Review: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Release Date: February 26, 2013
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

When madness stalks the streets of London, no one is safe…

There’s a creepy new terror haunting modern-day London. Fresh from defeating a Jack the Ripper killer, Rory must put her new-found hunting skills to the test before all hell breaks loose…

But enemies are not always who you expect them to be and crazy times call for crazy solutions. A thrilling teen mystery.

My Thoughts:

After reading The Name of the Star I was really eager to get my hands on the sequel, The Madness Underneath unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations.  It was fun and exciting to a point but I had envisioned something a little more in depth and more ghost based and it was lacking in those areas for me.

This sequel takes off pretty much where The Name of the Star ended.  Rory has just extinguished Jack and is now living with her parents trying to overcome her fears.  She has been seeing a therapist and with her therapists approval Rory gets to final move back to her dorm and attend regular classes.  The story from here gets a little strange and kinda all over the place.  The beginning sub plot was creepy and just what I would expect from Johnson, but it is concluded way to fast and just left by the wayside.  I think if the author would have kept with the whole asylum plot the story would have been fantastic, but to quickly we are thrown into a somewhat boring plot about Rory not keeping up with her classes and her trying to find her place among the ghost hunters.  The story really takes a turn when Rory goes to see Jane, a therapist that Charlotte, her nemesis, is seeing for free.  I didn't quite understand the whole idea behind Jane and her plans, they seemed just strange and well I just didn't buy it completely.  In the end things go down not the way I wanted them too and one of my favorite characters is thrown to the wolves.  I can't believe this book ended the way it did and I have to give the author credit because if it had ended any other way I wouldn't have wanted to continue on with the story.  As it is though I am craving the next one to see if what happened really happened.

So all in all an okay sequel, I think it just falls into that weird second book in a series category that most unfortunately fall into.  It needed more creepy for me, but I have hope that the next book will totally bring it back to the ripperesque quality of the first one.

3 Stars

*ARC was provided by the publisher*