The Between

I feel like I’ve heard Tananarive Due’s name around, and now I know why. Her writing and characterization are superb. I had to stop to take notes on some of the ways she made the main character's book-long breakdown seem so real and emotionally powerful. And in a debut! So glad this was published in the 90s, because I can read what else she’s done since then.

Content warnings:
- unreality
- anti-black racism, racial slurs, hate crimes (the threat of one becomes part of the main plot)
- child abuse (from the parent’s PoV)

Representation:
- the main character and his family (as well as most of the secondary characters) are Black
- the MC’s friend is Latino

When he was a child, Hilton found his grandmother, "Nana", dead in the kitchen. show more After he returned with help, she was alive. But he knew she had been dead. Later, Nana sacrificed herself to save him. Now in his mid-thirties, Hilton begins to have surreal nightmares, his family has a stalker sending racist death threats, and Hilton dissolves into paranoia and delusion. His family thinks he needs help, but he’s convinced there's something supernatural behind his breakdown … and it all comes back to Nana.

This book kept me up until three in the morning. Regularly. I am stunned that it has so few reviews. Everything -- every last detail -- is carefully planned to make the reading experience more immersive. Hilton’s PoV as a child is written in a very simplistic way. I thought perhaps the author was a little uncertain handling her debut, but when his adult PoV became more sophisticated, I realized Tananarive Due knew what she was doing. Everything is deliberate (another, more common example being the dream scenes written in present tense while everything else is in past).

I’m not even sure what more there is to say, except that this kept me on the edge of my seat, even during scenes I normally wouldn’t like (i.e. scenes involving cheating on one’s partner). As Hilton slowly felt like he was losing his grip on reality, I felt lost with him. So, so well done.

I cannot wait to read what else this author has written. show less

I loved the opening paragraph of this book. It hooked me immediately and didn't let go. There are many layers to this book and I think it will take a few more reads of it to peel some of them back to reveal the heart of it. I found it to be about destiny and death and what happens when someone evades their death and manages to create a different destiny, even if it was unconsciously. It could also be about mental illness, or it could be about systemic racism and inherited trauma. There are many ways to interpret it. But as a story, it exists on two levels, the real world, with the real life racist antagonist and in the dream world, where the antagonists are unknown, the rules are mysterious, and the consequences deadly. As Hilton goes show more down the road of madness, his family and friends suffer, and he endangers not just himself but all of those around him. It is a powerful read, and the last 10% is devastating. show less

This is my second experience with Due...I started with The Good House (which I quite enjoyed)! In The Between: A Novel Due sets out to explore what could happen if you chanted your fate...if you cheated death as did the lead character, Hilton James did as a boy. James is haunted by memories of his near fatal accident as a child...and by visions of his grandmother which are both confusing and frightening and which seem to hint at alternate timelines. Hilton grows up with nightmares of his grandmother and becomes a successful social worker, saving lives of his charges along the way...with a wife and two lively children of his own. He even manages to rid himself of the nightmares for years by seeking help from Raul, his psychiatrist and show more later close friend.

Then..."it" happens...that little thing that starts the collapse of his tidy, happy little world...he's in another accident and from there it's a downhill slide as he attempts to salvage his fragile mind while trying to figure out the mystery of the racist stalker. Due weaves an interesting tale where, through "dreams" we see Hilton change the events of his life in subtle but telling ways and where he has memories of things that never happened and doesn't remember things that did and where Hilton slowly unravels from the loving, caring, deeply devoted man to one who is on the verge of mental and physical exhaustion...slowly going crazy and driving away everyone who ever cared about him. The Between builds up to the point where you wonder if what he is experiencing is real or if he's just going nuts...it gives you a great deal to think about with the parallel worlds, doorways and travelers that is at times confusing, but also interesting and creepy.

In the end we are left, along with Hilton to decide if he can continue to cheat death of if he's run out of doorways...The Between is an interesting novel and the premise ultimately seems to be that we all choose our own reality...in this moment with this choice (doorway), but that not all of us are aware, not all of us are travelers in the sense that on some level he KNOWS he's cheated death and actively works to cling to the life he no longer has a right to. Overall it's well written, interesting, psychologically creepy, and well worth reading! I give it four stars instead of five simply because the secondary characters aren't very well developed, so I never really engaged or identified with them to the extent I felt I should have. I would definitely recommend this! show less

With excellent voicing by Kevin Kenerly, The Between manages to be chilling, touching, and thought-provoking. Hilton James is a bit of an Everyman figure in that he loves his family deeply, works hard, and is loved in return by friends and family. He survived a drowning accident as a small child, and that survival was both magical and tragic. In adulthood, Hilton's wife, the only elected African American judge in Dade County, Florida, becomes a target as she receives threatening and extremely disturbing hate mail. Hilton's dreams began to blur the line between fantasy and reality, and he is torn between the "shoulds" and the "coulds" of living life on two planes of existence.

Due expertly shapes Hilton's character , and we feel show more incredible tension between Hilton's lived experiences and how they are perceived by those around him. Hilton is an empathetic character, even at his lowest, but there is plenty of compassion for those in his orbit as well.

It would not be fair to say the ending is predictable, because that implies a sort of easy out, and this is not the kind of book where that matters much. It is very much about the journey, but there were moments when I could feel myself growing impatient (much like Hilton!) and wanted to get moving. That said, while the narrative has its slower moments, there are also times where the plot picks up speed and you can hardly put it down. It is truly a wonderful read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about contemporary issues intertwined with a dose of magical realism and even a bit of thriller. show less

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. show more 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. show less

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, show more 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 show less

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.