Title: Betwixt: The Call Of The Void
Author: Meeshelle Neal
Publisher: Independently published
Genre: Fantasy
First Publication: 2019
Language: English
Major Characters: Jessica, Ustrina, Sadi, Mae, Scott
Setting place(s) of the story: High school & Betwixt
Narration type: First Person
Theme of the book: Finding strength amidst the chaos and confusion of growing up, and dealing with magic, teenage angst, being true to yourself vs trying to be liked
Book Summary: Betwixt: The Call Of The Void
After being taken to the world of Betwixt as a child, Jessica, now an adolescent, finds herself dealing with a dual reality — on top of the usual difficulties of high school.
Try as she might to be a normal teenager, Jessica can’t get away from the magic and the intertwining reality of Betwixt. At first she does not believe in this alternate reality, having been told she made it up when she was younger, but it turns out Betwixt is very much real.
One of the faeries from there, named Ustrina, merges with Jessica entangling her in the world of magic.
Back in reality, Jessica finds herself becoming strangely popular, but when she and a group of friends find a goddess in the woods – Jessica looses the ability to speak and can only make tones like a song creating the added challenge of finding her voice as well as her sanity.
Taken to an asylum, which really seems more like a place of experimentation, Jessica learns to work with the entities from Betwixt to get away and save the goddess. Through acts of bravery and skill, they triumph together, finding balance and understanding across an intense divide.
Betwixt: The Call of the Void, is a dark fantasy novella that follows the life of a teenager dealing with high school as well as an alternate reality that pulls her through the depths of darkness to come out the other side more confident and ready for adulthood.
Character List: Betwixt: The Call Of The Void
Jessica: The protagonist and our way in to experiencing both worlds, a teenage girl who is forced to live in two worlds at once, healing herself in one, and the fabric of existence in the other.
Ustrina: Jessica’s antagonist and an impish faery who wants to experience being human, but has chosen her complete opposite to live through.
Sadi: The most popular, most beautiful girl in school. She takes Jessica under her wing, showing her the ropes of popularity — but seems to have her own reasons for doing so.
Mae: A shy girl who goes to school with Jessica. They are more alike than Jessica first realizes.
Scott: A boy from Jessica’s class who wants so very much to know her better, but Jessica’s shyness tends to get in the way.
Mr. Chase: One of the younger teachers at school, he guides Jessica into adulthood in more ways than one.
Black, White, Virginia & Q: The magical entities of Betwixt who Jessica met the first time she was there. Upon seeing them again, this time through more adult eyes, Jessica sees they are flawed and simply doing their best under extraordinary circumstances.
The Goddess & The Demon: Two sides of the same coin, they send Jessica on a journey to mend her mistakes and right the wrongs of her decisions.
Book Review: Betwixt: The Call Of The Void
First of all I have to say that I love the world Meeshelle Neal has built in the book Betwixt: The Call of the Void; and even though it sometimes seems to be more than just cruel, it never fails to captivate me. Well, truth be told most of the time it’s even this kind of harshness that makes it so interesting. The obstacles and problems every single time Jessica has to overcome make the entire story line even more intoxicating and exciting. Thinking about it in retrospective, the plot is amazing and if I had to pinpoint why I loved every line of the book, I would say that it’s the details and the mystery I found in every single word.
Love, I think that’s actually the word that sums it up. There is love everywhere and all of the characters have plenty of it to give. There are Jessica, Scott, Mae and Sadi who try to fight their feelings. The ending literally killed me and even though I finished the book about a week ago I’m still far from being over it.
Well, enough of the ranting and back to the good stuff! Relationships are definitely something Author Meeshelle truly excels at. It’s obvious that she put a lot of effort into her characters and their world and the little hints at some of the future events never cease to amuse me.
