The In-Between
Rebecca K. S. Ansari
Walden Pond Press
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Mystery/Thriller
Themes: Cross-Genre, Spirits, Urban Tales
****+
Description
Ever since the divorce split his home, when his father chose a new family over the wife and children he already had, Cooper has felt lost and unseen, even at home. He drifts away from his friends, even growing distant from his kid sister Jess, who still clings to the delusion that Dad just needs a little more time to come around. Then the family gets new neighbors, including a very odd girl just about his age who seems to do nothing but sit on the porch swing staring at him, not saying a word. Her arrival coincides with all the frustrations of his life seeming to come to a head. Then Jess becomes obsessed with an online article about an old English train wreck where a child's body was never claimed... a child wearing a school uniform with a logo that looks almost identical to the one the neighbor girl wears. A little digging reveals more disasters through the decades where the logo turned up. Is the strange, silent girl a harbinger of disaster - and, if so, are Cooper and Jess already doomed, or can they still be saved?
Review
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this story, other than perhaps a way to pass the time at work. I was therefore pleasantly surprised by what I found. Cooper struggles with feeling invisible to the people he loves most, even as he actively withdraws from life. Being abandoned by his father and coping with Jess's grating optimism that he'll return (in addition to coping with her juvenile diabetes, one more thing that makes him feel invisible in his own home while she requires so much more attention) has done him no favors. Even his best friend only serves as a reminder of how screwed up he is, and for all that his head knows he's not to blame, somewhere deep down is that little voice that says his father would never have left if it weren't for him. Making a new friend helps, as does the mystery of the railway child. What started as an effort to bond with his sister quickly becomes much more, however, as he realizes there is indeed something very, very strange going on with the girl across the street and her house. The author employs a little clever misdirection on this part, as the secret of the girl isn't quite what it might first appear to be given certain hints dropped. The whole story is one about how invisible a person can feel even when surrounded by loved ones, how anger and grief and resentment can become an impenetrable wall within and without, and the long-term effects of slipping through the cracks in one's own life. The extra emotional depth and complexity that came off as truly genuine (and not an author "talking down" or turning characters into caricatured mouthpieces to lecture the readers about Issues), and the way it succeeded in making the work day fly by, earned it an extra half-mark.