What’s beautiful about DB Clement’s THE SPACE BETWEEN is how the novel traverses a boy’s life, illuminating how tragedy in childhood can result in adolescent confusion that translates into ongoing emotional turmoil. Struck down in the road upon fleeing yet another girlfriend he just can’t seem to clearly communicate his feelings to, young Will Carlisle winds up taking an overall look at how his life has transpired thus far with the help of a mysterious therapist. Unfortunately what a lot of Life seems to have been about since his mother’s death is one long series of misunderstandings between Will and the people he cares about most. Especially girls. Most especially long-distance romantic pen pal Jennifer. But also between Will and his dad, and Will and his rascal of a best friend, Brandon. Amidst high school pranks and applying to colleges, Will struggles towards manhood, feeling broken–way more broken than other people his age seem to be.

Accompanied by musical references of the 1970s and 80s when teenagers made audiotape mixes to gift to one another, the characters come off as sweet, if a bit wooden. The novel smartly, subtly touches upon aspects of religion, abstinence as a viable sexual choice, and possible ramifications of pulling pranks that are potentially illegal. Yet a main problem with THE SPACE BETWEEN robs these good points of their overall impact, and that flaw is that while the teenage dilemmas feel real — particularly from the points of view of girls pubescent Will leaves brokenhearted in his wake — the teenagers themselves don’t entirely ring true as believable, fleshed-out human beings. Too many scenes of track and field competitions plus voluntary games between the kids generally go on too long, while the reasons for such scenes get bogged down in foreshadowing that feels heavy-handed rather than being a natural outgrowth of a well-paced plot. For example: the ‘massage train’ scene when youths take turns giving each other shoulder rubs as another way Will can get physically close to Jennifer. In terms of gender, while a teenage boy’s spine might “erupt in tingles” once or twice, having Will’s do so frequently doesn’t ring true to how most boys might characterize what they are feeling. Additionally, there are way too many statements directly spelling out for readers what characters are feeling at any given moment, for instance: “a mutual unspoken affection flashed between them,” rather than the author showing all emotional undercurrent via well-functioning action and dialog. Typically, what characters choose to say and not say, along with what they choose to do and not do, are more effective ways of delivering emotional content genuinely able to pluck at reader heartstrings towards bringing fiction fully to life.

Stream-of-consciousness processes read as authentic in DB Clement’s THE SPACE BETWEEN, but on the whole the actual characters in this life-review novel should feel more fully alive than they presently do.

~C.S. Holmes for IndieReader