Reviews with content warning for Blood - This Thing Between Us

A wild journey through grief and madness. It starts at a funeral for Thiago’s wife and from there becomes a twisty web of WTF is happening with gore and hauntings and a [maybe] evil smart speaker while Thiago experiences guilt and blame and drowning sadness.

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ksuazo94's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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riella_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was such a weird and strange book. It started off a little slower than I would have liked but then it was like you were thrown into everything all at once. I will say it was a little confusing at times, especially the ending.

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chloseencounter's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’m so glad to have ended my year with this book! I’m not sure what I expected going in but my expectations where more than met. This Thing Between Us filled me with grief and dread in a way very little media has been able to, though I fully understand why it is a divisive read, leaving more to the imagination than most books would. Personally, this gave the novel more staying power with me, I was left thinking about the end long after I finished.

This Thing Between Us is a sorrowful story, a snapshot of grief more honest than I’ve ever read. I know Pet Semetery is what people always point to as the book which captures pain and loss in the most sincere way but honestly, I think Gus Moreno portrayed this specific agony so clearly it was palpable. That was truly the draw for me.

Well written and upsetting, the reader is left feeling the frustration of losing something you can never get back. We’re left feeling the way in which people try and understand, to sympathize, but they can never grasp a human experience they haven’t had. Thiago is stuck with the overwhelming idea that this feeling might be something only he alone has felt, even though he knows that isn’t possible. This loneliness, this emotion that is almost exclusionary, the idea that you’re in a club no one else can join is a terribly difficult thing to grasp but This Thing Between Us allowed me to sit with all those feelings.

I know there’s a lot of back and fourth on what the end meant. I gathered two different things. First is that this book is about two true statements coexisting. That Thiago could be Mexican while simultaneously being not Mexican enough. That Esteban could be guilty while also being innocent. That the cook and Thiago could be one in the same person. That Thiago could be a starving fish in the well while standing outside of the well looking in.

In its simplest form though, I think this book is just about being devoured by grief. For Thiago this looked like becoming totally swallowed by fear and anger. Thiago talks about how perhaps the afterlife is just whatever you think it is, in the same sense I believe that he was convinced his family was cursed, that he was cursed and would pay for generations of sin. It clearly effected his life before Vera’s death, being antisocial and too afraid to follow his dreams and passions, so when the worst possible thing happened it was easy for Thiago to feel like he was the problem. In the end he allowed that guilt and grief to eat him alive.

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ecn's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

What a weird fever dream. I could not tell you what really happened in this but I loved every moment. The writing was captivating and the story kept me guessing the whole time and left me with so many questions.

The ending did seem to speed by a bit quicker than I could follow but I think it added to the fever dream quality of it.

If you like black mirror, A24, and (kind of) Get Out, you’re going to LOVE this

The only reason this wasn’t a 5 was because of how loose the horror elements are. The looming presence seems to jump around a lot and leaves us with more questions than (any?) answers. While this typically works, I wish I had one thread to grab onto just so I can understand what was going on. But maybe that’s the point…

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hunkydory's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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