The In Between
Full Fathom Five Digital
November 26, 2014
344
Tara Jenkins and Justin Westcroft used to be childhood BFFs. Now in high school, Justin’s a popular, all-star athlete, and Tara spends her days admiring him from afar. But when Tara saves Justin from nearly drowning in a freak accident, he’s unable to get her out of his mind. In no time at all, Tara and Justin fall deeply in love. And even though it’s only high school, they seem destined for a Happily Ever After.
Until tragedy strikes—and this time, Justin’s not so lucky. Tara passes through her days as a shell of her former self: Justin’s dead, but she can still feel his presence, and she can’t seem to let him go.
But there’s a reason for that, and it’s not just grief: Justin is In Between, and he’s still holding on.
They say that when someone saves you, you’re tied to them for life. But what about the afterlife?
Review:
I really did want to enjoy “The In Between”, with the description of a romance combined with a unique idea of the afterlife sounding very intriguing to me. Unfortunately, after a promising beginning, it went off of the rails and turned into a chore to read.
There were many inconsistencies in the plot and characters. The age difference between the main character and her sister changed at least three times, and all of the qualities of the main character that were previously developed in the first two-thirds of the novel were completely thrown out to force her personality to fit in with the plot.
Also, one of my pet peeves is any novel that portrays an overbearing love interest as something to aspire to in romance. It’s bad enough in adult fiction, but I hate it even more in novels meant for young adults. “The In Between” is a particular offender in this category, with an extremely selfish boy who is, quite literally, defined as the epitome of perfect and pure love. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but he was pretty much willing to do anything for his own wants, and then the plot seemed to bend to make him the hero. It was more than a little off-putting and the reason I gave the book one star instead of two.
The plot itself is excessively busy. Around the halfway mark the “in between” portion seems to turn into its own novel with a host of characters and various plotlines that are introduced and then either left unresolved or brought to an abrupt, not to mention contrived, conclusion. It feels like the author wanted every story she ever thought of to be crammed into one book. One plot had so little to do with the other that I do not think it would have even worked if stretched into an entire series.
I cannot recommend “The In Between”. The ideas in it could have made for two interesting novels, but the combination and execution simply did not work.
This review is based upon a complimentary copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warning:
Language, Violence, Sexual Situations, Bullying, Eating Disorders
