This Thing Between Us

by Gus Moreno

A widower battles his grief, rage, and the mysterious evil inhabiting his home smart speaker, in this mesmerizing horror thriller from Gus Moreno.

It was Vera’s idea to buy the Itza. The “world’s most advanced smart speaker!” didn’t interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house—who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.

It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago’s world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife’s death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room . . .

The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape—not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world.

A bold, original horror novel about grief, loneliness and the oppressive intimacy of technology, This Thing Between Us marks the arrival of a spectacular new talent.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, Mystery, Paranormal, Adult

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 12, 2021

About the author

Gus Moreno is the author of This Thing Between Us (MCD Books). His stories have appeared in Aurealis, Pseudopod, Bluestem Magazine, LitroNy, and the Burnt Tongues anthology. Some of his favorite books are American Psycho, Battle Royale, and Under the Skin. Some of his favorite writers are Margaret Atwood, Lucia Berlin, and Amy Hempel. He likes denim jackets, professional wrestling, neighborhood pizza, and anything by The xx. He lives in the suburbs with his wife and dogs, but never think that he's not from Chicago for one second.

Reviews

[Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

First 50% or so was 5 stars.
The ending.... literally no clue what happened. It lost me unfortunately.

I do think Moreno's writing is super strong. Very visceral and chilling. It gave me similar vibes to I'm Thinking of Ending Things in the creepiness of it, and had some imagery/writing that reminded me of Stephen Graham Jones.

However, because it felt like a book that was exploring grief and trauma through the plot, how it ended left me unsatisfied. I appreciated any time where I felt like I understood the metaphorical journey the character was going on, but by the end I was so confused I didn't know what the book was trying to say or do and that's a bummer because it felt like there was a deep message in there somewhere!

I'll still check out Moreno's next book because he does capture mood so well, this plot just didn't work for me in the end.

Also MAJOR trigger warning for physical violence/graphic descriptions of bodily harm and also animal death.

[Melissa (So Behind) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like books by Stephen King or the show Lovecraft Country (and Lovecraftian horror tales), then you should definitely pick up this cosmic horror novel.

The novel starts out with Thiago, attending his wife Vera's funeral. The book is mostly told by Thiago to Vera in kind of a second person musing, with first person accounts weaving throughout. Vera died after a fluke event occurs, and Thiago is mired in grief and self-blame. The reader gets background of Thiago and Vera's life together, the fact that he wasn't initially accepted by Vera's family, they didn't like the condo the couple chose, among other things. Thiago is Mexican-American, but doesn't speak Spanish and isn't Mexican enough for Vera's family. Then some things begin to happen. Their "Itza" (think Alexa) starts doing strange things, ordering bizarre items, randomly playing music. There are cold spots in the condo, scratching in the walls. When they start to do research into the former owner, they discover odd things.

The build-up lasts through the first half of the book. Then we move into the present and Thiago decides to move away from Chicago to Colorado. That's when so many odd and horrible things begin to happen. What is real? What is imagined? Is this a manifestation of Thiago's grief, or is it something in the universe out to get him?

This quote just broke me in its stark honesty: "What they say: call me. What they mean: it's your responsibility to let me know when I have to care."

I loved how the final quarter of this book peels back the veil so that the reader gets a larger picture of what is going on, yet the author skillfully doesn't reveal the entire truth. There's much left to interpretation, and I think that could be different depending on each reader. It's kind of confusing at times, but I chose to just set those parts aside and focus on the parts that I could understand and relate to and leave the rest.

As a trigger warning--this is a horror novel and something bad happens to a dog. It is sad at first and then let's just say it is not so bad later. If you can't handle Pet Semetary/Cujo type vibes, then maybe skip this one.

I will be looking for future books by this author, if you're in the mood for horror this is an excellent choice. I listened to this partially as an audiobook, and the narrator Robb Moreira does a wonderful job, especially with the Spanish, which, since I don't speak Spanish, I kind of glazed past while I was reading.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You were you and I was me and there was this thing between us."

