This Thing Between Us

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What did you enjoy the most about the book? What did you enjoy the least?

2. How confident do you feel about your understanding of what happens? Are there any areas of the text about which you feel confused? If so, which areas?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Have you ever experienced grief that became destructive? What led you to recognize it as such, and how did you begin to recover and heal from that grief?

2. Why do you think the bereaved often yearn to find meaning in someone’s death? What are the different meanings you most frequently hear ascribed to someone’s death? Why are they so common, do you think?

3. Have you ever had an experience that highlights the limits of rational control? Perhaps something for which you could not “logically” account? What happened? How did it resolve, if it did?

4. Thiago quickly develops a close bond with Brimley. Have you ever found solace or support in an animal companion? How did that relationship affect you?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Thiago is very conscious of the racism against Latinx individuals, especially undocumented immigrants. How does this racism surface in the novel, and how does it affect the characters? 

2. Much of the novel’s early horror centers on the Itza. What point do you think the novel is making about advanced technology’s increased prominence in human life? How has technology developed since the book’s publication, and does that development mitigate or reinforce its concerns?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. In the last lines, the entity says that Thiago’s “mewling carries to the shore, as will yours, as they always have, lapped at by an ocean of flux” (251). To whom do you think the word “yours” refers? Vera? The reader? Someone else? How does your understanding of the book change depending on your interpretation of this word?

2. Does God exist in the world of the novel? As you consider the question, recall the allusion to the Garden of Eden, the many references to The Exorcist, and the book’s descriptions of an island afterlife existing in an “ocean of flux” (251).

3. Does Thiago’s “guilt” lie in generational sins, as his father’s voice suggests in the cemetery, or is this the entity speaking to Thiago, trying to trick him into letting go of his body? Of what, exactly, is Thiago guilty?

4. What or who do you think the cook is? Why? What might be the significance of characterizing him as a cook preparing a “banquet”?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. Create a visual interpretation of the “wall” Thiago finds. You might depict it in the forest, where he and Brimley find it, in the clearing, where it moves after Brimley’s burial, blocking the path from the front door, aflame, as Thiago and Diane see it when they flee Jacobson’s body, or even on the beach, at the end of the jetty. How does your interpretation reflect its symbolic significance?

2. If you were going to cast a Netflix series depicting this book, whom would you cast as Thiago? How about Vera, Diane, and the cook? Explain your choices.