This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno is worth an hour of your time. Through use of first person narration, you are pulled into Thiago's life where supernatural occurrences and compounding grief create a powerful plot to devour. The writing is the strongest point of this novel as it provides you with the ability to connect with Thiago. When Thiago's fear is heightened, so is yours.

This is a story that will give goosebumps and is a must-read if you enjoy psychological horrors. I know other readers found this to be boring and lack any intensity but I haven't been this scared reading a book since NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, hands down the scariest novel I have read and I thought This Thing Between Us provided a similar fear but at a more muted level. I recommend this engaging story, that is if you can handle it.

The plot is complex and you will find delight in reading it. The story follows Thiago's life after his wife's passing and the supernatural occurrences that surround him. How these occurrences impact him mentally along with his grief is the baseline of the plot and his mental state further makes the plot intriguing to read as again, Thiago is easy to connect with and therefore, it's easy to embody his fear and pain. The plot is easy to engage with and has an ending I feel would be great to discuss in book club.

In this novel, Thiago is the embodiment of grief. He recently lost his wife and is now experiencing terrifying events that he finds difficult to decipher as real or imaginative. Thiago is going through it and go through it in this novel, he does. The weird instances around him create intense character moments that demonstrate Thiago to be a well-rounded character even when grief has him by its clutches. Thiago is someone you can become when reading and is why the novel is worth your time and because you can immerse yourself and see yourself as Thiago, the novel is scarier than it would be if it was in third person.

An interesting ending to an interesting book. You will need to read This Thing Between Us to understand that sentence but that should not be the sole reason you pick up this novel. This Thing Between Us should be picked up because it is a terrifying horror novel that will send shivers down your spine as you attempt to piece together who, or what, is behind the strange occurrences. This Thing Between Us is worth a read and perfect for any time you want a fright.

I have two thoughts dominating my response to This Thing Between Us: 1) I found this terrifying and I genuinely was scared when I read this and, 2) I didn't really understand the ending which caused my fear to dissipate.

Starting with my first point, I truly was terrified. What caused this fear? The Itza of course. I am speculating that the Itza is a key that opens the portal which eventually causes individuals to go insane and then kill themselves and the Itza then uses their spirits to haunt their next victim. I am 100% reading other people's opinions after I write this review because my idea is only speculation. It is this speculation that leads to point two, I wish the ending had been clearer. The ending wasn't something I was able to wrap my head around - doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't be understood, I just couldn't, and that caused me to lose any fear I had. The point of the novel was to instil fear and a straightforward ending would not have suited this read, the vagueness heightened the read in retrospect but upon finishing, my immediate reaction was confusion.

I was scared when I read This Thing Between Us and the writing caused that fear. It takes a strong writer to effectively use first person when first person's POV is predominately thought-based. There was an insane amount of inner monologuing by the protagonist which combined with his own fear and grief, added an extra layer of fear to the story. We only ever saw one POV, and it makes me question what we missed whilst further heightening the emotions we received from Thiago. I appreciate this style of writing because I find myself immersed in a novel when it is written in a way that I can be thrown in. I will be checking out other novels by Gus Moreno because my favourite part was the writing style and I want to be re-immersed into that writing again.