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Middle Book in a Trilogy

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2019

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First of all, this is the middle book in a trilogy. The author does enough to let the reader know what happens in the first book. Rory is in Bristol with her parents and healing from a knife wound given her by the new Ripper. She is seeing a therapist but having some trouble because she can't tell her the real story of what happened in London. Besides signing the Official Secrets Acts, she has real reason to fear that telling her story will cause her to be committed to a psychiatric facility. After all, being attacked by a ghost is not something that is easily believable.

Rory misses her friends at Wexford and especially misses Stephen, Callum and Boo who worked with her as a member of the Shade Squad whose job was to eliminate troublesome ghosts. Since moving to Bristol, she has lost all contact with them. She has also developed a startling new power. She is a living terminus; touching a ghost causes them to disappear.

Meanwhile, things aren't going well for the tean in London. As a result of their encounter with the Ripper, all three of the terminus that allowed them to remove evil ghosts have been lost or broken. The team is in danger of being disbanded leaving all three of them jobless.

Things are manipulated to get Rory back to London and Wexford and potentially save the team. Returning to London and school has problems for Rory. She is so far behind in her schoolwork and exams are so close that she doesn't have a hope of catching up and passing her exams. And she is more interested in a new mystery in which a nearby pub owner was supposedly bludgeoned to death by one of his employees. Some research tells her that the school and the are were built over a former facility where those with mental illnesses were warehoused. She fears that the battle with the Ripper has opened up a crack that is freeing some of those patients now as ghosts.

Rory is also still having issues regarding the battle too. When the head girl Charlotte raves over the therapist she is seeing, Rory decides to see her too. Jane Quaint is a mysterious character who does seem to have helped Charlotte and who helps Rory too after their first session. But Jane has a hidden agenda that runs counter to the work of the team. Jane wants to isolate Rory from her friends and family in order to fulfill Jane's agenda.

Rescue by the team leads to heartbreaking consequences and also leads to a cliffhanger ending.

Angela Hathaway

Mixed reaction, but overall a worthy endeavor

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2013

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Fair warning, there will be spoilers for a plot development in this book. I'll clearly mark that section, otherwise here we go: I came to this series in an odd manner. I was looking for a different book I'd heard being reviewed on NPR and saw a recommendation for this book on the site. There was no mention of it being Young Adult and specifically because it was an NPR review, it didn't occur to me that it might be. So I purchased the first book, planning to buy this one.

Color me pleasantly surprised there. Yes, it was a Young Adult title, but it was engaging and funny. Rory spent very little time in need of being rescued, and really refreshingly for YA, when she was in trouble, it wasn't some knight in shining armor that came to save her. I eagerly purchased this book, looking forward to a quick, but pleasantly creepy read.

I'm torn here. The antagonist is so thoroughly annoying, and slightly cartoonish (almost literally, the character is described in a manner that sounds like an animated person). Most of the time at Wexford is a bit of a waste of time and I think Johnson makes a mistake in isolating Rory so much from characters that were enjoyable in the first book. Still, it's so fun to see a young woman not wholly defined by an attachment to some brooding boy. Rory is funny, endearing, but clearly traumatized by the events of the first book. It's fitting, but a little plodding. In fairness, it also turns out to be purposeful.

Vague Spoilers for some of the book to follow:

The Shades all felt just a bit off to me. The very beginning when it seems that Rory is being relegated back to her life, cut off from them didn't really fit with the events of the first book. Callum in particular takes a turn for the far too angry at the very end, and that is taking into account the emotional stakes. It just didn't feel entirely organic.

After a slow first half, the book becomes a bit too rushed and then ends very abruptly with a plot choice that made me wince.

Specific spoiler to follow:

Johnson makes a decision at the very end that feels too abrupt and then simply ends the book too quickly. It's not a satisfying conclusion and it feels very much like a dropped call rather than a full story. It just ends on a rather displeasing note that could have easily been avoided. What I think is that Maureen Johnson truly didn't want Rory being defined by a romantic attachment, and I do applaud that. However, this seemed a cruel way to achieve that when a different choice could have been made with the character of Stephen(such as simply having him be uninterested in Rory romantically). Having made the rather abrupt choice, it would have been nice to get a bit more resolution on that.

End to spoilers.

I'd recommend this book, but truthfully I wouldn't recommend reading it until such time as the third book is released. The ending is that abrupt and rather unwelcome. It took a fun, slightly creepy story in The Name of the Star and bled a lot of the fun out of it in The Madness Underneath. That was before it got to the end, and that didn't improve matters, in my opinion. Read when the next is available, I'd say.

Kat Heckenbach

Great writing, frustrating ending

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2015

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If at any point during the first, say, 3/4 of this book you had asked me what I'd rate it, I'd have said five stars. Hands down. The writing is so smooth. I simply *like* Rory as a character. Love the voice, the fact that she really is an average girl, totally easy to relate to. I was sucked in, reading along, just loving it...until, I realized everything I thought was subtly building up to something was not.

The fact is, nothing really happens until the very end, and then it all happens very quickly and unimpressively. This entire book feels like a bridge. Like, well, time needs to pass so *the big ending twist* can happen, and we can actually move into the real story the author had in mind.

It's hard, too, to write about what frustrates me because it's directly related to the end. It truly could have been just as twisty--and would have had MORE impact, if the whole Jane part of the plot had been left out and things focused on Rory and the Shades. That's all I'll say.

I'll still read the next book, because I have a feeling the author will be tying a lot of the loose strings together and despite it all I just love the author's writing. But for now, I'm frustrated with how this one ended--enough to knock two stars off my rating.

