''The Between'' (1995) is the first novel by writer

Tananarive Due Tananarive Priscilla Due ( ) (born January 5, 1966) is an American author and educator. Due won the American Book Award for her novel '' The Living Blood'' (2001), and the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the Shirley Jackson Award for Best ...

. It was nominated for the 1996

Bram Stoker Award The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. History The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...

.1996 WORLD HORROR CONVENTION: Bram Stoker Awards and Nominees
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Plot

A middle-class

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

couple's life is shattered when the wife begins receiving death threats. The husband begins to experience an alternative reality so real he has trouble grasping which is real. His psychiatrist diagnosis him as a latent schizophrenic. The family must decide if its schizophrenia, are the dreams a cosmic death threat or has the husband become unstuck from this reality and become stuck between worlds.

Reviews

Part horror novel, part detective story and part

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is an umbrella term, umbrella genre of fiction that encompasses all the subgenres that depart from Realism (arts), realism, or strictly imitating everyday reality, instead presenting fantastical, supernatural, futuristic, or ...

, ''The Between'' is a mix of genres. Yet it is no hybrid. It is a finely honed work that always engages and frequently surprises.
-- JAMES POLK, ''The New York Times''

Development of novel

The lengthy autobiographical essay by Due elucidates the history and context of her first novel ''The Between'' among many other works and details of her life. Due also subtly suggests the horrifying thought that pervades the story but is left tactfully unspoken: if each of us creates our own reality, then ultimately we are all alone in the world.

References

1995 American novels American horror novels Novels by Tananarive Due HarperCollins books African-American novels {{1990s-horror-novel-stub