This Thing Between Us is a surreal and oddly seductive novel. The story revolves around Mexican American couple Thiago and Vera. Vera purchases an Itza, the world's most advanced smart speaker, and from here the couple experience supernatural (or are they?) phenomenon. Cold spots in rooms, music playing at odd hours, Itza communicating to no one in particular.

"I'm here whether you need me, here whether you see me, so don't be sad...."

As many people do Thiago sets Itza as their main alarm clock but when it fails to go off Vera finds herself running late, late, late and rushing to the train to make it to her work on time. Sadly an unfortunate event as well as terrible circumstances finds Vera in a coma only to lose her life soon after. (This is not a spoiler as it is in the book synopsis itself.)

Thiago spirals down in his grief and rage. He even destroys the Itza whom he blames for Vera's death. Why didn't the alarm go off? He sells their condo and moves to a cabin in a secluded area of Colorado. He wants to be as far away from people as he can possibly be. Even in his seclusion it appears he is not alone. Something has followed him.

This was a page turner that had me gripping my kindle while looking over my shoulder. I wouldn't call this scary per se but I did find it chilling, eerie, unrelenting, and a few creepy scenes even gave me hair raising goosebumps. Very well done indeed. This book morphs from what I believed to be a tale of a haunting into cosmic horror territory and this is where it began to lose me ever so slightly. It gets incredibly trippy toward the end and I'm not sure my brain was absorbing everything that was being thrown at it yet I am still so glad to have read this. I found this to be a very unique reading experience and now Gus Moreno is on my author to watch list. 4 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and MCD x FSG Originals for my copy.

[megs_bookrack · Rating 4 out of 5]

The exploration of grief is a fairly common topic in Horror. It's also something I really enjoy sinking my teeth into.

I knew that was going to be an aspect of Gus Moreno's This Thing Between Us, but it still hit me like a gut punch. I've rarely, very rarely, experienced it done so well.



At the start of this story we find our main character, Thiago, working himself through the early stages of grief after the sudden, tragic loss of his beloved wife, Vera.

The narrative is second person and Thiago is expressing his thoughts and feelings to Vera, even though she's gone. I loved this choice by Moreno. It made it feel so intimate and frankly, real.

I did listen to the audio version and the narration by Robb Moreira was so well done. He was Thiago to me.



Thiago takes us through their relationship with his musings. There was a lot of love there and many good times. There was also a smart device that started to go a little wonky. That's where the creepiness really begins to set in.

Thiago, unable to rest comfortably in the home he and Vera once shared, decides that getting out of Chicago would be the best thing for him. Thus, he packs his bags and heads to a remote cabin in Colorado.



From here, I cannot go further into a synopsis. You'll have to discover that for yourself. Just know, it gets crazy, weird, disturbing and I'm not quite sure I know what actually happened in the end.

I have my own conclusions I have drawn and choose to live with. Regardless, I was impressed with this. Overall, Moreno has me intrigued.



This story was weird in such a good way. It definitely made my mind work overtime, I'm not going to lie. If you pick this one up, which I recommend you do, prepare to be scratching your head at the end.

I would love to go back and annotate a physical copy someday. Maybe I could glean just a tiny bit more out of it if I did that. It would be worth it.

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and well written horror novel about a man losing his wife and dealing with grief afterward. This wasn’t necessarily scary, but it’s super eerie and creepy. And some scenes were genuinely so creepy I was so impressed. The ending went a little over my head I think, and I don’t understand exactly what happens? 😅 But either way I think that was a super solid debut, and I can’t wait to check out other books this author writes in the future!

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐
How foolish of me to presume This Thing Between Us is another haunted tale.

Told entirely from Thiago Alvarez's point of view, This Thing Between Us starts at a funeral. Initially, written in second person, we listen to Thiago speaks to his late wife. We follow Thiago as he deals with grief and recalls unusual occurrences at their "new" condo until her premature and tragic death. I absolutely love this and felt so strongly for Thiago's loss. As a way to cope with his wife's death, he left Chicago for a remote cabin in Colorado where stranger and creepier things follow.

I think Stephen King fans will enjoy this debut by Gus Moreno. I'm not sure if I understand the ending though. I wonder if I'm supposed to feel lost inside Thiago's head and with him slip into the dark.😬

Thank you Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for an audio copy for review.

