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A review by chloseencounter
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
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.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Racism, Violence, and Vomit