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A Novel
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!" It 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.
"Moreno makes clever use of structure to maximize dread...while references to famous horror novels and films trick readers into thinking they're following a familiar path before the tragic plot veers wildly off-map. Harrowing existential horror that lingers like a nightmare." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[H]aunting...In graceful prose peppered with terrifyingly vivid descriptions, Moreno gives a nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey to explore the perils of technology while probing the all-too-human complexities of grief. The devastating result marks Moreno as a horror writer to watch." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An original new voice in cosmic horror...Readers will eagerly follow Thiago and the increasingly weird twists and turns that escalate from unsettlingly haunting to uncomfortably creepy, and ultimately arrive at mind-altering terror...Much like the very best of twenty-first-century cosmic horror such as The Fisherman by John Langan or The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher." - Booklist
"Powerful...creepy and engaging, this work will make an impactful addition to horror sections."- Library Journal
"Gus Moreno's This Thing Between Us is as original as it is affecting. It is a meditation on grief and on what it means to belong, and there were scenes that left me genuinely creeped out, unsettled, and shaken. An existentially frightening book. Count me as a fan." - Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Survivor Song
"The worst kind of grief, technology that activates all your paranoia, and a line between madness and sanity that's so blurry as to not even matter...Hold on, this isn't a ride, it's a slide, and it doesn't care whether you're ready or not." - Stephen Graham Jones, bestselling author of The Only Good Indians
"A horror tale of hair-raising hairpin curves! You won't be able to guess where Gus Moreno's cool, weird journey is taking you. Funny, scary, and utterly heartbreaking." - Andy Davidson, author of The Boatman's Daughter
This information about This Thing Between Us was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gus Moreno is the author of This Thing Between Us. His stories have appeared in Aurealis, Pseudopod, Bluestem Magazine, and the Burnt Tongues anthology. He lives in the suburbs with his wife and dogs, but never think that he's not from Chicago for one second.
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