Review: Thin Space by Jody Casella

Summary From Goodreads:

Ever since the car accident that killed his twin brother, Marshall Windsor has been consumed with guilt and crippled by secrets of that fateful night. He has only one chance to make amends, to right his wrongs and set things right. He must find a Thin Space—a mythical point where the barrier between this world and the next is thin enough for a person to step through to the other side.

But, when a new girl moves into the house next door, the same house Marsh is sure holds a thin space, she may be the key—or the unraveling of all his secrets.

As they get closer to finding a thin space—and closer to each other—Marsh must decide once and for all how far he’s willing to go to right the wrongs of the living…and the dead.

My Review:

You know, I sat down this evening expecting to get pulled into the first few chapters and go to bed, it’s now 1:30am and I’m now just trying to digest what just happened to me. I can’t say it was a bad book, very sure of that, but I don’t know...Guess I can’t tell you what I truly think without spoiling everything. I loved it, I really did, but man I...just...can't tell you. However, I can say this….

This is Jody Casella’s first novel, and though she has been writing for a very long time (according to the back sleeve) I can imagine how hard it must have been to write something like this. Jody does an incredible job with telling this rather eerie little tale. First of all the writing was fluid and very easy to read. I was able to follow the story rather well, and though the ending….ugh spoilers.

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I recommend this book, especially for the little twist in the end that somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I saw coming, but flat out refused to believe. Why? I guess I’m a helpless ‘Happily Ever After’ sort of person, and though this wasn’t a bad ending at all...it’s left me rather speechless?

The characters in the book were so cute, especially Maddie whose ‘Pa’ (Pie), ‘Baa’ (Bye), and Ya’ll (You all) reminded me so very much of home. It’s funny how jarring a deep woods accent can sound after you’ve been away from it for so long, and though she had many other cute little quirks I really enjoyed how I could relate to her in this particular way.

I found myself laughing a few times in the beginning and crying nearly right away. The raw emotion and turmoil that poor...Au-Marsh, put himself through was really well conveyed. He was dealing with his grief in a very realistic way. His angry outbursts and over all ups and downs really broadcasted well into my own times going through those little rough patches, and Jody did a really great job with helping smooth out those thin lines between life and death. I really feel that Marsh was in his own purgatory, even without crossing through to the Thin Space, but I suppose that was what the book was truly about wasn’t it?

One thing that really stuck out to me was the lack of Faith and Religion, but not in a bad way. I love me some angel books don’t get me wrong, but man it sure was refreshing to read a book about the space between without having those religious strings pulled.

I actually had the privilege of sitting in an author question and answer a few weeks back (has it been that long, I swear I'll blog about it), and I can remember just based on her questions alone I was going to be picking that book up. I expect her to have a very healthy successful career as a novelist because I have to say I didn’t (and did in a small way) see that ending coming, I really enjoyed the ride.

Finally, today something rather strange happened that stuck out in my mind while reading this book. While making plans to get a friend's child today for a play date I was given an address that I put into Google Maps to get directions. Little background: Meag's great grandmother passed away leaving her this house, and while searching for the house I spotted the only human being I have ever seen on Google Maps. Like for realz, they photoshop the heck out of that, but there she is. I'm sure this picture was taken before her passing, but it was very haunting to see her sitting there as if waiting for us to return and find out, that porch is in fact a Thin Space.

Meag, don't let Wolf walk around barefoot alright?

~Lily