Between You and Me

by Joanna Horton

Between You and Me is a riveting portrayal of female friendship, and the frayed boundary between loyalty and desire.
 
Mari and Elisabeth have been at the centre of each other’s lives for years. Close friends since university, they’re now drifting through their mid-twenties, working casual jobs and living in run-down share houses. When they meet Jack, a charming academic historian twenty years their senior, they’re attracted to the sophisticated, intellectual world in which he seems to move. As the summer gathers heat, Jack is drawn into their lives, and an unconventional relationship – halfway between friendship and love triangle – develops. But soon things grow more complicated, and as secrets and betrayals detonate, the fallout sets the course for the rest of their lives. 
 
In Mari and Elisabeth, Joanna Horton has created two unforgettable women, whose choices on the cusp of adulthood will resonate with anyone who has ever had to navigate where friendship, intimacy and love intersect when trying to make a life of one’s own. 

PRAISE for Between You and Me

'A novel that deftly explores the uncomfortable grey areas of power, privilege and control. Between You and Me is a compulsive read about how the choices we make (and those made for us) ripple into the future. At once unsettling and totally captivating.’ – Natasha Sholl, author of Found, Wanting

‘I absolutely loved it. The characters felt both deeply familiar and also intriguingly complex and unknowable. An engaging and evocative read that I can't stop thinking about.’ – Eliza Henry-Jones, author of Salt and Skin

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Literary Fiction, LGBT, Adult, Audiobook

341 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 5, 2023

Reviews

[Sarah Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really didn’t want to give this book 5 stars. The characters are infuriating. It ended without resolution. I was constantly thinking ‘WTF’ when reading this book. It was 340 pages of shitty people doing knowingly shitty things, and then having the audacity to act like victims. But I devoured this book in 24 hours. I couldn’t put it down, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next and I’m still thinking about those characters days later. I just know I will pick this book up in 5 years time and remember the wild journey it was to read. So I have to give this book the respect it deserves, a 5/5 for me.

[Isobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in one sitting over the course of a few hours, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. At the start, I couldn’t find the authors voice and I thought it was a little unoriginal, dare I say “a bit Sally Rooney” but quickly this got going and I found myself flying through the pages. The characters are all complex, the plot is interesting and it really took twists and turns I didn’t expect.
And as a side, nice as a brissie gal to be able to picture exactly where this all took place

[Louisa L G K · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got so close to finishing but couldn’t. It was just boring. The characters were pathetic, uninteresting, and largely irrelevant. What is with contemporary authors and not knowing how to intrigue or fascinate??? Like come on, this was just Conversations With Friends in Brisbane. If this is the epitome of modern literature I shall retreat back into my classics thank you very much. I picked it up after I heard a glowing review (waste of time and money) however, I suspect it will soon be forgotten about. I don’t even hate it, but unfortunately it was just nothing.

1/5

[ivy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the book, but hated every character. Great book.

[Tess Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a page turner but I hated all of the characters so much I couldn’t enjoy it

[Giulia · Rating 2 out of 5]

"We all end up in the bed we’ve made, the bed we want to lie in."

TW: bulimia, anorexia, depression, abuse, abusive parents

Actual rating: 2.5 ⭐️
(I want half stars so bad 🥲)

If you want an addicting book with absolutely zero likable characters, look no further.
If you want a frustrating book that becomes, as the time passes, ridiculously exaggerated, look no further.

Honestly, this book felt like passing a car crash: you don’t wanna watch, but you can’t help yourself but stare.

I was not impressed by this book, but I kept on reading. It was a car crash.

One positive thing about this book was the characters.
They were entertaining and I hated every single one of them – no exceptions 🤗
If I could, I would punch them all in the throat multiple times
But their messy dynamics were interesting to follow.

I do not know if I would call them three-dimensional, though.
They were flashed out enough, but still I felt like something was missing from their overall personalities. Sometimes their actions did not make sense and felt hollow.

It was like watching “Love is Blind” – you know your brain is literally rotting whilst watching it, but you still continue because it is ✨ entertaining ✨
Just like “Love is Blind”, you know the protagonists both intimately and superficially; and sometimes you care about them, but sometimes you don’t.

After a while, though, just like “Love is Blind” everything became a bit too much over the top and exaggerated. The heaviness and drama of it all became unbearable.
Specifically because the arguing between the characters felt repetitive and redundant.
Mari and Elisabeth always fought with Jack about the same thing – over, and over again. And the same thing happened between Elisabeth and Jack, and Mari and Jack.
I can’t really say I witnessed character-growth whilst reading this book. The ending offered a bit of an arc, but nothing to write home about.

