Between by Jessica Warman

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Age Group: YA
Rating: 5/5
Source: Publisher

Elizabeth Valchar --- pretty, popular and rich --- wakes up the morning after her 18th birthday on the yacht where she’d been celebrating with her closest friends. A persistent thumping noise has roused her. When she goes to investigate, she finds her own drowned body is hitting the side of the boat. Liz is dead. She has no memory of what happened to her, and can only observe in horror the fallout of her death.

She’s also soon joined by Alex Berg, a quiet boy from her high school who was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The two keep each other company, floating in and out of memories and trying to piece together the details of what happened to each of them.

In her regular life, Liz was a runner. It wasn’t abnormal for her to run 8-10 miles per day. But as memories from closer to her death begin to surface, Liz finds that she’d been running much more than normal, and that she’d all but stopped eating. Liz’s mother, who died when Liz was nine, had battled with anorexia as well, and those around her worried that Liz was following in her mother’s footsteps. But something more sinister was consuming Liz from the inside out...

I first discovered Jessica Warman when I read her book WHERE THE TRUTH LIES. I really enjoyed that book and when I heard about her new book, BETWEEN, I was excited to read it. Every year, there comes out a book or two that takes me on a journey and makes me feel emotions I never knew I could feel from just words on paper. BETWEEN is one of those books.

After partying on her boat for her birthday party with her friends, Liz wakes up and finds herself dead. She then meets Alex Berg, a guy who died a year ago in where they both are which seems to be in Between. Liz goes back and views parts of her life from when she was little and in high school. I have to say, I hated Liz. The way she would treat people as though they were nothing and she was the only person that everyone should bow down to was just wrong. She was even mean at times to Alex, but there she would control herself. She always felt as a queen when she was with her friends, but when she was dead, she was basically nothing. No one cared anymore. Liz changed and I liked that.

Liz watched her boyfriend, Richie, how he and her sister Josie were getting together and as Liz was getting annoyed with Josie, so was I. But as the book continues, you find out why Liz began acting the way she did and why Josie was just Josie. After Liz's mom died, her dad married Josie's mom, but everyone, including Josie believed Liz's dad was her real dad. It hurt Liz, expecially since she had lost her mom.

But before Alex leaves Liz, he shows her who killed him and I was shocked. I would have never guessed it would have been that person. Even though they went through my mind, I still marked it off as no. But then Liz is left alone to see who killed her.

The ending was the biggest shocker in the book. I'm not going to spoil it, but the person who killed Liz was with Liz the entire time. They acted as though they cared for Liz, until the night of the party came, Liz was drunk, everyone was drunk and it was the perfect time to get rid of her.

I loved this book so much that I stayed up late to finish it. This book haunted me while reading it and when I finished. It gives you a feeling that lingers with you after you're done with the book. JessicaWarman has created a masterpiece here with BETWEEN. I loved every bit of it.