Between

by Jessica Warman

Only the good die young. Right? It's The Lovely Bones for teens Elizabeth Valchar has it all: friends, money, beauty, a cute boyfriend and assured popularity. But on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, she is found drowned next to her parents' boat. Everyone thinks it was a tragic accident - teens drinking on a boat, a misstep leading to a watery death. But Liz is still here after death, and she doesn't know why. There are gaps in her memory. Her only company Alex, a boy killed by a car a year earlier, Liz sets out to piece together her life. But their small coastal town is hiding many secrets - about families, boyfriends and friendship. Plus, Alex hates Liz for being mean when they were alive. Was she as squeaky clean as she thinks she was? Could it be that she herself is hiding the biggest secret of all? Can Liz discover the truth? And if she does, who can she tell? Between is an engrossing, compelling thriller that peels back the layers of small-town life to expose true, ugly, cruel human nature. A stunning book for teens from Jessica Warman, a hot new talent on the YA thriller scene.

• ISBN10: 1405260483
• ISBN13: 9781405260480
• Publish Date: 3 October 2011 (first published 2 August 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 24 November 2015
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Egmont UK Ltd
• Imprint: Egmont Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Stephanie]

I love ghost stories. So when I read that this book was about a girl who died and couldn't figure how, I was hooked.

Liz was part of the popular crowd when she was alive. She was, basically, a horrible person if you got on her wrong side. She was very superficial and wouldn't even consider talking to someone who she thought was poor.

With that description of the main character, I was a little scared. I wasn't sure how I would enjoy reading about her, but to my surprise, I actually felt sorry for her. Her mom died when she was 9, so that ache of losing her mom was always there, and there were always rumors that her dad was having an affair before her mom died, so she never knew if her step sister was also her half sister.

Once Liz died she is stuck, basically, in between the living world, and where the dead go once they move on. So she is stuck watching everyone else around her continue on after her death.

When she first dies and is starting to realize what has happened, she meet's Alex. The only other 'ghost' that she can talk to. I really enjoyed reading about them. They were basically enemies, but they both helped each other out anyways.

This story is quite heartbreaking. It deals with anorexia and drugs, so it's definitely not something to take lightly. But I loved this book and want to run out and buy my own copy.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Between is a book that is richly filled with great build up in anticipation and was overall very well written and developed. I fell in love with how compelling this novel became at times, mixing and blending the paranormal with much more contemporary elements. The mystery and intrigue is enough to draw any reader in and keep them engrossed from start to finish and Jessica Warman does an excellent job in keeping suspense and mystery exciting and fresh for the audience.

The darker issues and themes that were introduced, were very well addressed and handled in a smart manner. It provided the just enough bittersweet emotion, before you realized a certain thing pertaining to the main protagonist of the story. It's hard to write a review about this novel, for fear of giving too much away. One of the things I ended up liking the most about it, was the fact that the romantic developments in the story, ended up taking a backseat to the more important issues (such as drinking and bullying) were concerned. For once, there's a fantastically written and highly compelling young adult novel out there that doesn't focus all of it's energy on the romantic aspects.

The flashbacks were handled beautifully providing background knowledge that lends itself well to the story and Liz was this character that I wasn't sure if I would personally enjoy or not, in fact a good portion of the time she's not quite as likable as I would have liked her to be ideally, but she's real and she comes with these flaws that make her understandable as you continue reading the story. Give or take a couple of drawn out moments and you'll find that you're reading a novel that sort of fits together much in the same way that a gigantic jig-saw puzzle might.

I have to say that it's quite interesting to see how well the story itself comes to life and resolves itself in such an surprising way, filled with heightened bittersweet emotion, heartbreak, betrayal, lies, and a great flare of mystery that leaves you coming back for more in the end.