Shelf To Table
Food Spotlight: Blood Orange Coffee Cake
The perfect food pairing for this novel is a blood orange coffee cake. This Thing Between Us is a novel heavy with grief, love, and haunting loss—and blood orange coffee cake captures that same bittersweet feeling. The cake is warm, soft, and comforting, like something you’d bake to get through long, quiet mornings in a Colorado cabin. But the blood oranges cut through with their deep crimson color and tart bite, a reminder that even sweetness carries shadows. This isn’t just coffee cake—it’s comfort laced with something unsettling, the perfect bite to accompany a story that lingers long after the last page.
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno is a grief-fueled horror novel about Thiago, a man tormented by the loss of his wife and a sinister smart speaker named Itza. After Vera’s tragic death, Thiago flees to a remote Colorado cabin seeking peace, only to find that the darkness—and whatever is haunting him—has followed, feeding on his grief and refusing to let go.
Page To Plate
Food Featured In The Book
Frozen pizza is mentioned several times throughout the novel as the main food Thiago relies on after his wife’s death. It reflects his isolation and grief—simple, effortless, and almost mechanical, mirroring the emptiness of his daily routine as he struggles to cope with loss and the unsettling events that surround him.
Character Cravings
Thiago is carrying the heavy weight of loss, grieving his wife while moving through each day in a quiet, aching haze. In his depression, cooking for himself feels overwhelming, so that’s what I believe he would eat—casseroles and home-cooked meals brought by family and friends. These dishes aren’t flashy or indulgent; they’re warm, filling, and practical, meant to nourish him when he can barely find the energy to care for himself.
Book Club Bite
Brownies or chocolate-covered treats are perfect for a book club discussion of this novel. Chocolate has a comforting, indulgent quality that makes it ideal for sinking into the story’s grief and tension.
“You were you and I was me and there was this thing between us.” -Gus Moreno