Between the Lines Review

Between The Lines is written by a mother daughter duo: Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer. Overall I rate this 3/5. 

This dual setting story takes place in reality and in a fictional fairy tale called “Between the Lines”, where the heroic Prince Oliver goes through the same old story and actions every time the book is opened. However, when the book is closed, all the characters are still very much alive, and have rather different personalities and interests than the roles they act. Things change, though, when Delilah notices something different in the story and realizes that Oliver is very much an actual person who desires to escape his mundane, never changing fairy tale. 

The plot is very unique; when was the last time you read a story about a book that still is active when it is closed, or a fictional character interacting, or falling in love, with a person from reality. Let’s not forget all the conflict that comes along with interacting with someone in a book: crazy. Delilah becomes virtually obsessed with Oliver, resulting in her forgetting about her only friend, Jules, and her hard-working mother. She pushes them all aside only for some boy in a book; which I find a little concerning, but it creates the plot. 

The characters are well developed, you can easily tell Oliver and Delilah’s obsessive relationship. Though I did have a problem with their instantaneous attraction. It seemed that for Oliver it wouldn’t of mattered if it was another girl that discovered him, that is was Delilah because she was the first and the only bridge to the other world. And Delilah, she only has one friend and everyone else in her school dislikes her. One can speculate she had such low self-esteem that it didn’t matter whoever showed any interest in her. 

Due to their relationship, Delilah and her mother’s relationship is extremely rocky. Delilah reads a children’s fairy tale constantly, which would worry any mother, and hears her daughter talk to no one. Like any proper mother would do, she sends Delilah to a Shrink. From there on, she only worry her mother more. At the end of the book, you don’t witness them rekindling their relationship. Their conflict is constantly prominent throughout the book, but you don’t see it fixed. It felt like something was missing, or not properly concluded as it should be. 

All in all, the book was an entertaining read. I would highly recommend it to middle school students. For a similar read, I would suggest “The Goddess Test” by Aimee Carter and “Entwined” by Heather Dixon.