Under the Surface / Diana Urban / Book Review

UNDER THE SURFACE

Paris is a dream come true for Ruby. A budding travel vlogger, she knows this is the start to the rest of her life. Assuming everything goes well, she might even convince her dad to let her go on another trip and another and another--and not keep her so close to him all the time. Sean's just happy to be here with Ruby. Paris is great, but being in Paris with Ruby is even better. Not that he's told her that. He's been dancing around his confession for months.

When Ruby's best friend sneaks away from the chaperones to meet a mysterious French boy, Ruby knows nothing good can happen. And it's not like she can tell the teachers and risk her best friend getting sent home. Sneaking out, too, is the only way to go... And she can't exactly say no to a party in the catacombs, right? It's not like any other travel vlogger will have footage like this.

But all is not well in the tunnels of the dead. When something chases the group of partiers, they get separated--and injured. Turned around in an endless maze of bones, even their local guide isn't sure they'll get back out again. And nobody knows where they've gone. Nobody knows they're missing.

THOUGHTS

The melodrama here was just too much for me, though I can't exactly say I'm surprised. I can definitely see why Diana Urban's thrillers have been so popular, and These Deadly Games really did work for me. It balanced that signature dramatic flair just right. This one didn't quite hit the same balance.

PROS

Fascinating Concept	Though the execution here didn't really work for me (which was probably more of a me problem than a real problem), I really did love the choices Diana Urban made in building up this book. A summer trip to France, a budding travel vlogger, and a happy-to-show-them-around cataphile--something that many readers won't know much about. I know a bit about cataphiles, their love for and care of the catacombs that uphold Paris, and Diana Urban obviously did the work to understand this subculture as well in introducing and incorporating them into this book. And I love that.
Creepy Setting	I think there's also just something to appealing about using catacombs of any kind as a thriller setting, but especially catacombs as famous as the Parisian ones. Though I personally find mausoleums and monuments to the dead to be quite relaxing, I can understand the other side of that coin--and Urban really does balance respect and reverence with an unsettling quality in relating the history and creating the over-the-top dramatic survival/thriller story set in this unsettling liminal space.
Gross Descriptions	When things start going wrong--and not-as-long-dead-as-they-should-be bodies start turning up--Urban also really nails the gross factor. Which is important in a thriller like this. The ick needs to be real. It needs to add an element to the already-running-for-our-lives plot. It needs to instill a spine-tingling fear, and I think that Urban conjures that feeling up really well.

CONS

This book is set up like it's got a will-they/won't-they romantic subplot, but it really, truly doesn't have that. Because the sexual tension between Sean and Ruby is strong from the very first page, and there's absolutely no reason why they won't go for it. Sure, they list some flimsy and inconsistent reasons why they won't, but... Yeah, there wasn't really a reason, and if the story relies on that will-they/won't-they tension to make the romantic subplot, well, it really needs to toy with that line much better. This subplot fell kind of flat.	Will-They/Will-They
The descriptions of people in this book are... weird. They're weird, because this book is told in first person. And it's not that people won't notice specific details about others they encounter. It's not that you can't have a really detail-oriented narrator. It's just that these narrators (both of them, since it is dual-POV) aren't that observant in any other way. So when they're giving metaphor-laden, overly-flowery descriptions of people as they meet them... Yeah, it didn't ring true for me.	Awkward Descriptions
The thing that really pulls me out of a story like this--that really compounds a melodramatic tale and makes that melodrama too much for me--is when the little details just don't match up with reality. I don't always mind a high-stakes, high-emotion thriller, but outside of the losing-their-minds, OTT characters, the world needs to be somewhat, well, grounded. And here, I just didn't get that. You're telling me these high schoolers, who haven't really left the USA, know how to navigate a city like Paris on their own? You're telling me they've got consistent phone service and they're not freaking out about international phone charges (on their own behalf or the behalf of their parents, who will kill them for these data charges when they get home)? You're telling me they're not conserving battery when they're in the catacombs with their phone flashlights as their only backup plant? They're not conserving water, even though at least one of these girls is meant to be "smart"? You're telling me the teacher chaperones are insisting to the classmates up above that everything's going to be alright, even though high schoolers famously don't buy any placating lie adults tell them? You're telling me all of this? These little details, these little choices, don't feel consistent and right, and so when paired with the high-tension, high-drama characters and plot, I just couldn't buy into it at all.	Little Details

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4/10

Fans of Kathryn Foxfield's Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are will like this uncomfortable underground space where things go horribly, horribly wrong. Fans of Kate A. Boorman's Into the Sublime will like the haunting (and potentially supernatural) quality to this quasi-urban environment.

Details Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers Date: August 13, 2024 Series: NAME Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.