mission. However, he starts to wonder if he was meant to survive that drowning. His reality begins to crumble around him as he questions his sanity.

After “The Reformatory”, this was a step down in writing in my opinion. It makes sense because this was written well before that book. The main character wasn’t likable, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, he wasn’t that interesting either. The things happening to him were interesting, but he wasn’t. While Due did a good job of creating a creepy, atmospheric novel, I don’t think I’d categorize this as horror. It felt more like a psychological thriller, and I may have enjoyed it more if I had gone into it with that mindset.

The pacing of this book is what really made the middle section drag along for me. Not much happened, and it honestly could’ve been 75 pages shorter. I’m being purposely vague to avoid plot spoilers, but if you want a slow-paced psychological thriller, you’d enjoy this. If you go into this wanting something with lots of action and horror elements, I’d suggest looking elsewhere. It’s nice to know that Due has perfected her writing style after this, so I’m still very interesting in exploring her works.

Daniel U

"An extraordinary work of humane imagination . . . call it magic realism with soul."--Locus "Finely honed . . . always engages and frequently surprises."--New York Times Book Review A man risks his soul and his sanity to save his family from malevolent forces in this brilliant novel of horror and the supernatural from the award-winning pioneer of speculative fiction and author of the classic My Soul to Keep. When Hilton was a boy, his grandmother sacrificed her life to save him from drowning. Thirty years later, he begins to suspect that he was never meant to survive that accident, and that dark forces are working to rectify that mistake. When Hilton's wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, begins to receive racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, Hilton becomes obsessed with protecting his family. The demons lurking outside are matched by his internal terrors--macabre nightmares, more intense and disturbing than any he has ever experienced. Are these bizarre dreams the dark imaginings of a man losing his hold on sanity--or are they harbingers of terrible events to come? As Hilton battles both the sociopath threatening to destroy his family and the even more terrifying enemy stalking his sleep, the line between reality and fantasy dissolves . . . Chilling and utterly convincing, The Between is the haunting story of a man desperately trying to hold on to the people and life he loves as he slowly loses himself.

Molly

Amazing book. Absolutely incredible. You had no idea what was going on for a big part of the book, but in the best way. The ending left me feeling so devastated and happy at the same time. I wish I could read this one from the beginning for the first time again. I’d give this book 6 stars if I could.

Jenell Pizarro

Claire Matthews 

Mae Erceg

Brittany Levely-Connolly

Sophia Alicia

Laura Hurst

Noha Abdelaziz

Ellen 

Mirella Hetekivi

Thirty years after his grandmother sacrifices her life to save him, Hilton becomes alarmed when his prosecuter wife begins receiving racist hate mail and Hilton starts experiencing troublesome nightmares. A first novel. 40,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo. Tour.

The Between

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