A review by foggy_rosamund
The Space Between by Meg Grehan

4.0

Beth has decided to give herself a break from everything: she gives herself a year to retreat to the safety of her house, seeing only the person who delivers her groceries once a week. But as time passes, her escape begins to feel more like a prison, and her intrusive thoughts and depression do not diminish. She is gradually coaxed from her hiding place by Mouse, a gentle dog, and Mouse's owner, the compassionate Alice. I really appreciated the rawness of this story: Beth's mental illness is not glossed over, and the details of living with this kind of anguish are given space in the narrative. I also really appreciated the women's relationship with one another: how gradually the friendship develops, and how Beth struggles to trust, and how the reader realises that while Beth doesn't understand why Alice wants to be around her, Alice actually gains a lot from Beth's presence and kindness. It also has a very genuine approach to bodies -- touching on menstruation, masturbation, leg hair -- in a way that feels freeing. The gradual romantic relationship that develops between them, and how they slowly figure out how to make space for each other alongside mental illness, is really moving. This book is told in third-person, and I think it might have worked better in first person, as it's very much inside Beth's head. Also, at times the free-verse format felt a little forced, and I wondered if it would have worked better with passages of prose interspersed with poems. Overall though, this is a surprising and moving little book, and I recommend it.