The Space Between

Daphne lives in Pandemonium, a city in Hell, and is the youngest daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. She longs for the vibrancy and excitement of Earth, but Pandemonium is largely static and dull. Daphne's half brother Obie has gone to Earth to live with his wife and help people, which is forbidden by Heaven. He has disappeared and Lilith asks Daphne to go to Earth in the face of grave danger to find out what happened to Obie. During her journey, Daphne will meet Truman, a broken soul whose actions bring him closer and closer to Pandemonium, who will act as her guide on Earth. Through their journey together, they will change and help each other in ways they never thought possible.

Brenna Yovanoff's The Replacement is one of my favorite teen show more horror reads, so I had to read The Space Between. Her prose in conjunction with her unique take on folk tales and mythology make her books hard to put down. Her take on Christian mythology is comparable to Laini Taylor's in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone. This world is not black and white. Demons are not all necessarily evil and angels are not all necessarily good. Daphne has to choose if she will be a soulless monster like her sisters or follow in her half brother Obie's footsteps helping people on Earth. Azrael and the Dark Dreadful are shown to really the villains here, singlemindedly slaughtering any demon they catch on Earth no matter who they are, what they have done, or any other factor. I like a world where demons and angels can choose their own fate and decide how they will influence the world.

Daphne is an odd but likable character. She appears human except for her metal teeth, but she knows nothing of the human world. Her mix of naivete, awkwardness, and honesty made her different than other YA protagonists. She felt a bit strange, which made sense since she's half demon and half angel. Despite being raised to be cold and detached and encouraged to use humans for her own personal gains, she refused to internalize that mode of thinking. I admired her determination that led her to help Truman, who many dismissed as a suicidal hopeless cause, and Obie, for whom she faced unimaginable danger for. Truman is also an interesting character with a heartbreaking backstory and a penchant for being close to death. Daphne actually meets him in Hell when he died, but her intervention allowed him to return to Earth. I don't normally like characters like this, but his self loathing and depression are so raw and understandable that I couldn't help but sympathize with him. I loved seeing the world through their eyes and getting their unique perspective.

The Space Between is a slow burning read. The first half is fairly slow moving, but there's nothing wrong with that. The writing is so wonderful and lush that I just wanted to stay in the story as long as possible like a warm bath. I appreciate that Yovanoff isn't afraid to delve into dark, mature, and realistic themes. I consider her one of the best YA authors because she never talks down to her audience and produces some of the darkest and most interesting stories in the genre. show less

This is one of the freshest and most interesting teen paranormal reads that I have read this year. Daphne is the half demon, half fallen angel child of Lucifer and Lilith and she has never been to Earth before, her only knowledge of such being through what she has watched on television. Yet, when her older brother, Obie, goes missing, she sets out into this strange new world to discover him. Whilst many things are new and different to her, she takes it all in her stride and never backs down from anyone. The last person she knows of that saw him is a hopeless wreck of a boy called Truman. Since the death of his mother, Truman has been like one of the walking dead - tormented by nightmares that he keeps at bay with alcohol and energy show more drinks. He is pretty much the most pathetic excuse for a teenager ever and on a real course to self destruction. But, he's all Daphne has got and along the way he finds a cause to keep on going. However, not only is Obie missing, but something is killing the Lilim, Daphne's sisters. Something with a goal in mind, a goal that might just include Daphne herself.

I really enjoyed this book, the characterisation of the demons was great and the development of the friendship, and yes, relationship, between Daphne and Truman was gradual and, I feel, realistic. No love at first sight there. Daphne is somewhat new to the whole emotions thing, and although worldly in some ways, rather naive in others. At first I wanted to slap Truman and tell him to snap out of his self-misery, but I suppose Daphne and other events rather did that for me. All up, I devoured it in one day and am now eager to read The Replacement. I know the stories are unconnected, but I love Yovanoff's writing style and ideas. show less

4.5 Stars
I started this book on January 1st in part because I wanted to start my reading year out on a high point and [b:The Replacement|7507908|The Replacement|Brenna Yovanoff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360176667s/7507908.jpg|6911742] convinced me this writer could provide just this. Overall this book was a 5 for me, only a few things stopped that for me.