Top reviews from other countries

Arkham Reviews

Largely filler

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2017

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I really enjoyed the first entry in this series but, unfortunately, this book disappointed me. In terms of structure, I think it suffered a lot from middle novel syndrome. While The Name of the Star was also slow burning, this book was mostly filler. A lot of the early chapters were designed to bring the reader up to speed with the events of the previous book, and the true plot didn't really kick in this time until three quarters of the way through.

The tone of the novel is also entirely different this time around. The Name of the Star was rather creepy throughout, following the murder spree of a Jack the Ripper copycat. This novel is entirely different. While a couple of ghosts do appear, it's not really a horror story and there is no mystery. When the novel does start to draw together, the implications are intriguing but nothing is resolved in this book. The story ends on an abrupt cliffhanger, leaving The Madness Underneath feeling more like an extended preview of what we can expect in The Shadow Cabinet.

As the ghosts have taken the back seat this time around, the story is more of a character study of Rory. A lot of time is spent following her around, seeing how she copes (or doesn't) with coming to terms with her near-death at the hands of the Ripper and following her daily life as she struggles with school work, goes to therapy and attempts to start a relationship with Jerome. To be fair, these aspects aren't handled too badly. While I was disappointed by the lack of ghosts, I still do love Rory as a protagonist and grew very attached to her through her first-person narrative.

Unfortunately, this came at the expense of all other characters. Rory really is the only true focus of this story. Stephen's band of ghost hunters don't appear very often and the major other characters from last time - Jazza, Jerome, Alistair - all bow out of the plot once their purpose is fulfilled. For me, this was the most unsatisfying thing. All of the supporting cast felt so shallow that I found myself caring less and less about them as the story progressed. By the time the story threw out its final tragic twist, I found it didn't have the emotional impact that it should have done because I was fairly apathetic to every character except Rory.

Anyhow, I will probably read the third novel at some point to see if things improve but I was disappointed by this entry. It's very different to The Name of the Star, losing its creepy atmosphere and flair for the dramatic. If you're looking for another ghost story, I think you'll be disappointed.

Ginny

Good, but Sadly not as Great as Book One

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2013

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See my review of this book, and many more, at TalesfromtheGreatEastRoad.wordpress.com

(Spoilers for book one.)

Surviving a murder attempt is never easy, but for Rory Deveaux it's even harder. Her therapist keeps wanting her to talk about what happened, but how can she? How can you tell anyone that you were attacked by a ghost? Not to mention that she can now, somehow, destroy ghosts just by touching them. Stuck in Bristol with her parents, away from the few other people who truly know what happened, she feels trapped and isolated.

Rory senses freedom when, suddenly, her therapist convinces her parents to send her back to London to resume her studies at Wexford. Reunited with the Shades, a group of secret ghost hunting policemen, Rory is determined to explore the limits of her new abilities, and find some way to deal with everything.

The Madness Underneath is a much more serious book than The Name of the Star. It's main focus is on Rory's recovery - a topic that is portrayed in a painfully realistic manner. I love that Rory has to deal with her issues, that she isn't somehow magically cured overnight. Surviving a murder attempt isn't something that can just be shrugged off in a few weeks, and even when she changes her outlook (that she is a surviver, not a victim) Rory is still struggling to cope. Her school work is falling far behind, she can't talk properly to her friends, and she struggles to make a relationship work. This was easily my favourite thing about this book.

On the other hand, The Madness Underneath had several problems. For one, the pacing was terribly uneven. A plot line about ghosts being unleashed and becoming violent was introduced and developed, but then suddenly dropped without warning, then another about Rory's new therapist became the focus. This plot felt a little tacked on and ruined the flow of the book, and worst of all, wasn't even resolved. Also, it's not explained why or how Rory can destroy ghosts. It suffers from "middle book syndrome" - the book falls flat because the story lines need to be setup but they are left hanging, waiting for the last book to complete everything.

I was also very, very surprised at the fate of one of the main secondary characters. It was sudden and unexpected, and I can honestly say I have no idea where Maureen Johnson will go with it. Though I haven't quite decided how I feel about this, because of this turn, and the brilliant way in which Rory's recovery was handled, I will be reading the third book when it's released. I am interested in seeing where it goes next.

3.5 stars

Robyn

Good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 24, 2014

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I was so looking forward to reading this book as I absolutely loved the first however I was a little disappointed. I don't think it's as gripping as the first book and I was so devastated and annoyed at the ending. It was so infuriating! I was so angry after finishing it.

The story focuses on Rory and how she tries to come to terms with what has happened to her. The character interaction is not as good in this book and some of my favourite characters were hardly in it or only appeared near the end of the book. It was also a little slow and everything seemed to happen suddenly in the last quarter of the book. It is a filler kind of a book and maybe suffers a little because of this.

This isn't to say I didn't enjoy the book, apart from the ending I did. It definitely is not as good as the first book but it was good to see Rory have to deal with what had happen and not just be perfectly okay with everything. I like Maureen Johnson's writing style and the humorous moments in the book.

I guess I am looking forward to reading the next book but that may just be in hope that the cliffhanger of this book will be resolved in a way that won't make me want to rip my hair out. Definitely not as good as the first and could be better but I did still enjoy (most) of it.

Green Goddess

A must read...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2015

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Following on from Book 1 we find ourselves encapsulated in the lives of Rory and her friends as she tries to rebuild her life after the Ripper attack. A Brilliant sequel with a shocking end. Don't hesitate a moment longer, get on and read it...

Robynn Weldon

Not so much a novel as a connecting piece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2017

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I still love the voice, the characters and the concept, but narratively this is a very frustrating book. It doesn't work at all as a standalone. Fortunately I can move right on to the next one...

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