I like this one and this book definitely delivered what it promised. This is story of Thiago and Vera, which starts with Thiago narrating to Vera what happened when she died, reminiscing all the little moments they had when they were together but it turns creepy, confusing and disturbing gradually. This book is a page turner and the writing is gripping, chilling, captivating. It is hard to believe this is the first book Gus Moreno ever wrote. I would recommend this book to all horror fans.

I wanted to read this because of the creep factor. Many thanks to MCD x FSG Originals and Net Galley for sharing a copy with me.

Have you heard the phrases 'staggering grief' or 'waves of grief'? This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno makes me think a lot about them.

We literally begin at a funeral, that of Thiago's wife, Vera. She was killed in a freak accident, and now he's trying to make sense of things. Narrated by Thiago addressing Vera, we follow him as he goes about this in this cleverly packaged novel, which one could label as cosmic horror a.k.a Lovecraftian horror, which is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction (spot on for both) that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or shock. The unknowable and incomprehensible of this book are the premature traumatic, shocking death of a loved one and the afterlife. Only, Gus Moreno has made this more modern day with the addition of Itza (basically a fictional Amazon Alexa) and the intrusiveness of social media into our everyday lives.

You see, strange things were happening in the months preceding Vera's death. Random music playing at random hours. Itza answering questions when no one had addressed it. Odd packages showing up on the doorstep without having bene ordered by one of them. Eventually, Thiago grows sick of the inexplicability, the well-wishers, and the people using Vera's death for their own agendas and picks up and moves to a secluded cabin in Colorado. But these strange things keep happening, only they begin to get stranger, scarier, and downright dangerous. (You see the waves I mentioned earlier?)

The story starts out slow, but Moreno's writing is mesmeric, which will keep many readers held until the snowball gets a'rollin downhill. It certainly did me. We follow along as the horrors only become more and more (ha!) horrible. It's as if one is right with Thiago as he descends into the madness of his grief. Thiago and Vera are a Mexican-American couple, so pieces of Mexican folklore make their way into the tale. There's a dark sense of humor at play in the writing and instances where the hair on the back of one's neck stands up while reading it.

I really enjoyed this one; I'm realizing that even more so as I write about it. It bears a splash of genius. I personally feel like there is a lot one can dissect and analyze from it, but for all I know, Gus Moreno just felt like writing a creepy horror story, so the joke may be on me ultimately. Because it is a bit quirky and weird, a bit niche, and because there are some extremely gory moments and brutality towards a pet, it won't be for everyone. I'd recommend to fans of Stephen King and/or Samanta Schweblin. It reads like a bit of both meshed together, with a good dollop of Gus Moreno himself.

Thiago is consumed with grief. One alarm that failed to go off meant that his wife Vera left late for work. That one small change in her routine put her in the wrong place at the wrong time. After her death, her friends and family try to be there for Thiago, but none of them understand the depth of his loss.
He decides to sell their condo, now the home of too many painful memories. After all, they both were bothered by random unexplained noises and cold spots, and why didn't their high technology speaker, Itza, actually wake them with their preset alarm? Was it an accident or is there something sinister lurking behind their condo walls?
He leaves Chicago for Colorado, driving over Itza before he goes. But he has barely settled in when it appears that something has followed him west, something dark and disturbing. He may no longer be able to decide how he will spend the rest of his life. The question is how many other people will suffer as he falls down the rabbit hole with only despair and evil for company.
As a reader, I think what I took from this story might be very different than someone else. Is the horror real or just in Thiago's mind? I don't think there will be any disagreement about how unsettling this entire story made me feel. I couldn't put it down and thought about it for days. To me, that is a very good book.

What a beautiful and mind-bending horror novella!

I wasn't really sure what to expect of this one going in. The cover drew me in and I needed something short and fast-paced to pick me up out of an incoming reading slump. This Thing Between Us sure did deliver!

This story looks deeply into the grief of a loved one. In the acknowledgements, Moreno talks about loss in his own life that helped influence the writing of this book. It's sad to know this book came out of real experiences but it's plain to see in the pages. The grief flows across the pages in a very real, human form. I felt deeply for Thiago, by no means a perfect character but extremely believable in the ways he coped with his loss.

Highly recommend reading this one at night, in a dark room. I was genuinely scared reading this in the pitch black with just the light of my kindle for company. The book does fall into many horror tropes but they didn't feel cheap or overdone. I thought at every moment where the horror ramped up, it never overdid it, leaving you just spooked enough before it became a bit silly or totally unbelievable.

I love a horror that isn't afraid to shock you, and this one did just that! Heart-breaking, violent and original. This book did so many great things.