Daphne is the daughter of the demon Lilith and the angel Lucifer. She resides in Pandemonium, the city of the demons and creatures that call hell their home. She literally lives in a silver tower, protected from all the darkness and reality out there. As a demon she doesn't know love, her mother is distant and unfeeling and her father is practically absent, running the industry show more that drives Pandemonium. Only her brother Obi breaks the monotomy, bringing her small gifts and presents from his work on earth. As the son of Adam and Lilith his role is providing salvation and care to the children of angel's born on earth, known as Lost Children. When he leaves Pandemonium to live on earth, he takes one last Lost Child back with him and leaves Daphne watching on the platform.

When Obi goes missing suddenly Lilith dispatches Daphne to go and rescue him. Nevermind Daphne has never been to earth before, has no idea of what powers she has there and Azrael and Dark Dreadful hunt Lilith's children to the death there. Daphne is just my type of character though. She's not stupid, she's just desperate. She dresses herself for the journey, learns all she can, grabs a map and starts with a plan. Yeah for strong heroines!

She meets up with Obi's last charge, the boy from the platform just as he's dying of alcohol poisoning on a bathroom floor. Truman is wounded to say the least. He failed at committing suicide a year ago, but now he's slowly killing himself with alcohol and neglect. When he sleeps at night a faceless man haunts his dreams ranting about all the ways he went wrong, all the ways he's failed his dead mother and ruined the lives of everyone around him

He's reluctant to help Daphne, even once she reveals she's not crazy, and she truly is a demon. The story follows Daphne as she hunts her brother, even as Azrael and Dreadful hunt her. Truman is forced to leave his self destruction behind as Daphne draws him deeper and deeper into a world beyond his imagining. Overall the story is dark and beautifully written. The young couple aren't fated lovers, they don't fawn over each other or go into convulsions when they are without each other. Gotta love a YA that's so far from stereotypical. Don't get me wrong this is a love story, but it's about self-love and the love of family as much as the love you feel for that certain someone.

Overall I love it! I only pulled it down from a 5 because the last 5-6 chapters go from chaotic and lyrical to slow and choppy and that's the last taste the book left with me. I won't spoil anything, much of the ending is a surprise, and I'm not a huge fan of cliff hangers but the tie up to this story just felt a little to rainbows and butterflies to me for a story written about a half-demon falling in love with a half-angel. Brenna Yovanoff is absolutely on my must read list now! show less

Known in the US as ‘The Space Between’, Smoulder is The Replacement author Brenna Yovanoff’s second novel. I picked it up after reading this great review by my critique partner, and I wasn’t disappointed

In Smoulder, Hell goes up in flames every night when the furnace at the heart of the city opens. Everything is made to withstand the fire: metal gardens filed with iron flowers, museums with blast-proof vault doors to protect Earth items, and the nearly indestructible demons themselves.

The story had me hooked from the very first chapter, where we meet Lilith: bold, defiant, and unapologetically female, the Prologue shows her rejection by Adam and her exit from Eden, to the night-time beach where she first meets Lucifer. Chapter 1 show more cuts us to the future, where we meet Daphne: one of Lilith’s many daughters, with the metal teeth and Lucifer’s blood in her veins.

Daphne and Truman are chalk and cheese: Daphne’s detached and withdrawn, reacting very little to some of the horrific things she witnesses. Truman is a damaged, self-destructive young guy, but he's powerfully open in his reactions. I absolutely love how Yovanoff brought this suicidal, alcoholic chain-smoker to life without watering down his issues.

And there are plenty of other interesting characters hiding in Smoulder’s world: a soul-collecting demon with a red mohawk, the suave and charming Lord of the Flies Beelzebub, and the angelic servant and demon killer Dark Dreadful -- a monstrous woman built to kill the almost unkillable.

This was a unique, dark read with an expertly crafted world. If you like dark, fast-paced YA be sure to pick it up. show less

I can say with a hand on my heart that I loved this book. I'm not a vamp or zombie lover, but gimme angels and demons and leave me be! So yeah, "The Space Between" was my sort of book variety, and I really, truly enjoyed every single one of its awesome pages!

I know it's been a while since it was published (in 2011), but I only got around it thanks to a "what-to-read-next" poll I did in a Goodreads group. Otherwise, it may still have waited on my book stash, untouched and mostly ignored.

Anywho, I keep on thinking that I'm more the angel-lover sort of person, and in fact I am. But this story was demon oriented, and got me looking at the other side of the veil. Not that I'd change my opinion on the holy ones and the fallen, but still it show more was pretty nice to read a demon's perspective on the world and all.