[AsToldByKenya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not understand this book...or maybe I did. idk

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Thing between started as one book but gradually became something completely different, and I loved every second of it.

I was tired of getting money in exchange for loved ones.

This is a wild and weird cosmic horror told in in second person. It's devastating and beautiful and completely captivating.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

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2 ½ stars

The blurb for This Thing Between Us is somewhat misleading. After reading it, I went into this novel expecting to be a tale about this couple who buy a possibly evil home smart speaker only to discover that said home speaker is a mere speck in the story and that the events described in the blurb don’t really happen on the page but have already come to pass by the start of the novel. This Thing Between Us opens with Vera’s funeral. Her death leaves her husband, and narrator, Thiago bereft. He refers to Vera as ‘you’, a stylistic choice that might as well appeal to other readers, but one that does zilch for me. I find this device gimmicky at the best of times and in this case it contributed nothing to the story or it did not help in making ‘you’ (aka Vera) into a fully dimensional character. Maybe this was intentional, after all, she’s dead by the start of the novel so we never truly ‘meet’ her, however, I would have still preferred it if her character had been fleshed out (flashbacks, for instance, would have helped). Anyhow, Thiago is definitely not doing so well after her death, a death which turns out was very much a public affair. The media and various political parties try to spin her death in their own favour, or try to use it to further their agendas. Thiago couldn't care less, he just wants to be left alone. Other people’s grief and sympathies alienate him further and he finds himself increasingly aware of a sense of wrongness in his house. He eventually leaves Chicago for a remote cabin where, surprise surprise, things take a turn for the worst. Here the story definitely brought to might The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones.
This is yet another horror novel that did not really affect me all that much. I wasn’t creeped out or horrified or even preoccupied. Part of it is because Thiago as a character bored me. I found him very generic and despite the majority of the narrative constituting his internal monologue, well, I did not feel as if I knew all that well. The guy is grieving for sure, but I would have liked to see more of his personality (other than he’s sort of an introvert). His voice didn’t captivate me nor was I invested in his character. While the author does dedicate a lot of time to Thiago’s grief and grieving process, he seems to lose focus of Vera. She’s very much a blank, and I wish that her death had not happened off-page prior to the beginning of the story.
The horror/paranormal angle of the story was also ultimately a letdown. As I said above, I thought this would be more about Itza, the speaker, but, turns out this was more of a supernatural/cosmic horror kind of tale. At times I was reminded of Pet Sematary (but lite). The lack of secondary characters also made the story harder to get through. So much of the narrative revolves around Thiago, a guy I was not particularly keen on. In the latter half of the novel things pick up somewhat but I found a lot of the events predictable. I was hoping it would subvert certain horror tropes but it ends up dishing out the same tired horror stuff (your protagonist has a dog? guess what happens…). The gore was eeh...not quite as gratuitous as other horror novels but nevertheless unnecessary if you ask me. Having those scenes didn’t upset me, however, they made me roll my eyes once or twice.
If you want to read this novel I recommend you check out more positive reviews. If you, like me, added this to your tbr thinking it would be about a knock-off Alexa gone bad, I suggest you look elsewhere because this book has very little to do with technology (but rather it gives us the same ol’ cosmic horror).

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We never lined up [on stuff] but we still worked together somehow, like two different animals that learned to hunt as a team."

Thiago Alvarez was from a Mexican family with "herniated roots...There were bullet holes in the furniture at my grandmother's house. Drive-bys. Secret lovers." "I was the quiet kid, taking after my mom and the passive, isolated way she went through life." Vera's mother thought that Thiago was a burnout, someone going nowhere. He wasn't "Mexican enough" or successful enough for her daughter. Nonetheless, Thiago and Vera married and purchased a remodeled condo in Chicago.

At night, Thiago and Vera would wake up to loud hammering noises, floorboards creaking, cold spots feeling like a polar vortex or scratching deep inside the walls. Vera's purchase of an Itza, a smart speaker that functioned as a personal assistant, added to a chain of unlikely, terrifying events. Packages arrived...a samurai sword...industrial lye, packages charged to their account, seemingly ordered by Itza. Then, an alarm set by Itza epically failed. Vera would be late for work. Tragedy struck!

