Thin Space by Jody Casella.

Thin Space by Jody Casella.

This book is: dark and heart wrenching with a pinch of magical realism.
Other elements: twins, sibling relationships, the death of a teenage, identity,
Read it: if you love strong, complicated characters.
Overall rating: 7.75/10

One of the reviews I saw online for Thin Space described reading the novel as similar to being “trapped in a dream” and I think that’s pretty accurate. I read this book all in one sitting – it pulled me in and I didn’t want to break away until I knew where it was going.

The hero of Thin Space is a young man named Marsh, a teenage boy still reeling from his twin’s recent death. Marsh is consumed with finding a way to get in touch with his recently deceased brother, but not just any way: he wants to find a “thin space,” one of the portals of Celtic legend that his elderly neighbor told him about shortly before her death.

I was drawn entirely into Marsh’s mind while reading this book. I saw his world as he did, felt the cold ground under my bare feet, could put my hands up against the barrier of grief that separated Marsh from other people. It’s truly remarkable, then, that the author managed to pull off  a huge end-of-novel reveal. I knew there was a piece of information that I was missing about Marsh’s past, but I never suspected the truth.

Through Marsh, you get a glimpse of a small community that’s reeling from the tragic death of a young boy and the entire town’s inability to know how to act around the surviving twin. Eventually, with the help of a new neighbor who never knew Marsh as one half of a pair, he’s able to come to an important decision about he wants to live his post-twin life.

If you’re going to read Thin Space, I recommend that you steer clear of other reviews to make sure that no one spoils the ending for you! It’s worth the effort.

My thanks to Edelweiss and Simon Pulse/Beyond Words for providing me with a copy of this book for review.