So the demon here was a girl - Daphne, the last one of Lucifer and Lilith's daughters. She was a pretty strong willed girl I might add. She was determined and brave in the quiet sense of the word. She was the person who brought calmness. The person who could fix one's broken soul. The person who could ignite love where it could never blossom. Weird things to say about a demon, huh? But they're nonetheless, true.

I could feel Daphne's boredom in the beginning, and her lack of interest in anything at all. She was just an inhabitant in a world of fire and timelessness. Then the events lured her out in search for her brother. She was veiled in quiet panic and pain over whatever was happening to him, and she cursed herself for not being able to find him quickly enough. Then other misfortunes hit, and she's full of grief that she doesn't know how to express, so she holds it in, hidden deep within her, where the pain won't hurt her too much.

Mostly though, I loved how virtuous she was. Daphne never lied, risked her life for others, was not selfish, and discovered what love truly meant in a way that I think none of her siblings ever did. She knew the feeling on that level so deep inside, where the other person became one with you. And when he's missing, it's like a chunk of you is missing too. And I just really loved that.

Then there was Truman, who had no idea who he was. Truman with his pain that raged on and on inside him. Truman, the quiet boy whose grief only brought him lower and lower to a place where suicide seemed like the only good decision left. Had it not been for Daphne, he might've would've never realized that he was wasting his life grieving for the past, when there was so much worth living for in the future.

And of course, there was Azrael, the angel of death, who - at least to me - was the monster here. Sure, his intentions were noble and holy, but he never realized that his means would never accomplish anything. He was bloody happy when he destroyed life, and didn't have the slightest idea how to help a boy lost in his own misery. And instead of helping, he just made things worse. In my mind, he couldn't have been an angel at all - more like a hateful, vengeful person with an agenda of his own. I hated him for not seeing truth and love in the most obvious places and for putting everyone under the same common denominator. That sort of blinded him to see reality.

There were other prominent figures in there as well - Lilith (the mother demon, because of whom the Fall occurred); Lucifer (with his quiet agony and readiness for revenge); Beelzebub (who ached for redemption); Obie (with his readiness to die if his death would save his child's life) and others who truly made this book worth my time.

To sum it up: "The Space Between" is a book full of emotions - both quiet and fierce ones. There's action, there's thrill. There's much pain and even more struggle to find the path to love and life. It was a journey I was glad I took along with all the amazing characters. show less

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. She lives in Pandemonium, a city of steel and heat, where she coddles little treasures from the human world brought to her by her brother, Obie. Life for her is dull, slow, and unchanging, until one day her brother vanishes. Determined to find him, Daphne travels to Earth, where everything is colder and dirtier, and time flashes by far too quickly.

With the help of Truman, a lost and self destructive boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne begins to unveil clues to her brother's whereabouts. As the back of the book says, "she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing show more to be."

After finishing The Replacement, which is currently one of my top reads for 2013, I immediately had to pick up another Yovanoff book. I didn't quite enjoy The Space Between as much as I enjoyed The Replacement. The beginning was a bit hard to get into and it was hard to get a sense for Daphne, who seems to emotionless. However, once Daphne finally got herself to earth things picked up and became very interesting.

As Daphne is presented with the reality of Earth, she's forced to really choose who she wants to be. She can be like her sisters, the Lilim, who feed on humanities desires and despairs, or she can be something else — even if she doesn't know what that is yet. Yovanoff does a great job of portraying Daphne's confusion and naivete. She doesn't know much of anything about Earth other than what she's seen in TV shows and much of what she knows is terribly outdated. She is both vulnerable and yet strong, because while she doesn't know how things work, she carries with her a deeper wisdom stemmed from her life growing up in the eternal timelessness of Hell.

Then there's Truman, who's pain is so raw, you can practically feel it peeling off the page in shreds. Somehow, these two people manage to work together, build trust, and grow from friendship into something more and it's kind of beautiful.

I'm also a huge fan of moral ambiguity, and this novel which has a demon as its central character is wrought with it. Not only Daphne is likeable but other demons, too, are multi-dimentional, complex, engaging. Even the ones you might not like so much turn out to have layers, facets and raw edges you didn't expect to find.

There's also a touch of the horrifying, a few chills along your spin here, a little blood splatter there — another thing I love to see.

