The In-Between Bookstore

The In-Between Bookstore is a standalone queer friendly fantasy coming of age novel by Edward Underhill. Released 14th Jan 2025 HarperCollins on their Avon Books imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

The author has a good grasp on the technical aspects of writing. The scene settings, descriptive prose, and storytelling themselves are all competent and well wrought. The idea of being able to timeslip and go back and maybe change our future selves, is powerfully attractive. This is a well told story about precisely that. Darby gets the chance to go back to interact with his 16 year old self when he accidentally time-slips into 2009 in the bookstore he worked at as a teenager.

It's a wistfully told story and not always a happily-ever-after (though the denouement and resolution are fully developed). The characterizations are a trifle two dimensional and trope-y, but overall, it's a solid novel and a satisfying read. 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 23 minutes and is capably read by Shaan Dasani. He does a good job delineating the various characters and doesn't get tripped up on any of the rapid scene shifts/time shifts/dialogue. He has a warm upper midrange neutral male voice without strong regional accent (maybe central East USA, but nothing openly identifiable). 

Three and a half stars for both print and audiobook.

 Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.