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Summary
Summary
When Elanor's near-death experience opens a door to a world inhabited by bold, beautiful Madeline, she finds her life quickly spiraling out of control
Fourteen-year-old Elanor Moss has always been an outcast who fails at everything she tries--she's even got the fine, white scars to prove it. Moving was supposed to be a chance at a fresh start, a way to leave behind all the pain and ugliness of her old life. But, when a terrible car accident changes her life forever, her near-death experience opens a door to a world inhabited by Madeline Torus . . . Madeline is everything Elanor isn't: beautiful, bold, brave. She is exactly what Elanor hasalways wanted in a best friend and more--their connection runs deeper than friendship. But Madeline is not like other girls, and Elanor has to keep her new friend a secret or risk being labeled "crazy." Soon, though, even Elanor starts to doubt her own sanity. Madeline is her entire life, and that life is drastically spinning out of control. Elanor knows what happens when your best friend becomes your worst enemy. But what happens when your worst enemy is yourself?
With her debut novel, The In-Between , Barbara Stewart presents a bold new voice in teen fiction.
Author Notes
BARBARA STEWART earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Wichita State University. The In-Between is her first novel. She lives with her husband in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
Reviews (3)
Booklist Review
Fourteen-year-old Elanor Moss and her family are moving to a new town after her suicide attempt during her eighth-grade year. They are hopeful that starting high school in a new environment will break the chain of painful events that has been Elanor's adolescence. But en route to their new home, they're in a terrible car crash that kills Ellie's beloved cat and one of her parents and at first the question is, which parent? Stewart's tightly constructed ghost story is tantalizingly creepy with completely believable twists. We meet Ellie's twin, Madeline, who was not a miscarriage but mysteriously disappeared in utero. Her eerie power over Ellie leads to dark places, including a unique take on near-death experiences. Ellie's dad suffered from severe depression, and her mother recognizes Ellie needs help and gets her therapy and hospitalization. But it's a steep spiral down into Ellie's mind as she succumbs to mental illness. Stewart's debut novel is a riveting page-turner with real empathy and compassion. The journal format clarifies Ellie's different stages and lends a wonderful voyeuristic appeal.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-This novel takes the blue ribbon for surprise endings. Ellie is the narrator, but with her history of mental illness, is she reliable? After a suicide attempt, a horrific car wreck, the death of her father, and abandonment by her best friend, the 14-year-old feels more fragmented than ever. When Madeline befriends Ellie, she can't believe her luck; Madeline is everything Ellie wishes she was-beautiful, thin, confident-and dead. Soon, Madeline's friendship takes an obsessive, demanding turn, and Ellie must decide if she values the relationship more than her own life. Stewart conveys with gripping conviction the differences in Ellie's perceptions and those of Ellie's mother. Ellie sees, hears, and feels Madeline though her mother does not, or at least says she does not. The creepiness of the story is intensified by the reader's growing awareness that Madeline is much more than Ellie's ghostly BFF. In the vein of V. C. Andrews, Stewart has created a taut psychological drama that teens will adore.-Jennifer Prince, Buncombe County Public Libraries, NC (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This debut novel delves deeply into a possibly psychotic character or, perhaps, one who may be experiencing paranormal events. Fourteen-year-old Ellie nearly died in a car crash that killed her mother, or perhaps it was her father who died. A lonely girl who believes her best friend betrayed her, Ellie moves with her family to a tiny town where Ellie meets the beautiful and fascinating Madeline Torus, apparently Ellie's alter ego. Madeline simply appears in Ellie's room, where the two become fast but secret friends. When Ellie starts high school in her new town, Madeline remains in the background, although Ellie claims that it's Madeline who's helping around the house. The girl has a history of psychological problems, even including a suicide attempt. She remains convinced Madeline is real although no one else can see the girl--or can they? As Ellie begins to settle in, will Madeline help or hinder her? Madeline has a similar suicidal history.This may be Stewart's first novel, but she exhibits a practiced skill, keeping events ambiguous enough to have readers guessing throughout. Written in journal form, the scenes change as Ellie enters new periods in her life and begins new journals. Readers, then, encounter only the unreliable narrator, and it is they who will decide if events have been real or imagined. A most intriguing book and debut. (Suspense. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
