lit_chick's review
5.0
I read about this book in a New York Times article recommending escapist isolation reads, and I was not disappointed. Ptacin weaves the history of the Spirtitualist Church with American history, and though the book is non-fiction, it reads like a novel.
jobinsonlis's review
3.0
It’s more of a 3.5 because I like the way Ptacin writes. The In-Betweens is less about the history of Spiritualism and more a meditation on the author’s views on faith and what it means to have it. Personally I disagree with her on some of her conclusions; I don’t think that truth is entirely subjective and that facts can be individually decided on by different people viewing the same thing. This is a big reason why I felt her treatment of people like the Fox sisters and Houdini was suspect. She wanted to believe in Spiritualism and portrayed these figures in a way that was more supportive of this narrative, ignoring the parts of them that hurt her platform and amplifying the parts that helped. I do agree with her that at some point you have to shit or get off the pot when it comes to faith but I think it’s meaningless if you have to ignore relevant information you don’t like to continue to have faith. Facts are not feelings; they exist whether you have faith or not and if your faith is strong enough to move mountains—as the Scripture says—it should be able to coexist with reality without breaking. If you have to ignore reality to keep your faith, you don’t have faith, you have a delusion you want to hide behind.
geve_'s review
1.0
Borrowed this because Camp Etna is nearby and I had only heard a few things about it and thought it might be an interesting local read. It wasn't.
This book is:
1: Boring. Part of this is my fault. I hate memoirs, but I especially hate memoirs snuck into books that are supposed to be about some other non-fiction topic but the author either A: doesn't have enough to write about and needs filler or B: thinks their life/perspective is very interesting and that I really wanna read about it rather than about the actual topic of the book. I probably should have put this book down when, in the first chapter, the author describes leaving her Portland adjacent island home on a ferry to drive up to Etna. So she wants us to know she lives on peaks without saying she lives on peaks. cool.
The book flips between kind of boring, poorly formatted telling of the history of spirituality and the author's personal experiences at etna. Neither of these was interesting and the switching back and forth made it harder to follow. This is a common way of writing this kind of NF, but it was not executed well in this case at all.
2: Poorly written: The author interacts with the current spritualists at etna and has a very colorful and honestly, gross way of describing the people she met. There were a lot of overly floral details about people's appearances that were just so tedious to read, felt very romance novel (which is totally fine in a romance novel) and added absolutely nothing to the story. Also some racist undertones here. Some of that isn't the author's fault, as it seems spiritualism just kinda stole a bunch of stories/religious practices/mythologies/beliefs from other religions, most specifically Native American/First Nations spiritual beliefs. Since the author decided to tell me a bunch of her opinions about the people she met there, I wouldn't have minded if she had had some reaction to the weird racists shit people said, but whenever that might have come up it was back to neutral observer.
3: Just wasn't the story/book I expected. I read the title and the description, and having read many non-fiction books, thought I knew what this was going to be. It just didn't meet my expectations. That's not to say that a book that doesn't follow the formula of its genre is bad, far from it, but a reader has some going into a new book that it is gonna follow through with its proposal, and when it doesn't that's a huge let down. This book was very superficial, both historically and informationally. I did learn some things about spiritualism, but that's mostly because I knew zero things about it to start. I def learned the PRECISE hair color and texture of all the people the author met at etna, though.
4: Is full of cringe. Having a whole spiritualism camp in Maine, that basically hosts a bunch of weird white people to come up and get a white-washed version of Indigenous spiritualism mixed with all the other weird ghost communication shit they've have smashed into this belief system with no criticism of it from the author made me very uncomfy. People can do what they want, but don't tell me how much of a crush you had on one of the spiritualism ladies while then not giving me your opinion about how whack all this shit is.
TLDR: Boring, fake feeling garbage. Extremely hard to get through.
This book is:
1: Boring. Part of this is my fault. I hate memoirs, but I especially hate memoirs snuck into books that are supposed to be about some other non-fiction topic but the author either A: doesn't have enough to write about and needs filler or B: thinks their life/perspective is very interesting and that I really wanna read about it rather than about the actual topic of the book. I probably should have put this book down when, in the first chapter, the author describes leaving her Portland adjacent island home on a ferry to drive up to Etna. So she wants us to know she lives on peaks without saying she lives on peaks. cool.
