There are two sides to every story, as the saying goes, and the truth often lies somewhere in the middle. Between Me and You, an Audible Original audiobook based on the novel by Alison Winn Scotch and adapted for audio by coauthor and screenwriter Pete Chiarelli (The Proposal, Crazy Rich Asians), is a he-said, she-said tale of a marriage in its last act.
When actress and soon-to-be divorcee Tatum receives a script from screenwriter and estranged husband Ben, she isn’t sure what to think — especially once she begins to read and realizes it’s a recounting of their relationship. Skipping back and forth in time, the scenes range from the promising beginnings of their love story through the difficulties that drove them apart and, yes, the circumstances that drove them to a bitter end. It’s all there on paper … at least, Ben’s side of the story is.
But why has Ben sent the script to Tate? Is he threatening to air her dirty laundry to the public, or does he have other intentions?
Tate calls up her friend Hannah for help in facing its contents, and she obliges, offering to read aloud what Tate can’t bring herself to look at. The result is a mix of read-aloud storytelling and fully produced scenes that slowly reveal a relationship unraveling amid ambition, deception and misunderstanding. Ben does not paint Tate as the bad guy, though we can certainly detect her flaws, but neither does he refrain from taking accountability for his errors along the way. One thing is clear, however: Tate has underestimated Ben’s character, and it will take more than just the script for her to realize it.
Featuring the vocal talent of Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country), Jack Falahee (How to Get Away with Murder) and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Between Me and You is an engrossing listen crafted for the theater of the mind. Smollett and Falahee masterfully draw on the depth required for their roles, and Hsu offers complexity of her own as a former nemesis-turned-bestie. There is palpable chemistry between Tate and Ben in their happier moments, and in their worst versions of themselves, there is a gripping realism that’s hard to shake. We can feel the resentments building, and when they boil over into arguments, it’s a pitch-perfect, nuanced performance that rings true for anyone who has found themself in a similar situation.
All those resentments are the tiny cuts that eventually widen into a chasm between Tate and Ben. Early in their relationship, Ben achieves critical success as a screenwriter. Then when their son Joey is born, Tate lands an important series of roles, and Ben becomes a stay-at-home dad, putting his ambitions on hold. It’s a stressor that, on its own, is the undoing of many relationships, though the roles here are reversed. Soon, deception creeps in — on both their parts — and their marriage heads down a road that’s hard to turn back around on. This doesn’t stop Ben from trying at the eleventh hour, though.
An exploration of love, ambition and the erosion of a relationship, Between Me and You pulls the listener in with its cinematic storytelling and top-tier production. Then it keeps us hanging on every word, painting an intimate portrait of what goes wrong in relationships and how hard it is to put things right again.
Between Me and You is free for the members of your book club to download, exclusively through the BookTrib Book Club Network.
