A review by aflogive
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Going into this book, I thought the primary focus would be on tech horror and a smart device channeling some sort of paranormal entity - and I was half right. What I wasn’t expecting, and what pleasantly surprised me, was a complicated rendering of grief filtered through cosmic horror. It nods at Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, but knows better than to make the same mistakes as Louis Creed, and seeks to outsmart the overwhelming pain of loss in a different way. I loved the horrific mysticism in this book and the theme of pursuing an unmediated relationship with some ambivalent, Lovecraftian being. At times, the details of the plot seemed arbitrary (like why the choice to have a smart device channel the entity and not something else?), but the interesting combination of themes allows me to ignore this. I will definitely be on the lookout for what Moreno does next!