Overall, this turned out to be a great read. I may just have to pick up Yovanoff's next book Paper Valentine. show less

The cover of Space Between is simply breathtaking. The red and black hues of the cover draw a reader in but the hypnotic prose of the novel is what keeps the reader in.

The story begins with a chilling prologue about how Lilith and Lucifer (Daphne’s parents) met. This introduction really sets the stage for the rest of the novel by straight away introducing you to the dark world in which the protagonist, Daphne lives.

The beginning of the novel starts with Daphne going about her normal life. The catch? She’s a demon and lives in hell. She is bored and scared of becoming like her half-sisters, who seduce men from Earth for their own wicked means. Daphne represses the urge to become what she is constantly afraid to be: a demon, but show more it’s getting harder each day. It’s in Daphne’s very nature to be a vicious demon and she tries hard to fight the urge, but will it ever be enough?

Her life takes a turn when her brother, the only good aspect of her life, goes missing. Together with the aid of a human boy she enlists, Daphne embarks on a perilous journey to save her brother. But will she come in time? And will she ever come to terms with her inner demon?

My Review:
This book was amazing on so many levels. The writing was dark, chilling and had a poetic, chilling tone to it that sent shivers to my spine. The writing of this books was simply magnificent! When reading this book, I FELT so much, I was totally immersed! There was just SOMETHING about the writing that made you want to never take it out of your hands. It was like this book hypnotized me. It was never out of my hands and once I had read one page, I was drawn to it like a moth to light. It also helped the prose was so poetic and heavenly, I felt like I was reading reading a masterpiece that had transcended everything in this world.

The book alternated between points of views between the main characters: Daphne and Truman. Daphne was an easy character to like, everything she did made sense and her love for her brother made her endearing. Also, thumbs up for her trying not to be evil!

Truman, aaaaaaahhhhh, he was honestly the most tortured soul I have EVER read about. I loved him ever since the beginning but I could see how people may not grow to like him since he is bitter but with good reason. His mother had died of cancer, his dad was never in the picture, and his uncle had checked off on him so, he was entirely alone. Which is why he attempts suicide, to bring his miserable life to an end. As he fades out of life, he ends up in Hell. This is when he meets Daphne.
OMG! Their meeting was unbelievable. This particular scene is from Daphne’s POV, and when she sees him, he is described as a handsome fellow with torrential blood flowing from his veins. Daphne is drawn to him, not in that insta-love in most romance books, but out of curiosity for this tortured soul who came to her home. He eventually gets saved by Obie and sent back to Earth.
This scene was just…INDESCRIBABLE! Their meeting had a perfect balance of eeriness and vulnerability.

Afterwards, Daphne comes to Earth to search for her brother. And the last person to see him?
Truman.

Daphne and Truman team up together (after some hard efforts) and began the dangerous journey to find him while evading angels, who will kill Daphne for over crossing her boundaries in Hell and daring to come to Earth.

Truman and Daphne’s love is brilliant. It is like the melodious last note at the end of a orchestra performance. It’s like the rush you get when you speed in your car. It’s like a flower blossoming over time. In short, it is perfect. Their romance was not overdone so the whole book revolved around it but there was still enough to leave you over the edge and breathless.

The ending of the book was quite energy-consuming to say the least. Let’s just say there is QUITE a cliffhanger towards the end of the book but don’t worry, it gets resolved. The ending of the book was not your average Disney tale, it wasn’t perfect, but neither were the characters. One aspect I ADORED about the book was that no one was wholly evil or good, they all were doing what they thought was right. Each action, bad or not, was justified. No one was perfect but they tried, they really tried to do the right thing.
Daphne and Truman and all the other characters were well developed. Both Daphne and Truman had serious issues but they learned to deal with that. Their love was not overpowering or obnoxiously flamboyant. It was deep yet sincere. Fats yet slow. Perfect yet saddening. It was the solid, steady flickering of a candle, it wasn’t certain but it was mesmerizing enough so you thought it would last forever even though it was vulnerable enough to be blown out with a single whiff of air.
Brenna Yovanoff employs the commonly used story of Heaven and Hell and makes it her own. This book seemed more like a masterpiece than a YA novel. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys paranormal romance with a dark undertone.

Another reason why this book is so good? As I’m writing this review, I’m fighting the urge to stop writing and just read Space Between. I may have finished it but I will never have enough of it. Space Between will always hold that chilling interest, whether it’s your first or fiftieth time reading it. show less