Book Review: The Madness Underneath (Spoiler-free)

I've got a bad habit of accidentally giving away spoilers for TV shows and other forms of entertainment, and I have a lot of feelings about this book in particular that I can't talk about without spoiling everything.  So if you have read this book and would like to hear my thoughts on the contents within, I will write an in-depth review/book talk post with spoilers later.

If you have NOT read this book yet, never fear! This review is spoiler free.

I found this book to be very surprising. A lot of things happened that I didn't expect, or turned out differently than I expected. While this turned out to be rather low on action, it was far from slow paced.

I had trouble putting it down, and I read it cover to cover within 2 days. Considering I've been at the halfway point of 4 other books for the last month or two, this was impressive.

However, I must address the fact that this book is not very similar to the first book in the series, The Name of the Star. The Name of the Star was a ghost murder mystery, and while there were some loose ends, it stood well on its own and could have ended there if need be. The Madness Underneath is not another independent installment of the story, it is an introduction setting up the 'big' mystery that will be explored in books 3 and 4. While I understand why this was done this way, I still would have liked more action and less set-up from a second book in a series. I would have preferred if the series had been plotted so that the first book had more of the set-up for the big plot arc, instead of the first book charging ahead at full steam with its own self-contained plot arc, just to hit the brakes come book 2.

I gave this book 4 stars because I really enjoyed Maureen Johnson's writing style, and despite my complaints, I am really excited for the rest of the series. I had been on the fence about owning this series, and finishing this book is what prompted me to go out and buy the first one. I can tell I will be re-reading the series in the future.

You can read my more in-depth review at Goodreads (goodreads.com/ishipmeandbooks), and my spoiler-filled review will be posted later this week.

Happy reading,

Katie