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Book Summary and Reviews of The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos R.N.

The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos R.N.

The In-Between

Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments

by Hadley Vlahos R.N.

  • Published:
  • Jun 2023, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Passionate advocate for end-of-life care and TikTok star Hadley Vlahos shares moving stories of joy, wisdom, and redemption from her patients' final moments in this "brilliant" (Zibby Owens, Good Morning America) memoir.

Talking about death and dying is considered taboo in polite company, and even in the medical field. Our ideas about dying are confusing at best: Will our memories flash before our eyes? Regrets consume our thoughts? Does a bright light appear at the end of a tunnel? For most people, it will be a slower process, one eased with preparedness, good humor, and a bit of faith. At the forefront of changing attitudes around palliative care is hospice nurse Hadley Vlahos, who shows that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die.

Vlahos was raised in a strict religious household, but began questioning her beliefs in high school after the sudden death of a friend. When she got pregnant at nineteen, she was shunned by her community and enrolled herself in nursing school to be able to support herself and her baby. But nursing soon became more than a job: when she focused on palliative care and hospice work, it became a calling. 

In The In-Between, Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she's had with the people she's worked with—from the woman who never once questioned her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others thought of her—while also sharing her own fascinating journey.

Written with profound insight, humility, and respect, The In-Between is a heartrending memoir that shows how caring for others can transform a life while also offering wisdom and comfort for those dealing with loss and providing inspiration for how to live now.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Gentle encouragement for all those who live under life's running clock and for those who love them." —Kirkus Reviews

"Tender and transformative ... The great surprise of The In-Between is that it makes dying feel like a peaceful, dynamic, and nourishing event that can potentially transform the lives of those who are left behind. Readers will cheer on Hadley Vlahos and, like me, be forever grateful that she wrote this book." —Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group

"Vlahos's compassionate, beautifully written book contains profound wisdom. It is for anyone with an open heart who loves a good story and anyone who fears but would like to better understand hospice and the end of life." —Katy Butler, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Dying Well

"Gentle and moving, The In-Between takes readers where few think they would want to go: deep into the world of hospice nursing. The combined beauty, faith, and compassion found in each patient's death is meaningful and sublime." —Theresa Brown, RN, New York Times bestselling author of The Shift

This information about The In-Between was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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More Information

Hadley Vlahos, RN, is a hospice registered nurse, mother, and wife. Her husband also works in the medical field as a doctor of physical therapy. Vlahos started her career as a registered nurse at twenty-two. As a hospice nurse, she now visits people at their home while also educating and sharing stories about hospice care on social media, where she has more than a million followers.

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