one I was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. My lifeless body slumps over the cat carrier in the backseat of the twisted wreck. Bloodstains bloom through my T-shirt and jeans, and my hair sparkles with bits of broken glass. My parents sparkle and bloom, too. They are in the front seat, pinned upright by the dashboard of our crappy little hatchback. The airbags slowly deflate, floating down over them like freshly washed sheets. My mother's cheek is pressed against the side window. My father's head droops, his chin on his chest. Even with all the blood we look peaceful, as if we're napping at a rest stop before continuing the long drive to our new home. Were my earbuds still in my ears when the rescue team arrived? Was Lucy making that strangled calling noise she makes when she can't find me? Did they use one of those metal saws to free us? All I know is some stubborn paramedic refused to give up on me. Maybe because I'm only fourteen. Maybe because he has a daughter or little sister who listens to the same music and has an orange-and-white cat or wears all black and loves cheese-filled pretzels. I am alive. My father, too. My mother is gone. Lucy is gone. That's what I know. Here's what I don't know: Where did my mother die? (The middle of the highway? The back of an ambulance? On a stainless steel gurney in a fluorescent-lit ER?) Where is she buried? Did Lucy die or is she lost? (Lost seems worse.) How long was I in the hospital? (Long enough to lose most of the fifteen pounds I'd put on during The Worst Year of My Life. Long enough for my hair to grow out. Long enough for the red scars on my wrists to fade to white.) Here is what I remember before everything changed forever: We were somewhere in the mountains of Pennsylvania--the Poconos, I think. My dad was driving. My mother was in the passenger seat warning me not to let Lucy out of the cat carrier again. "She's miserable," I said. "She's a cat," my mother said. "She'll survive." My father smiled in the rearview mirror. "Watch it or we'll put you in a carrier." I poked a cheese-filled pretzel through the metal gate. Lucy loves salt but she ignored it. I popped it in my mouth and chewed. "That's enough," my mother said, reaching behind her. "Give me the bag." I plugged in my earbuds and ate one more. New Ellie is addicted to cheese-filled pretzels, too. "Richard? Talk to your daughter, please. We had an agreement. She's going to start eating better. No more junk food." We were starting over. This was our New Beginning. Not just for me, but for all of us. A few weeks after his unemployment ran out, my father was offered a job in a water treatment lab in Pottsville, New York. My mother was going to get her real estate license. I was going to lose weight and dress better and not try to kill myself again. Honestly, right then, things were good. Better than they'd been in a long time. It's surprising what distance can do. I was obsessed with the number of miles between me and Jackson Middle and everyone in it, especially Priscilla Hodges. I asked my dad for an odometer reading. "Three-ninety-one, kiddo." He winked. "Nope ... wait ... make that three-ninety-two." We were driving into a bank of clouds parked low over the mountain, but the darkness was lifting. My heart was lifting. I felt lighter than sunshine. I wanted to live forever. Before I tried to end it all, Old Ellie's favorite morbid pastime had been imagining her own death: school shooting, E. coli, terrorist attack. It's what got her through the endless days at Jackson Middle. God, how they shunned me. Correction: shunned her . Old Ellie had low self-esteem. Old Ellie had dependent personality disorder. Old Ellie engaged in self-destructive thought. But Old Ellie always had Scilla. It was the two of us against the world until ... Stop. Just stop. I know what happened. I've got a box of journals documenting your stupid, sorry life. This is not about Old Ellie. This is not about Priscilla. This is about New Ellie and Mom and Dad and Lucy. "Can you turn down the air? I'm cold." Those were my last words before I died. Poignant, right? For someone who loves books and spent hours planning her own annihilation, you'd think I could have come up with something a little more poetic. At least I get a do-over. Mom's last words: "Oh my God!" And now I'm here. We're here. Without Mom. I woke this morning with my father staring down at me, a look of joy (or was it horror?) distorting his face. "Where are we?" I said. I was in my bed, but not in my room. I sat up and looked around, and then it hit me: the new house. We'd made it. It was all a bad dream. New Ellie was in her new room. It was nicer than I remembered from our trip back in June when we'd flown to Pottsville to go house hunting. My father had painted it the colors I'd picked: Nacho Cheese and