MMGM: The In-Between by Barbara Stewart

About The Book: When Elanor’s near-death experience opens a door to a world inhabited by bold, beautiful Madeline, she finds her life quickly spiraling out of control

Fourteen-year-old Elanor Moss has always been an outcast who fails at everything she tries—she's even got the fine, white scars to prove it. Moving was supposed to be a chance at a fresh start, a way to leave behind all the pain and ugliness of her old life. But, when a terrible car accident changes her life forever, her near-death experience opens a door to a world inhabited by Madeline Torus . . . Madeline is everything Elanor isn’t: beautiful, bold, brave. She is exactly what Elanor has always wanted in a best friend and more—their connection runs deeper than friendship. But Madeline is not like other girls, and Elanor has to keep her new friend a secret or risk being labeled “crazy.” Soon, though, even Elanor starts to doubt her own sanity. Madeline is her entire life, and that life is drastically spinning out of control. Elanor knows what happens when your best friend becomes your worst enemy. But what happens when your worst enemy is yourself?

First Line: I was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

What Others Are Saying: "Stewart conveys with gripping conviction the differences in Ellie's perceptions and those of Ellie's mother. Ellie sees, hears, and feels Madeline though her mother does not, or at least says she does not. The creepiness of the story is intensified by the reader's growing awareness that Madeline is much more than Ellie's ghostly BFF. In the vein of V. C. Andrews, Stewart has created a taut psychological drama that teens will adore." —School Library Journal

Stewart’s debut novel is a riveting page-turner with real empathy and compassion. The journal format clarifies Ellie’s different stages and lends a wonderful voyeuristic appeal. —Booklist

Written in journal form, the scenes change as Ellie enters new periods in her life and begins new journals. Readers, then, encounter only the unreliable narrator, and it is they who will decide if events have been real or imagined.
      A most intriguing book and debut. —Kirkus

Bloggers Weigh In:
Teen Ink

This Ain't Livin

Xpresso Reads

What I Thought: If you're looking for a light summer read, this isn't the book. If, however, you're looking to escape into a world full of twists and turns that force you to question what's real and what's only in the mind of the protagonist you will enjoy this ride. Fast moving, constantly readjusting your perspective as Ellie moves through the ordinary, only to discover that there is no such thing as ordinary. What is real and what is in her mind? That's up to you to decide. 

About The Author: Barbara Stewart

Website

Author Interview

Who:  "I spent the first nineteen years of my life wanting to be someone else: Laura Ingalls, Elton John, Nancy Spungen, Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, Sylvia Plath. It was hard finding work as any of those people, so I went to college. That was hard, too, because I had to pick a major. I was interested in a lot of things—psychology, sociology, history—but none of them screamed "career" at me.

And then my English professor asked if I wanted to write a short story for extra credit. I gave it a shot. And then I wrote another and another…I couldn’t stop. I knew what I wanted to do." —Author's Website


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