The book flips between kind of boring, poorly formatted telling of the history of spirituality and the author's personal experiences at etna. Neither of these was interesting and the switching back and forth made it harder to follow. This is a common way of writing this kind of NF, but it was not executed well in this case at all.
2: Poorly written: The author interacts with the current spritualists at etna and has a very colorful and honestly, gross way of describing the people she met. There were a lot of overly floral details about people's appearances that were just so tedious to read, felt very romance novel (which is totally fine in a romance novel) and added absolutely nothing to the story. Also some racist undertones here. Some of that isn't the author's fault, as it seems spiritualism just kinda stole a bunch of stories/religious practices/mythologies/beliefs from other religions, most specifically Native American/First Nations spiritual beliefs. Since the author decided to tell me a bunch of her opinions about the people she met there, I wouldn't have minded if she had had some reaction to the weird racists shit people said, but whenever that might have come up it was back to neutral observer.
3: Just wasn't the story/book I expected. I read the title and the description, and having read many non-fiction books, thought I knew what this was going to be. It just didn't meet my expectations. That's not to say that a book that doesn't follow the formula of its genre is bad, far from it, but a reader has some going into a new book that it is gonna follow through with its proposal, and when it doesn't that's a huge let down. This book was very superficial, both historically and informationally. I did learn some things about spiritualism, but that's mostly because I knew zero things about it to start. I def learned the PRECISE hair color and texture of all the people the author met at etna, though.
4: Is full of cringe. Having a whole spiritualism camp in Maine, that basically hosts a bunch of weird white people to come up and get a white-washed version of Indigenous spiritualism mixed with all the other weird ghost communication shit they've have smashed into this belief system with no criticism of it from the author made me very uncomfy. People can do what they want, but don't tell me how much of a crush you had on one of the spiritualism ladies while then not giving me your opinion about how whack all this shit is.
TLDR: Boring, fake feeling garbage. Extremely hard to get through.
lazygal's review
2.0
Such promise, but poorly executed. I didn't mind the blend of the author's experience with the people in Camp Etna and this history of Spiritualism because it did bring to life what the people who attend or work at the Camp believe and practice. But more was needed to flesh out those beliefs and practices, perhaps tying it more fully to the history. For example, when she's having her house cleansed, adding the history of cleansing and more about the herbs and current practices would have been helpful.
And then there's the problems with the timeline. It could have just been an editing issue and will be corrected but there's a whole paragraph that just threw me and I couldn't get over it. We're talking about 1926 and placing the Spiritualist movement in context. But then there's a claim that Disney World opened then. Ummm.... Disney LAND opened in 1955, while Disney WORLD opened in 1971. Mickey Mouse, however, was "born" in 1928. Perhaps that's what was meant? Later the author makes the claim that color television came in that year (late 40s).
Here's my problem: if I can spot easily corrected mistakes, what mistakes am I missing elsewhere?
ARC provided by publisher.
And then there's the problems with the timeline. It could have just been an editing issue and will be corrected but there's a whole paragraph that just threw me and I couldn't get over it. We're talking about 1926 and placing the Spiritualist movement in context. But then there's a claim that Disney World opened then. Ummm.... Disney LAND opened in 1955, while Disney WORLD opened in 1971. Mickey Mouse, however, was "born" in 1928. Perhaps that's what was meant? Later the author makes the claim that color television came in that year (late 40s).
Here's my problem: if I can spot easily corrected mistakes, what mistakes am I missing elsewhere?
ARC provided by publisher.
marianabelher's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
lucymcclellan's review
5.0
I love books like this. I’m fascinated by the Spiritualist movement. A great update/companion to the classic “Radical Spirits.”
bibliomaineiac's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to like this audiobook. I have had readings with one of the mediums mentioned within and had wonderful experiences each time. However, I found myself trying to determine if this book was about the author and her journey towards Spiritualism, the history of Spiritualism, the founding of Camp Etna, or if it was about the residents there. It didn't feel, to me, like it flowed well and felt very disjointed. This could have been more to do with my own preferences in writing styles, so others may not have the same experience.