This Thing Between Us

I started reading this in December, but finished it this year, making it my second book of 2023, I guess.

I had just finished reading a book club book that I really, truly did not enjoy, so I was keen to read something that was more to my own taste, and was feeling like something creepy. It'd seen a few of my favorite booktubers who like horror mention this one, and between that and the striking cover, I decided to give it a whirl.

Gus Moreno's writing has this really uncanny quality of being taut yet casual at the same time. It has a conversational pace and tone that is underpinned by a pervasive tension that holds out right to the end, and I found it super compelling.

We've got some creepy sci-fi stuff, some Lovecraftian stuff, some haunted house stuff, some possession and zombie stuff... it's like Moreno is the Salt Bae of horror, seasoning the book with a bunch of different horror elements that all kind of harmonize and hit those horror tastebuds just so!

All of the cuckoo-bananas stuff that happens is anchored by Thiago's depression and grief. I really connected with the way these themes were explored; his loss is heavy and pervasive, but the way withdraws and turns it all inward was very relatable to me.

I haven't given away much about the plot here because it's really more than the sum of its parts, and I think if a creepy, unsettling horror that explores loss, grief, technology, family, and culture sounds good to you, I recommend picking this up and just jumping right in. Although, if harm to animals is book dealbreaker for you, maybe skip it... 😬