The assailant was an immigrant. It was an election year and pundits fanned the flames. In Thiago's words, "You were in the news, on television, your photo in countless think pieces...The world would sooner or later have its foot on the gas pedal...no more interview requests...". There would be no more people-family or so called friends- people who didn't matter. "I didn't have to feel things anymore...the part that could care for another person, invest in them, it froze and sheared off like a glacier into the dead ocean...".

Thiago chose solitude. He purchased a secluded cabin in Colorado. Grief, loneliness, guilt and rage ate away at him. A harrowing, evil presence played havoc with his emotions. Frightening dreams contributed to his questionable grip on reality.

"This Thing Between Us" by Gus Moreno is a gut-wrenching, cosmic horror read. Written in first person narrative voiced by Thiago, he addresses Vera, expressing his sorrow, guilt and wish to turn back time. Thiago is being sucked into a vortex of madness in this chilling, creepy read. Fans of horror will enjoy the ride!

Thank you Farrar, Strauss And Giroux/ MCD and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Selena · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a good premise. Once we got past the rehash of Vera's funeral, which did seem to drag a bit, it got interesting and I said, oh this is good! But then, it petered off in the middle to the point that by the end, I felt like skimming pages because nothing was happening. The book description does not do it any favors. Don't read this expecting a techno thriller, some haunted Alexa type device. That is a small plot point and very small part of the overall plot. I don't know why it is highlighted so much in the book's description. My guess is that it is because this is a hard book to describe. There isn't one solid plot throughout. On one hand, it's a story about Thiago's grief and how he deals with Vera's death. On another hand, it's a sort of revenge from an elderly woman who somehow cursed Thiago and Vera's apartment when she was forced out, on another hand, there is native folklore mixed in. It's all too much, and it happens too quickly. There are too many pages filled with long drawn out dreams. I found the Itza parts just starting to get creepy when that part was over. I thought the parts at the cabin were scary also, but then we veer into these weird fever dreams that don't make much sense.


Honestly, I'm not even sure what happened at the end, or what happened through the whole book. Things happened both too quickly and too slowly, and it was a frustrating read overall. The book was not very cohesive and could have been much better if the author had planned out the plot better.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every so often a book comes along and just blows your mind. You look for these books, these awesome ventures into the darkest corners of one’s mind, these quietly terrifying tales of descent into madness and sometimes you find them. I found this book. And it blew my mind.
This is a story of grief made tangible, a devastation manifested physically, this book takes inside emotions and twists them into a force to fight against. Inspired by the author’s personal grief, it absolutely devastates in its emotional potency. Crafted by the author’s considerable talent, it grabs you by the lapels, throws you into a riding car and takes you on a journey unlike no other. A ride you’ll not soon forget.
This is a story of Thiago and Vera, a nice Mexican American married couple living in Chicago. Thiago is something of a bum with a laissez faire approach to life, Vera is a more type A breadwinner sort of person, but together they work despite or perhaps because of their differences. There’s certainly no shortage of love between them. And then Vera dies, suddenly and tragically, and Thiago is left alone in a world that increasingly seems less rational and more dangerous.
The entire novel is written in that You style, by Thiago, addressed to Vera, as it follows his Dantean descent into the darker and darker levels of the underworld. It begins with sinister (Amazon like though amusingly renamed) technology that acquires an unpleasant degree of sentience even prior to Vera’s death and proceeds to follow Thiago all the way to Colorado and back, taking stranger and scarier forms each time. Is he possessed by grief alone or if there something more evil at work here, something supernatural, something that wants to be released.
I don’t want to say too much, because this novel really needs to be read with every stunning surprise in it maintained a surprise. These aren’t fun surprises, either. Thiago is this story’s punching bag protagonist, it punches emotionally and otherwise, above and below the proverbial belt. And it throws punches with such pugilistic potency that it gets right through to the readers. It’s a devastating novel to read, but it’s certainly emotionally engaging, alarmingly so.
It spirals into the sort of darkness towards the end that might be difficult for some readers, it gets positively trippy towards the every end. And yet, it absolutely commands your attention in the best possible way. It does all the things the best literary novels of dark psychological fiction and nightmares do and with a striking aplomb, especially for a debut, featuring a notable creative confidence and a compelling narrative voice.
In fact, this might be the novel Reid’s I’m thinking of endings things tried and failed to be, but that’s neither here nor there.
It’s thoroughly original, though with heavy echoes of (without overthinking it) The Outsider and Pet Cematary and some possession novels. Doesn’t matter though, this is fresh , scary and thrillingn the best possible way.
At any rate. This was an absolutely awesome read. Genre fans, this is the one you’ve been searching for. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Vicki Herbert - Vacation until Jan 2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tragedies Bring People Together
and Sometimes It's Suffocating...

