The Between

by Tananarive Due

When Hilton was just a boy, his aged grandmother saved him from drowning by pulling him out of a treacherous ocean current, sacrificing her life for his. Now, thirty years later, Hilton begins to think his borrowed time is running out. His wife, the only elected African–American judge in Dade County, Florida, has begun receiving racist hate mail from a man she once prosecuted, and Hilton's sleep is plagued by nightmares more horrible than any he has ever experienced.

As he battles both the psychotic stalking of his family and the unseen enemy that haunts his sleep, Hilton's sense of reality is slipping away.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery, Audiobook, Horror Thriller

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

TANANARIVE DUE (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is the award-winning author of The Wishing Pool & Other Stories and the upcoming The Reformatory ("A masterpiece"--Library Journal). She and her husband, Steven Barnes, co-wrote the Black Horror graphic novel The Keeper, illustrated by Marco Finnegan. Due and Barnes co-host a podcast, "Lifewriting: Write for Your Life!"

A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies. Her books include Ghost Summer: Stories, My Soul to Keep, and The Good House. She and her late mother, civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due, co-authored Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. She and her husband live with their son, Jason.

Reviews

[Marc Pastor]

Una molt bona idea ben executada, en la línia d'una història de la Twilight Zone o, sobretot, Outer Limits. Impossible llegir-la sense pensar en una adaptació a càrrec de Jordan Peele.
Potser no hi ha terror com a tal, si un l'espera, sinó més aviat un thriller psicològic (gairebé psiquiàtric) i màgic que dosifica prou bé la informació com per mantenir l'interés durant tot el relat. Si bé és cert que el darrer tram l'autora es perd una mica (vol ser massa ambigua però també vol ser explícita, i no acaba d'ensortir-se'n del tot) i que l'estil literari dels somnis és un pèl ampul·lós, el conjunt deixa una impressió més que positiva.

[Dani Morell]

Comença com una novel·la costumista ambientada al Sud dels EUA on el fet sobrenatural s'introdueix de manera ben dosificada. L'autora és molt hàbil a l'hora de mostrar els salts entre vigília i son, aquells espais liminals on els somnis no es distingeixen de la realitat. La història enganxa, però potser és més desassossegant que terrorífica. El final és rodonet i ben tancat. Tot i ser escrita el 1995 és impossible no imaginar-la com un precedent de l'estil del cineasta Jordan Peele; no m'estranyaria que algun dia en fes una adaptació cinematogràfica o televisiva.