The Space Between Review.

 Name - The Space Between.
Author - Alexandra Sokoloff.
Rating - Four Stars.
Theme Song - Teenagers - My Chemical Romance.

Synopsis - Sixteen-year old Anna Sullivan is having terrible dreams of a massacre at her school. Anna’s father is a mentally unstable veteran, her mother vanished when Anna was five, and Anna might just chalk the dreams up to a reflection of her crazy waking life — except that Tyler Marsh, the most popular guy at the school and Anna’s secret crush, is having the exact same dream. Despite the gulf between them in social status, Anna and Tyler connect, first in the dream and then in reality. As the dreams reveal more, with clues from the school social structure, quantum physics, probability, and Anna's own past, Anna becomes convinced that they are being shown the future so they can prevent the shooting…

If they can survive the shooter — and the dream.
Based on the short story "The Edge of Seventeen," winner of the ITW Thriller award.

Anna's mother left without a word, yet to be heard from again. Anna's father is a veteran of war who suffers tragically from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He has "Gulf War Syndrome" which people like to pretend doesn't exist, so no attention is called to him or his family. He lays himself out in his recliner, leaves empty beer cans and the stench of alcohol everywhere, not to mention that stacks of old newspapers he simply refuses to throw away.  Anna's house isn't the most thriving environment for a teenager, leaving Anna friendless and alone. Anna's trying to graduate highschool early so she can escape. One of her courses pairs her with Tyler Marsh, a popular, sports playing All American teeange boy with a mysterious streak who she's in love with. Anna's never really spoken to Tyler and chooses to admire him from a distance.


Anna begins having very vivid and very violent dreams, or nightmares, or premiontions, no one really knows. In these dreams, her high school is under attack and everyone is at risk. The kids, the teachers, the faculty, they all could fall victim to the attack that Anna can't figure out. Anna is aware of one thing though, Tyler was in her dream. Things get creepier when she realizes that Tyler had the same dream she did, but although he admits to knowing what she's talking about, all he can say is "he doesn't dream" which is no help whatsoever to Anna. Tyler stays distant and hesitant as Anna begins to have more disturbing dreams.


As disturbing as the dreams are Anna is still able to pick out scenes that in turn end up happening in her waking life. She'll dream something and a sliver of it will actually come true, leaving her to wonder what the hell is going on and if she's lost her mind.


 It's hard to define sometimes whether Anna is dreaming or not. I stay on the edge of my seat wondering "Is this really happening now, or is this another dream?" The character portrayl is a great show of highschool stereotypes. Darren, the overly confident jock is painted as such a villian in the beginning. Anna seems pretty convinced that if anyone's capable of causing such destruction that it'd be Darren, but Darren's also Tyler's best friend. As more dreams occur Tyler comes around,  him and Anna begin to get closer. Some of my favorite parts in this book revolved around Anna and Tyler, they're such a great pair!


Tyler and Anna begin working together to solve the madness and a lot is revealed once Anna finds newspaper clippings left behind by her mother. The clippings reveal three different circumstances on the exact same date with the exact same person. Three alternate realities. Anna is forced to go over tons of theories but the main one that Anna uses to better understand and handle the dreams is "The Observer Effect." It explains so much! All the physics and mathematics that Alexandra Sokoloff wrote about made me completely understand them and feel intriguided by them, too. Anna realizes that to change the effect she has to somehow change the dreams. The ending of the book freaked me out a bit and I completely did not see most of it coming. It's like one of those stories where you think you know what's going until the ending comes, and then you're like ARE YOU SERIOUS?! This book is definitely a thriller and I sincerely hope it has a sequel because there's still an incredible amount I need to know!