THIS THING BETWEEN US
by Gus Moreno

No spoilers. 2 stars. This story was very confusing, and I couldn't find anything about it, which would cause me to recommend it...

It is the story about a man and his wife who purchase an Itza (a Suri-like gadget) for their home, which does its own thing...

... ordering dildos, bizarre books, etc. and goes off waking them and flashing its lights and talking at all hours...

Then the wife dies unexpectedly, leaving the husband all alone but with mega bucks from an insurance policy...

Sad though his wife's death was, it also felt like freedom because although tragedies can bring people together, sometimes it's suffocating...

The man uses the money to move to an isolated cabin in Colorado, where he finds then loses a dog...

Then...

He goes up against a wall of rock that keeps moving from the forest closer to his cabin...

And...

He is haunted by a soda jerk, who he met while making the move...

All the while talking to his dead wife, who he is unsure really ever loved him...

I've never read a book quite like this one. The first 30% is basically a recap of his wife's funeral, and I began to wonder if the story would ever move past it.

I didn't understand the ending at all, and really, the whole story was confusing, ending with a lot of loose ends.

[Philip Fracassi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the more impressive things about Gus Moreno's debut novel, THIS THING BETWEEN US, is how fluidly it traverses multiple forms of horror - quiet, psychological horror? Check. Creepy supernatural horror that'll send a chill up your spine? Check. Full-bore knock the teeth from your mouth bloody batshit visceral horror? Check.

It's a rare book in my experience that does all these things well. Malfi has done it, Tremblay to an extent. But Moreno brings it in spades, and hits all the notes with a smooth perfection that doesn't jar the reader, but sure as hell keeps you on your toes.

THIS THING BETWEEN US is a story of grief and longing, of losing not only the love of your life but yourself in the process, of coming to terms with a horror that exists beyond the reality we know, that we are comfortable existing within. Of reaching for salvation only to find something wicked and clutching instead. Moreno stretches boundaries of perception, conjures up infinite dark lakes of sorrow, and brings a red-hot hammer of violence, when needed, to emphasize the humanity of the story he's telling. This isn't a fairy tale, it's a heart-squeezing glimpse into our own inner darkness, and the depth of the void that waits there. Watching, and waiting for us to return.

4.5 Stars. Don't miss this one.

[Katie Colson · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️ 3.5

"What they say: call me.
What they mean: it's your responsibility to let me know when I have to care."
- Gus Moreno

This is a book that demands a reread. I liked it but was so damn confused throughout reading that I struggled to piece together a lot of the puzzle.

After discussing it on Patreon, I discovered a lot of layers and possible theories.

I really believe that when I reread this, it will be a 4 or 4.5 star.

