This is one of those stories that doesn't make a lot of sense when you first start reading it but pays off in spades if you keep going. Due is a tremendous author who has the potential to rival the late [author:Octavia E. Butler|29535] as a great writer of dark fiction.

PS: Pay attention to those little italicized asides that appear to be thrown in for no apparent purpose.

My thanks to the good folks at The Literary Darkness reading group for introducing me to this and many other examples of literary dark fiction. There is no other group at Goodreads as capable of picking apart a book and helping readers glean from it all they can. ( )

Wow! This was confusing, frustrating, and frightening all in the best way. This was flawlessly written. I was completely enveloped in this world.

Eight-year-old Hilton James suffered from terrible nightmares after a near-death experience that claimed the life of his beloved Nana. These dreams followed him into adulthood, disappearing briefly after therapy sessions, only to return when he had another near-death incident. The dreams were worse and began consuming his waking life.

His family (and Hilton) watched as he began to fall deeper into insanity from the lack of sleep and the visceral dreams. Then he began to wonder if he was actually crazy. Was he losing his mind? Or, were his dreams real?

This was a beautifully crafted story story. And while the book didn't scare the pants off me like I had hoped, it did; however, mess with my head. I am now leery of dreaming. Well done, Ms. Due, well done. ( )

We’ve now sliding down the downslope of this year’s women of genre fiction reading challenge. No, no! I don’t mean that I’ll be giving The Between a bad review. Far from it. What I mean is that this is book #7 out of twelve. More than half way done!

The Between is Tananarive Due’s first novel, published in 1995. Its protagonist is Hilton James who, as a young boy, almost drowns, but is rescued by his grandmother. The undertow takes her instead. James is adopted by an aunt and uncle and, once grown, marries a woman named Dede and has two children, Jamil and Kaya. The book opens (after the prologue where we learn about James’ near-death experience) with Dede being elected the first African American judge of Dade County, Florida. Hilton is a successful drug counselor. All’s well that ends well, right?

Yeah, not so much. Dede is receiving racist hate mail from someone she once prosecuted and Hilton is having nightmares, nightmares that steadily grow worse and cause James to question reality.

The Between is a creepy, haunting tale. I really loved coming along with Hilton on his descent into madness as his dreams become ever more intense and his obsession with protecting his family from their stalker grows worse. I felt so bad for him as well as Dede and their children, who could only watch as he slips further away from them.

While the book is predictable in places, Due’s prose is lovely, she has a marvelous attention to detail, and the tale sucked me in deeply. Due created such strong characters in the James family; I loved them all and was hoping all through my read that everything would work out for them. The secondary characters are strong, too. Hilton’s therapist Raul is a smart, interesting man as is his brother Andres, who delivers the reveal of what’s most likely happening with Hilton James, an explanation that works for me.

If you like psychological horror, I highly recommend The Between.

4.25/5 ( )

Hilton is living on stolen time. At nine, he lost his Nana to the ocean when she went out to save him, but he knows he lost her way before then. Now, 30 years later, he is a husband and father of 2. He is having dreams; bad, sleep-depriving dreams. So bad he is not sure if the dreams are reality or his reality are his dreams.

When a man threatens to kill his wife and children, he really loses it. He starts seeing things that aren't there. Appears to have ESP. Once he chooses to accept who/what he is, he finally gets peace.

This book was a slow start for me, but I eventually got into the confusion of his mind/life and enjoyed the journey to his contentment. ( )

A true-page turner I devoured in a few hours that inhabits the gray spaces between dark fantasy and psychological thriller. Hilton James has felt since childhood that he needs to make his life count, because his grandmother lost her life saving him from drowning. Now his family is in danger; they've been getting death threats from a dangerous racist touched off by his wife's election making her the only black female judge in Miami--and Hilton seems to be losing it, caught up in disturbing nightmares. The style is clean, the story well-paced, and I liked the portrait of Miami and the way it handles difficult topics (homelessness, racism, drug addiction, AIDS, marital problems) with...ease is the best word. I wouldn't call it a light touch exactly, there's little humor here, but it's hard not to root for Hilton and his family, which both helps alleviate some of the darkness but also ups the suspense since you care what happens to them. ( )