A review by meoreyn
What Lies Between Us by John Marrs

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Sometimes you pick up a book because it's convenient. Because it is there and you have a commute and why not? This is a recipe for both disaster and exhilaration, and you can't know which one until you embark on the journey. That's is how I met this book. Scrolling randomly on my audiobook app, I gravitated towards a thriller and this one popped up. I read the synopsis and decided it was worth a try. I listened to worse. And then...

It was good! Written in dual POV, we follow Maggie and Nina, mother and daughter. It also has a dual timeline; one of them is the present when Maggie is locked up in the attic by Nina, and the past, which starts when Nina was 13 and her father, Maggie's husband, left them. And, well, you just want to know how things got to where they are. It is a little formulaic, with the present giving you a crumb, and then the past explaining it a few chapters later, but the pace is good, and the happenings abhorrent enough that they make you keep going.

You see, none of these two women are likeable. They both did and are doing some fucked up stuff, but at the same time, you can understand how they got that way. You can see how in their brain, their actions are justified.

The other thing that I think is very well done is the theme of, and discussion on, motherhood. The things you would do to have a child or the things you do to keep the one you have. How it changes you and how it shows you that you can't change. And most of all, letting go. It's about how one of the easiest ways to see that your child turned out right is in the fact that they don't need you anymore, and how that can be devastating and hard to accept. Do you keep a child close because they need you or do you need them? As someone who doesn't plan on having kids, some of the happenings in this regard made me roll my eyes, but as a daughter of a mother, it gave me some stuff to think about.

Overall, even with the few twists that I figured out and the little slog at around the 2/3 mark, this was very enjoyable and I already recommended it to those around me that like domestic thrillers. Definitely one of the best I've read (well, listened to) in recent history.

Everything that is wrong with me is wrong with you too. We are one and the same. When I die, your flame will also extinguish.