The writing style, too, was nothing that truly stood out. It was average, it was nice, but nothing remarkable.

Another thing that left me very much disappointed was the fact that it was pretty obvious, from the beginning, who the main couple was.
And, after reading the synopsis, I was expecting something more complex than that.

I would have absolutely loved reading about a proper™️ love triangle between the main characters, you know. Instead that sweet tension and angst was completely missing (if not for some incredibly rare moments towards the end) and some relationships felt completely useless and empty.
Specifically the relationships between Mari and Elisabeth. They kissed, they fucked but nothing came out of it. It felt simply performative and added almost nothing to the narrative because they never talked about it or even thought about it. From the synopsis: Between You and Me is a riveting portrayal of female friendship, and the frayed boundary between loyalty and desire. And I ask you: is it? Is it really, though?
This was a massive disappointment because I truly believe that a real love triangle would have truly made Between You and Me a more striking and interesting book.
Instead it got rite and stale…

Overall, it definitely hooked me in and I was intrigued to see the relationships unravel and develop – I mean, I did read it cover to cover in one (1) day – but I can’t help but feel massively disappointed and slightly exasperated by this book.

It was entertaining, sure, but the characters were frustrating and not completely flashed out, and the majority of the relationships felt forced – just like “Love is Blind”.
Underwhelming.

"The night we met Jack, I was wearing a yellow dress, and I remember wishing I’d worn something else."

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect to enjoy this quite as much as I did. I thought this would be just another story about share-housing, 20-somethings in and out of love but was taken by surprise by the years and depth this novel spans. Honestly, I found the characters almost completely unlikeable but something compelled me to keep reading in a breathless, anxious kind of way. I loved that the author didn’t shy away from writing selfish, flawed and complex characters. I think although I found the characters unrelatable in many ways, it felt like getting a peek behind the curtain, the way that the characters ugliest sides were so often on display. I thought this book would be closer to Genevieve Novak (Crushing, No Hard Feelings) type novel but was left feeling like I'd read something closer to Bodies of Light by Jennifer Down or perhaps The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue. Side note: Hooray for the Brisbane setting!

[Mya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jack is so boring and gross and pathetic it actually made this book very painful to read and made the whole plot completely unbelievable. His dialogue was so awkward and unnatural and he gave me such an intense ick that there was no way I could ever view his character as even remotely sexy or romantic. There is absolutely no way you could convince me that two women would fall for this man and then ruin their friendship over him.

Honestly all round there was just no spark at all between any of the characters. The whole book was based on the relationship between these three and how apparently intense and all consuming it was but that didn’t come across to me at all. It didn’t feel like any of the relationships were properly developed. Very surface level and bland. Idk i feel irrationally angry at this book lol

[Greta Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters are messy and frustrating but in the best way possible! I really enjoyed Joanna’s writing style and found myself not wanting to put this one down.

Also, it is set in Brisbane which is fun!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

At no point did I know where this was going. Unfortunately at times that was simply not a good thing.

[alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not entirely sure that I liked this but I really appreciated it???

I’m confused but still a 4 star read because it was very good.

[Kenzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ✨. These are some seriously messy and self sabotaging mfs, but I had to see what happened to them.

[Elizabeth Milligan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m torn about this book. I found it a very good read and genuinely looked forward to picking it back up again every time I put it down. I also found the characters frustrating and their relationships to each other confusing, but that was undoubtedly the author’s intention and it was done very well. However, I had certain gripes that I found difficult to look past - I found the section describing Mari’s experience of early motherhood very frustrating. While it is undoubtedly refreshing to read a perspective where the mother isn’t immediately infatuated with her child, I think the fact that was had no insight into why Mari kept the pregnancy in the first place made this hard to understand. I feel strongly that if there had been more discussion about Mari’s thought process when deciding to keep the baby, it would have been easier to understand why she felt the way that she did - i.e. if she’d really wanted the baby, it would be so disorienting to feel no connection with them once they’re born. The other gripe I had was that Mari and Elisabeth’s verbal attacks on Jack felt quite repetitive - they basically both had a go at him for the same thing several times throughout the book and it just felt a bit old by the end. Also, I found it quite confounding that at the end he mentions that him and Elizabeth will see where they stand after a period of space - yet surely Elisabeth would be quite over him after realising he’d been sleeping with her while trying to move to Melbourne with Mari? But see, this is my conflict - maybe that’s the intention from the author, to create characters that are so difficult to understand.

