A review by jobinsonlis
The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna by Mira Ptacin

3.0

It’s more of a 3.5 because I like the way Ptacin writes. The In-Betweens is less about the history of Spiritualism and more a meditation on the author’s views on faith and what it means to have it. Personally I disagree with her on some of her conclusions; I don’t think that truth is entirely subjective and that facts can be individually decided on by different people viewing the same thing. This is a big reason why I felt her treatment of people like the Fox sisters and Houdini was suspect. She wanted to believe in Spiritualism and portrayed these figures in a way that was more supportive of this narrative, ignoring the parts of them that hurt her platform and amplifying the parts that helped. I do agree with her that at some point you have to shit or get off the pot when it comes to faith but I think it’s meaningless if you have to ignore relevant information you don’t like to continue to have faith. Facts are not feelings; they exist whether you have faith or not and if your faith is strong enough to move mountains—as the Scripture says—it should be able to coexist with reality without breaking. If you have to ignore reality to keep your faith, you don’t have faith, you have a delusion you want to hide behind.