[Sierra · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was BAD and I am still unsure of the premise.. the plot jumps around a “haunted” alexa-esque device, a teleporting rock wall, and a dude that possesses other people to get to him because of a family curse?? There was no resolve in the ending too like it was completely open ended when it should not have been.
It’s written in second person which could���ve been cool but the writing style in general I didn’t enjoy. Here’s an example: “she got me to light a candle after all, and stand there with her loved ones and watch the hot air collect under the wax paper to propel the light farther out, feeling the vastness of the sky, it’s staggering depth, so much to take in that I panicked for a second, worried the mass of blue would crush the paper lanterns, leaving only wisps of smoke left over, the way ocean pressure could crush a submarine.” Litttttterally babes what are you saying. I think he tried to put way too many things together into one storyline

[Dutchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review will be short….I loved most of this book-like A TON…then I hit the end and I got confuzzled. I don’t know if this is more folklore or demonizing inventions. 🤔 regardless siri, Alexa and myself are broken up 💔

[JasonA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book left me more than a little confused. My gut tells me I really liked it, but my head doesn't know what the hell is going on. Part of that is my fault; this is a book that I should have finished in a couple days, but life got in the way and here I am more than a week after I started it, finally finished. For that reason, I'm going with my gut and rounding up to 4 stars.

The entire book is the main character, Thiago, filling his deceased wife in on what's been happening since her death and what he's learned about the events leading up to it. It takes a bit to get used to this style, especially when the reader still has no idea what's going on in the beginning, but I liked it by the end.

This seemingly starts out as a ghost story, but transforms into something Lovecraftian as it gets going. I'd be lying if I said I understood everything that happened, but I still feel like I understood what the reader was meant to understand. I think a certain level of confusion is required by the story to maintain that off-balance feeling. Normally that's something that turns me off of a book, but it works for this one.

The whole book has a creepy, unsettling vibe. At points it dragged a bit, but I think those parts were needed for the story the author was telling. I pretty much had no idea where the story was going at any point.

The book did have one of my pet peeves; there was a decent amount of dialogue in Spanish that wasn't translated. That's okay if you're reading an e-book with a decent translation function, but would be really annoying with a traditional book. Either way, it still takes you out of the story when you're having to stop to look things up.

I thought this was one of the better horror novels I've read this year. It's a safe bet that I'll read more from this author when it comes out.

[La Crosse County Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short blurb about the book and the shorter length made this the book to perfectly round out my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2021. A coworker and I went through the October Book Page and recommended me this book even though my mind kept jumbling up the summaries for each book that was recommended. For some reason, two things were stuck in my mind, which were Amazon Alexa and La Llorona (even though she informed me later I was mistaken).

Just a forewarning, this book does feature animal cruelty and heavy subjects such as depression.



The book follows Thiago whose wife just died. His wife was his everything so everything that follows is stained with his depression. The story shifts around with events leading up to her death. They buy a new place, but the neighbors are highly disruptive.

Both of them start to experience weird things such as cold spots, noises in the walls, Alexa talking to someone in the middle of the night, and really weird purchases on their credit cards. Before they can get to the bottom of what is happening, she gets killed.



The death of Thiago’s wife is used as a weapon for greedy politicians. Thiago can’t stand her death being used for people’s own gain, and he can’t stand the overbearing friends and relatives of his wife. So, he decides to leave town and go to the middle of nowhere. Along the way, Thiago starts having weird things happen and starts having hallucinations until he gets to his new place.

Well, the peace is too brief as it seems something followed him there. That “something” may or may not be his dead wife (any horror reader can already tell that it’s not his wife). Thiago must figure out how to stop this thing before it gets what it wants, him.



This book is really heavy on the grief of its main character. As a reader, I definitely felt the raw emotion through the pages as it was based on the author’s grief over losing a close relative. There really was no filter for this grief. The depressive thoughts of our main character dripped with vitriol at others. Even a young cousin to his wife wasn’t safe from this. The heavy depression had a brief relief with the introduction of something until the nasty entity decided to get rid of the obstacle as it did with so many others.



The entity was a nasty thing when it set its sights on a target, and I enjoyed the story more because of it. The Alexa interactions in the beginning were pretty creepy. There was a freaky interaction at a diner that I couldn’t tell what was real or not since I knew something was up with the owner. The entity wasn’t shy when it came to getting what it wanted.

Though, it did try to employ some psychological manipulation. Most stories featuring a haunting or a possession feature the entity as trying to hide what it’s doing around the main character’s close ones to make them seem crazy. This thing though just doesn’t care if other’s around it can see it. It wants to possess Thiago, and it will stop at nothing to get him.



