A review by booktribe
The Between by Tananarive Due

dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

     When Hilton was just a child, his grandmother sacrificed herself to save his life, but was he meant to survive? 30 years later, his wife starts receiving racist death threats directed at their whole family, including their two children. Dealing with that and terrifying nightmares, can Hilton hold on to his sanity? And is he really supposed to be alive?
     Tananarive Due is my favorite author of all time, so I was so very excited to read her debut novel! She is a phenomenal writer, so nothing she ever writes will be disappointing. However, this wasn’t my favorite novel of hers.
     This novel was very slow paced. Don’t go into it expecting action. But if you expect a slow burn, more cerebral horror, this is perfect for you! 
     Sadly, this novel wasn’t as enjoyable as it could’ve been to me for two reasons other than the slow pace. Firstly, it was very hard for me to read all the racism in this book. There was a lot of use of racial slurs, so one of the main emotions I felt while reading was anger. It took me months to finish this book because of that. And secondly, I didn’t really care about the characters. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to them, but I also didn’t root for them. Hilton was just not a great guy and his wife, DeDe wasn’t incredibly likable either. 
     I still gave this three stars though because it’s physically impossible for me to not enjoy Tananarive Due’s work. She is just a terrific writer and even the work that’s not her best is still better than most horror out there. It picked up a lot for me after about 60%. The story started moving along more at that point and we started getting answers to the mysterious happenings in the book. Also, something I love about Mrs. Due’s writing is that she leaves little Easter eggs all throughout her books. So something will be alluded to in one chapter and ten chapters later, she’ll write something that’ll make you tell “That’s what that meant!”.
     Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys slow paced horror and anyone who is looking for a Black woman killing it in the horror genre. I’ll never get enough of Tananarive Due’s writing!

Thank you Harper Perennial and NetGalley for this arc! All opinions are my own.

TW: racism; racial and homophobic slurs; death; animal death; rape mentioned; AIDS related death; graphic sexual content; infidelity
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