This Thing Between Us is a book that left me thoughtful, but not entirely satisfied. It wasn’t quite what I expected, and that gap between expectation and execution shaped my experience more than anything else.

At its strongest, the novel offers sharp observations about grief. Moreno presents it not as a process with a clear endpoint, but as something invasive and consuming. Grief here lingers, isolates, and quietly reshapes the world around it. When the horror elements stay indistinct — more atmosphere than explanation — the book is genuinely unsettling.

Where it struggled for me was in its commitment to ambiguity. The story gestures toward something larger and more cosmic, but consistently resists clarity or escalation. This seems intentional, but it can leave the narrative feeling emotionally distant, especially for readers hoping for a more defined payoff.

The novel builds toward an ending that emphasizes theme over resolution. Rather than offering answers or closure, it leans into the idea that some experiences — grief especially — don’t resolve neatly. For some readers, that refusal will feel honest and powerful. For others, it may feel like the story pulls back just when it seems ready to sharpen its focus.

I didn’t dislike This Thing Between Us. It’s thoughtful, occasionally unsettling, and clearly purposeful in what it’s trying to do. But it’s also uneven, and its reliance on abstraction left me more contemplative than moved. A worthwhile read, just not one that fully landed for me.