I really enjoyed many things about this book. The pop culture references and the haunted Alexa were fun to read about. The imagery of this book was also great with how it was used. The bluntness of the creature and how people around the main character actually saw the things that were being done to Thiago were refreshing. The timeline skips to the past in the story were a bit confusing at there were little order to them.

The ending of the novel was a little confusing too, which I think was the whole point as it went with the tone of the story. The bleakness of the book though is what made me take off a star. I liked the characters, the haunting, writing, and almost everything else in the novel (including the nice easter egg on the very last pages of the book). The heaviness of the book though was just a tad too much for me with how palpable the depression was.



Overall, I really did enjoy this book and thought it was pretty great as a horror book. The grief was a double-edged sword for me in that I liked how realistic it was without sugarcoating it, yet also not liking how bleak the atmosphere of the book was because of it. I recommend this book to horror lovers out there. I definitely, recommend this book to fans of the author Stephen Graham Jones as the author, Gus Moreno, named him as an influence in the acknowledgements. I look forward to reading more books by this author too.

Find this book and other titles within our catalog.

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer my Cosmic Horror filled with chaos and menace and this book really delivers. I think it would pair nicely with the very-different The Cipher, if you can handle that much nihilism in one go.

At first I wasn't sure about this one as for the first section it is so much about grief and sometimes grief narratives can feel so paralyzed, so stagnant. (Which I know is an accurate depiction of grief, but still don't always work for me as a reader.) But if you give it a little time, it does start to get ridiculously weird and creepy. Plus the grief becomes more of a thing in motion as Thiago gains a deeper understanding (or at least as much of one as he can mange) of what he's up against.

The inciting event is a seemingly-possessed virtual assistant, like an Alexa. I enjoyed this deeply because it was incredibly creepy but in that way that OF COURSE IT IS because the concept of the thing is already deeply creepy on its face. (I do not have one, I read Horror. I know what I'm doing.) I could have gone with this for a long time, but Moreno continues to twist the narrative and raise the stakes so that this is not at all a one-note or one-setting story.

If you aren't familiar with the idea of Cosmic Horror, it's a broad category but to me it's about the scope, the feeling that the entire universe is set against you, that you are up against incomprehensible forces, outside of the accepted natural world. Moreno is great at getting you to feel these feelings while also keeping you rooted in the real world and wanting our protagonist to make it back to something like a normal existence.

But of course here the massiveness of what is wrong in the universe is a fitting metaphor for grief. When you lose a person who's close to you, it can feel impossible that the universe continues to exist.

Was great to see a Mexican-American protagonist just being a relatively normal guy. Thiago doesn't have a deep knowledge of Mexican folklore or magical/spiritual traditions (although he does resort to it with help at one point) he is much more of an everyman-style protagonist. We need all the kinds.

This can be gory in a few places. Only major contnet warning otherwise is that bad things happen to a dog for those of you who are sensitive to that.

[erica ࣪ ִֶָ☾. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★
Itza, off.
A haunting, mind-bending exploration of horror and grief, this book was so creepy and I loved it!

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 Stars
From the premise, this horror novel had a lot of potential for me. Unfortunately, the actual story was severely lacking. It followed all the horror tropes without bringing anything new to the genre. I am a tough horror reviewer, but it's because I know how amazing the genre can be. This was just incredibly average. 

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[RivetingReads · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one wasn’t for me. It had such a strong beginning but it definitely went a different direction from the synopsis and became more cosmic horror which I’m not into.

[ALet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book just lost me. At first I was pretty interested in the plot, but sadly the more I read, the more dull righting style and one dimensional characters made me lose enjoyment of reading. It was not particularly a bad book, but just simply not for me.

[Lexi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel for books with marketing that does not at all match its actual contents, especially when that marketing undersells. Based on the back cover, you could reasonably assume that this book is about 'an evil version of Alexa that is haunted. Not so. This Thing Between Us is an ethereal horror deep dive into grief, loneliness, and pain. I would compare it to It Follows and Smile more than a story about haunting.