If you enjoyed The Fisherman by John Langan (though I didn't lol), or are into cosmic horror, you will likely enjoy this. It's safe to say I will be watching out for more releases from Moreno in the future.

Wow. I must say this book was incredible. I think it will get to alot of people's heads. There is quite a bit of grief about losing someone and how the character is dealing with it. At the same time supernatural events are happening.. it's very beautifully written.

I hoped I would enjoy it more than I actually did. It's a slow-burn book with some great lines and memorable scenes but it's also glacially slow. Ultimately, it wasn't my cup of tea but fans of literary fiction with horror overtones should appreciate it.

I was immensely excited to read this book and hate to say that I was left disappointed. The novel begins interesting enough and I found myself flying through the pages until or before the halfway mark. Once we get to the horror territory, every scene feels ripped from various genre films and books. Most notably Stephen King who seems to be a large influence, especially his works Pet Sematary and The Shining. There are so many different things going on and none of it really jives together into a concise story.

An impressive debut novel that turns grief into a surreal fever dream of horror as an Alexa-style electronic device starts having a mind of its own after death of the narrator's wife in a freak accident. This Thing Between Us is a true slow burner as the narrator's mind dissolves under the strain of carrying on and the inability to comprehend the evil force let loose to torment him. As the story plows on towards its climax, the slow burner turns into all out psychological warfare a la Hereditary as the boundaries between real and imagined melt away and our protagonist stands upon the brink of endless oblivion.

This Thing Between Us marks Gus Moreno as a new name to watch in the horror scene.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD x FSG Originals**

This title will be featured in FANGORIA magazine's October 2021 issue in the Nightmare Library column. Please reach out to the reviewer directly for a PDF copy of the write-up, once it is available.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book.
Wow. This is one of the best books I have read in quite some time. A surreal, fever dream tale about grief and how it can effect you. Creepy, addictive and magical. I definitely hope this author writes more.

"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.

Didn’t quite get this one. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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 in 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.

Thank you to Gus Moreno, MCD x Fsg Originals, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book. All reviews are my own personal unbiased opinions.

I really enjoyed this book at the beginning, but as the story got going I found myself less and less interested. Moreno was able to write Thiago’s grief perfectly, and I could physically feel the emotions he was going through. He didn’t shy away from the ugly truth of losing a loved one, and even included questioning if he could go on without Vera. I was very into the idea of a “haunted Alexa,” and the things they went through are reasons why I don’t want a smart speaker in my own home! In typical reader fashion, I questioned why they didn’t just get rid of it completely and move on with their lives. I started losing interest a little after Vera died and more haunting elements came into the picture. It felt to me that the author didn’t know which “monster” route he wanted to take. We had ghosts, Mexican folklore, zombie type creatures, sci-fi elements. To me it was almost too much. I think I would have enjoyed the story more if it stuck to one lane of monster.

I will post my review on GoodReads and NetGalley now, and on my Instagram (@volabookclub), Blog, and other retailers on publishing day.

This Thing Between Us

Full feature for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

What a debut of a novel! Moreno writes as the young widow, incredibly grief stricken by his wife's untimely death. Slowly, but surely, the imagery turns from somber to sinister, plunging you face first into a truly eerie horror story. Both heartwrenching and pulse pounding, this is one you just don't want to miss!

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's been a long time since I've read something so good that I rushed to re-read it as soon as I finished the last sentence.

Thiago mourns the unexpected, tragic death of his wife Vera amidst strange episodes happening in their condo - unexplained cold spots, scratching in the walls, peculiar packages arriving, and their newly purchased smart device, Izta, malfunctioning in an unsettling way. He purchases a remote cabin in Colorado to escape his grief and the mysterious circumstances back home, but finds he can't escape the evil that's chasing him.

This is everything you'd want in a horror: creepy, haunting, unsettling. The narrator borders on unreliable, the descriptions are vivid, and this shit is terrifying. Good luck reading it at night. It's exceptionally written and is an incredibly absorbing read. It's a second person POV, essentially a long letter to the deceased Vera, that at times feels like a stream of consciousness but never falls off course.

(Light spoiler ahead) My only complaint is the blurb is misleading - I was prepared for a story about an iOS gone demonic and was confused when the story started to branch away from it. It's less about a technological possession and more a generational curse exacerbated by a haunted condo.

It's a book you won't be able to get out of your head for a long time. I seriously can't stop thinking about it and honestly, I'm not a big horror fan but this won me over.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and FSG Books for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am hoping that the blurb on this will change before publication. I definitely was led to believe (not in a rude way, just in a way) that this book was less Cucuy and more HAL 5000. Although both are featured heavily.