3.8 stars for the pacing and readability of it, not quite 4 for my own personal gripes with the characters.

[Alycia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5✨✨✨
An enjoyable and engaging read; I am always a sucker for contemporary Auslit dramas. Jack was an infuriating and irresponsible character; I thought he was written quite well. The friendship between Mari and Elisabeth was complex and I felt sorrow and anger for them both in different ways. Sometimes the commentary made by Mari and Elisabeth on privilege felt superficial and pretentious but I was unsure whether this was intentional. “Between You and Me” has Sally Rooney vibes (complex and frustrating relationships and interesting storyline with a strong dose of navel gazing) ft Queensland.

[Hiba · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5* maybe? Because I stayed until the end.
This story was all kinds of messy. The characters were, to put it mildly, awful. There was nothing redeeming about any of them, and they made the most terrible choices "just because."
It was truly infuriating but I wanted to keep reading nonetheless. I needed to know how the story would end.
"A riveting portrayal of female friendship" is a very misleading way to describe this book, in my opinion. There was nothing of friendship here. All I could feel was resentment, envy sugarcoated in "affection" and "love," and lots of immaturity all over.

[Madeline Prebble · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUCH a great debut

Also made me aggressively homesick for Brisbane

[Lali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually can’t seem to gather my thoughts on this book yet - it made me feel quite sick at times, and I couldn’t put it down, but at the same time I often felt exhausted at the thought of reading more. will ponder further lol

[Evangeline Polymeneas · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 - this was a fast paced novel and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened but the characterisation of Mari and Elisabeth was so poor. I had no idea why they made the choices they did, it literally made zero sense. The character of Jack was quite good although he was infuriating at least we understood where he was coming from. Wouldn’t recommend but not angry I read it.

[Kate Morganti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely infuriating and I absolutely loved it

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talk about toxic relationships and dysfunction. And the ending? I enjoyed the book off and on with an open mind but the open ended ending made it all feel like a waste of time.

[Shannen Stephan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Another audiobook read.
Moral of the story: DONT👏🏽LET👏🏽A 👏🏽 MAN 👏🏽 GET 👏🏽 BETWEEN👏🏽 YOU 👏🏽 AND 👏🏽 YOUR 👏🏽 BESTIE

[jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an impressive debut novel - really had me hooked from the start! The depth of the themes the novel spans was so engaging and well thought-out. The characters are all highly flawed in their own ways but also relatable in their messiness of navigating the 20's stage of life. I found their flaws and selfishness, while frusterating at times, refreshing for the most part. The relationship between the three main characters was truly fascinating, even though I found some of their choices/reactions difficult to understand - I think that's, in part, what made it such a compelling story.

*Random side note: I also thought it was a bit of an interesting choice to swap perspectives between first and third person, it took me a second to adjust to but I ended up not minding it. Horton's writing style was still super digestible and flowed well despite the frequent switch-ups.

Definitely did not predict where this was going, but in the best way. The characters complexities and transgressions were addictive to read about and I overall really really enjoyed this.

[Ruby Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good take on a classic aussie lit fic which is one of my fave genres, i loved the jumps in time and how silly all the main characters acted

My ONLY real criticism is that i did not like that it was written from two povs but one was first person and one was third person it was bloody confusing and seemed illegal to me

[Hannah Obrien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

i hated every character but i couldn’t put the book down, echoing what others have said it did remind me of conversations with friends but slightly less engaging. for the length of the novel i do wish there was slightly more depth but i enjoyed it nonetheless

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I DON’T KNOW HOW I FEEL

[Maddy Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable easy read, but not the kind of book where I couldn’t put it down

[Laura Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t want to like this (and I almost DNFed it at one point), but it got so good and addictive to read as it went on. Full of emotions, a great spin on complex relationships - a real love triangle.

[Hannah Korin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unnerving, unsettling, couldn’t put down

[Rhiannon M · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5? Found this book quite strange but still kinda hooked and wanted to keep reading. The swapping of povs did get a little confusing at times and all the characters were annoying but liked how it was split over the years.

[Alana Schutz · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a base level I found this book really boring, was a slog to get through. The characters were infuriating and unlikeable. But then there were some great moments that made you think and I enjoyed the exploration of their complex friendship. I dunno about this one but 2.5 ⭐️