Thiago and Vera are a Mexican American couple living in Chicago that has been struggling- not with their relationship, but with weird coincidences in their new home. These seemingly odd everyday things- such as their version of an Alexa ordering them a dildo, seem funny and strange at first.
When Vera dies suddenly after being struck by a car, Thiago's world shatters...and those 'funny' and
'strange' coincidences start to take on a more sinister tone.

"When they say: Call me.
What they mean: its your responsibility to let me know when I have to care"

This Thing Between Us could best be described as a two-part book. The first part is largely the main character dealing with the death of his wife. Gus Moreno can write a gut punch. I was crying within the first 5o pages of this book. It's got a beautiful dreamy tone, and if you have ever lost anyone important, Thiago's observations and reflections are excruciatingly painful to read. I've read many grief-centered books in the last year; this one is the most poignant and whole.

It's like being at a party and the one friend you know is suddenly gone"

Part two is where things start to get weird. You see; there is no monster in this book. No ghost needs to be exercised, or a creature that needs to be stopped. Part 2 is Thiago experiencing a haunting evil presence that contaminates every element of his life, no matter how far he runs. This part of this book can almost be compared to something like House of Leaves- it is a series of bizarre events that string together into Thiago's own personal haunting as he tries to uncover how to escape it.

It's also worth noting that the book also tackles the second-generation experience quite well, as both Thiago and Vera come from Mexican parent. Generational trauma and generational strength are touched on here- as well as identity and fitting into a world that does not see you as 'enough'.

It's hard to really talk about a book that has so much to say on its own. This Thing Between Us is something that just needs to be experienced. It creeped the hell out of me, and really put me in a place of reflection and discomfort for days. My only warning is know what you are getting into. This is not a traditional horror story and it leans heavily on metaphor and symbolism.

[Tory · Rating 2 out of 5]

This confused the crap outta me. There was some lovely prose, but I got so turned around reading this that I can't even fully remember what happened. There were just so many elements. Is it a tech horror, as advertised? Or is it, like, Mexican folklore horror? Or some kind of overarching pervading malicious vibe? I dunno.

[Dna · Rating 1 out of 5]

What is this? Techno-horror? A dark modern fable? Fantasy? I can't. I CANNOT. It reads like a fever dream in spots and dream sequences on a good day send me into a rage. So disappointed.

[Brandy Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay wow.. this was so unsettling and weird. I absolutely ate this up.

It went in a direction I was not expecting and for that reason it gets 5 ⭐️ from me.

[inciminci · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly decent cosmic horror story which sports elements of two of my all-time favorite books; The Fisherman and The Ceremonies!

I liked the way cosmic evil is depicted/characterized here but I was irritated by the book being in the second person singular and I just can't get past that. Did I ever mention that I hate that? Probably in every review for every book that uses this narrative device... I just can't concentrate on reading when books do that and can't warm up to it. So, needless to say, it destroyed a big part of the pleasure I would have had reading this book.

What I enjoyed: there were some truly scary moments and unsettling scenes here. Even though it is a short book, it felt very full, not one scene was wasted and everything had a meaning, is worth pondering. So, it was more a book that blew great potential away, but is nevertheless very much worth reading if books addressed to the "you" don't bother.

[Corn8lius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coup de cœur.
Un livre qui rentre immédiatement dans le top de ces livres aussi effrayants que déroutant, dont je ne suis pas certain d’avoir tout saisi, mais qui me hanteront longtemps et que je relierai avec plaisir afin d’en découvrir toutes les subtilités.
Si vous avez adoré La maison des feuilles et Piranèse, lancez vous, votre prochain coup de cœur vous attend.

Dans Après toi les ténèbres, on suit Thiago qui a perdu sa femme, et qui n’arrive pas à se remettre de son absence. C’est d’ailleurs l’un des sujets centraux de ce livre : l’absence, la douleur, la perte, la solitude, le deuil. Et étrangement, cette absence est sans cesse bouleversée par la présence obsédante qui hante Thiago, le poursuit, le traque. Pourquoi ?

À la fois magnifique, bouleversant, et terrifiant, la 4eme de couverture ne m’avait pas menti : rare sont les romans d’horreur qui parlent si bien d’amour.