The Empty Space Between Stars

by Sean Conway

While looking for emergency candles during the throes of a New Hampshire blizzard, 15 year-old Zoey Johansen pokes her head into the chill of her father's attic and finds an innocuous storage container. Alone and curious, she begins to open a Pandora's Box spilling the secrets behind her mother's undeniable burden of sadness, her father's addiction to odd tattoos, and-ultimately-the mysterious empty spaces between them all. She's never been able to find home. An only child and the product of long-divorced parents who'd escaped to opposite coasts, Zoey is lost. Even the family photograph framed in their California den looks bogus: Zoey gnawing her lower lip, standing rigid and apart from her stepfather and vulgar stepbrothers, her mother's strained attempt at a manufactured family for naught. Almost on a whim-really to avoid a dreadful vacation with her synthetic family-Zoey escapes California to visit her biological father for the first time in years. But instead of being the dad she needs, he instead asks her if she would mind simply pretending to be his niece. Soon stuck in an ice-locked New Hampshire town with an emotionally bankrupt man unwilling and unable to fill his role, she all but succumbs to the realization that she is just as rudderless here as she is there. Until a blizzard rolls in, a storage box opens, and The Empty Space Between Stars-like a dark and scabbing wound-closes. Watch the trailer on YouTube: "The Empty Space Between Stars--Book Trailer"

294 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 2011

About the author

Sean Conway earned his MFA in Montpellier, France and Madrid, Spain through the University of New Orleans. His short fiction has appeared in various print and online journals, including Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices, Digital Americana, Glassworks, Five Quarterly Review, and fwriction: review,as well as the anthology Mental Ward: Stories from the Asylum (Sirens Call Publications, 2013). He has been nominated for the Million Writers Award (celebrating the best in online fiction), a Jack Kerouac Award (funded by the Kerouac Estate), and most recently received a Norman Mailer Center fellowship.

He lives north of Boston, and teaches writing and literature at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Reviews

[Jimmyd2525 smell e · Rating 2 out of 5]

smelled pretty bad if you ask me

[Susan N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off I won this as a First-Reads giveaway; so here is my honest review:
The book it's self is a great story, but the main characters to me were unlikeable until 3/4 the way thru the book. I understand why they are like they are, because of what happened in the past, but I still did not care for them until after they changed. I loved the side characters.
Great description, almost felt like I was in that stinky apartment.
And I love the texture of the book! Weird thing to like but true :)
All in all I recommend giving this a read.

[Mkittysamom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just have to say that I hate quick endings or endings that leave the reader to imagine the ending, and this was close! I really felt Zoey's pain, along with her Mom and Dad too. I could really connect because In some ways my own life has played out similar, so the characters were spot on in their choices.. not meaning bad or good, but how someone would if they had a survived a horrible tragedy! I nearly cried so many times!! This is as real to life as an author can get! I feel like I just lived through the story myself.. (pause for now, I will come back to write more.. it's 1am and I couldn't sleep till I finished it!)

I received a copy from Goodreads Giveaways and my review is honest!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is so incredibly descriptive and tells an amazing story! It is definitely worth the read.

[Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I have to is the ending is supperr depressing...... be ready..

[Sativa Galaxy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[AJ]

This seems very suspenseful

[Ronald Dump · Rating 1 out of 5]

i thought it was pretty good until it offered me expired chicken like holy moley i cannot believe this even had the guts to even think about that hlylyylyllblglblbglbglb

[Nick Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

hi

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Lauron]

Im hoping I get my hand on this book so I can read and review!!