Chips. "Where's Mom?" I tried to get up. "You shouldn't even be here," my father whispered, tucking my comforter around me. "Stay in bed. You need to rest." "What happened?" "You don't remember?" I remembered my dream: I remembered asking Mom to turn down the air. I remembered her reaching for the knob on the dashboard and gazing up through the windshield at the southbound lane. I remembered the way the headlights looked like Christmas lights strung across the mountain above us. "Oh my God!" My mother clapped her hand over her mouth and pointed. A black-and-silver RV had gone through the guardrail. It was airborne, nose-diving down the mountain towards us. My father punched the gas. My head snapped back. The RV somersaulted, and pieces of metal and plastic rained down. I grabbed the cat carrier and closed my eyes. I remembered the brakes squealing. I remembered the seat belt locking, digging into my chest. I remembered my pulse rushing in my ears, and my father yelling, "Hold on! We're gonna hit--" "We crashed," I said. My father nodded. "You were hurt pretty bad." I felt fine. No cuts or bruises or broken bones. I wiggled my fingers and toes. "You hit your head." I felt for bandages. "Inside." My father drummed his temple. "Let me know if you feel dizzy." My father made me poke-in-the-eye eggs and bacon, then dragged a chair beside my bed and watched me eat. He had this hopeful, tender look, like he was caring for an injured bird. I chewed my food and smiled at Dad and gave the eggs a thumbs-up. They were good, but not as good as Mom's. Then I realized what I already knew--in my heart. My mother was gone. She hadn't made it. My father didn't have to say it. It was written in the lines across his forehead, in those sad watery eyes of his. Everything went blurry. I tried swallowing, but there was a knot in my chest. My throat tightened around a clot of warm yolk. I put down the fork and closed my eyes, trying to breathe. Everything I'd suffered over the last year was nothing compared to this. I'd hated my mother that day in the family therapist's office when she turned to me and said, "You don't know grief. You don't know misery." But she'd been right. My father squeezed my hand. I opened my eyes to look at him. But his palms--both palms--were pressed into his eye sockets, like he was trying to keep from seeing something terrible. I felt it again. A clutching. Invisible fingers kneading. Warm. Soft. Something brushed my face. My skin tingled. Not my father, but just as familiar. It felt like ... it felt like her. "Do you think Mommy's still with us?" I asked. My father wiped his eyes. "What?" I felt it again. A grip so tight it made my bones ache. "I think my brain's messed up." "You're in shock," my father said, reaching for the curled hand at my side. I pulled away. I didn't want the feeling to pass. But it did. Just like that, whatever it was let go. My father carried the tray of dishes downstairs and didn't come back. I heard the strains of some sad jazz saxophone echoing through the house. I don't know what he was doing down there. Probably the same thing as me--trying to get settled. God, there's so much to do. Everything I own is in boxes, tubs, and bags. I made sure the movers hadn't damaged the important stuff--my Pegasus collection, the dollhouse my mother built--before I ran out of steam. I felt weak and achy, like I was coming down with something. I sat at the desk and switched on the lamp. It was getting dark. Correction: darker. It had been gray and murky all afternoon. The kind of day that makes you think all the color has been drained out of the world. It's night now. Nine, maybe. I can't find my alarm clock or even a calendar. And it's damp and chilly, the kind of night Mom would've fixed soup for dinner or called for pizza. It feels more like October than ... I breathe in sharply. It's happening again. I feel her. This isn't my brain short-circuiting or shock. It's as if my hand has a life of its own, the fingers uncurling one by one. Scilla and I used to play this game called knife. I would make a fist (tight, tighter), and she would caress my knuckles, my wrist, the back of my hand. (Concentrate. Concentrate. People dying, babies crying. Concentrate. Concentrate.) "Close your eyes," she'd whisper, peeling back my fingers, exposing my palm. (Babies dying, people crying. Concentrate. Concentrate.) No matter how many times we'd done it, it was always a shock when she stabbed me with her thumbnail. (Stick a knife in your hand, let the blood run down. Stick a knife in your hand, let the blood run down.) Just thinking about her fingers tickling across my wrist and down my arm gives me chills. I swear I used to feel the blood pooling in the crook of my arm. Does Scilla know my mother is dead? Something soft presses against my forehead. A rush of breath warms my skin. She's here. My mother's here. I know it. Copyright © 2013 by Barbara Stewart Excerpted from The In-Between by Barbara Stewart All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.