Review: The Space Between by Shawn D Brink

The Space Between

by Shawn D Brink

When Hunter and his wife Nora begin to have nightmarish visions of evil and death, they feel driven to find what truth lies behind them. But the truth that they find is terrifying. The enemy they must face is powerful and unless defeated, will mean the end of the world as they know it.
Only by standing firm and relying on each other as well as on God, can they achieve victory. But is victory even possible? For Hunter and Nora, only time can reveal these answers. 

My Take:

Hunter, a debilitatingly OCD office worker and stalwart Christian, has been having a frightening recurring dream. An ancient lady stands before him, stating, "I am the 100 year old woman in the 100 year old store guarding the 100 year old door." The door opens and something flies out and nearly kills him. Something evil.

Realizing that the dream portends rapidly approaching events, Hunter desperately searches for the woman and the door, not knowing whether it will spell his doom. Unbeknownst to Hunter, his wife Nora has been having similar dreams, leading her to the ancient antique shop of Nancy Love, just moments before Hunter arrives.

The door opens and sucks them through, into a fight to the death against the world's oldest and most powerful enemy - an enemy bent upon the end of the human race. Only by standing firm in their faith and relying on one another can they have any hope at all of destroying the monster in the Space Between.

Content:

Drug Content:

PG - A minor character has a seriously alcoholic mother. Another is a drug addict, alcoholic and prostitute.

Violence:

PG-13 - This book has a series of vignettes where lone victims are violently attacked and their brains consumed in a bloody mess.

Language:

G - squeaky clean.

Adult Content:

PG - One woman, as mentioned before, is a prostitute.  

Christian content:

Hunter and his wife are both believers, as is Nancy Love and several other characters in this novel. The main plot is based on end-times prophesy, and the spiritual enemy is very real. Faith and reliance on prayer plays a major part here, and the entire dark path is lit by an incandescent hope for the future.

Final analysis:

I found Hunter and his OCD to be endearing, and his wife Nora to be enchanting. While the back and forth plot and vignettes were a bit hard to follow, and the work needs polish, it was an intriguing and enjoyable high-stakes thriller. The three main characters were the best part of this novel, though the supporting cast and the main enemy were somewhat two dimensional. The split worlds idea was interesting, and the pace, although slow at the beginning, picked up pace about a third of the way through, accelerating downhill like a water slide. While I found the plot solid, the world-building intriguing and the main characters real, the pacing issues at the beginning and the polish needed kept this at a reasonable Four Stars.

About the Author:

Shawn D. Brink was born in Clovis New Mexico, but has lived in Eastern Nebraska since he was five. He holds an undergraduate degree in Secondary Education from Wayne State College and a graduate degree in Management from Bellevue University. His interests (besides writing) include church, playing guitar, and spending time with his wife and four children.

You can follow his writing adventures at his WordPress.