The Madness Underneath (The Shades of London Book 2)

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson is the second in Johnson's "Shades of London" series, about Rory Devereaux. She is a teenage girl who stumbles upon (in the first novel, The Name of the Star) a Jack-the-Ripper copycat killer during her first year at a London boarding school, which results in her near death. This may all seem relatively cut-and-dry, but what makes Johnson's plot unique is the inclusion of the "Shades," a small group of ghost hunters that have an integral part to the story.

In The Madness Underneath, due to Rory's experiences in the first novel, she has no one to turn to but the Shades as she attempts to deal with the aftermath of her prior experiences. She is horribly confused, and feels the Shades are the only ones who will understand. At one point she tells herself:
"You can't curl up on the sofa and deny life forever. Life is always going to be a series of ouch-making moments, and the question was, was i going to go all fetal position, or was I going to woman up?"
As Rory grows closer to the members of the Shades, she feels less and less comfortable at the boarding school. She thinks "I felt like I was faking all of this, like I was playing the part of a student. I had the costume and the props, but I didn't really belong here. I'd pinned notes on the stupid corkboard backing of my desk, and I'd highlighted things...But it was all so meaningless."

Then, a new string of deaths begins in London, and Rory and the Shades need to figure out what is going on and why. As the plot begins to spiral out of control, Johnson ends the novel on such a cliff hanger that I would have had a moment à la Pat in Silver Linings Playbook had I not been on an airplane. I immediately looked up to see that the third novel won't be out until 2014, and have resigned myself to wait.

The Madness Underneath is a powerful novel that draws the reader in unexpectedly and easily, which makes the ending that much more difficult to bear. I am very excited to read books three and four in the series. Maureen Johnson is a master at her craft, and I would recommend this book highly to anyone over the age of thirteen or so.

First Thoughts
I heard such great things about the first book in the series, but was still surprised at just how much I enjoyed The Name of the Star. I was really glad to see this sequel on Netgalley and even happier that Harper Collins approved my request for the eARC.

This cover is as beautiful and atmospheric as the first, and works well too as does the tagline. “Bedlam breaks free…” So we I already know to expect some madness underneath, I just wonder where this underneath is.

Plot
The story picks up three weeks after the events in the first book, and Rory’s stuck in Bristol with her parents, who refuse to let her return to Wexford College in London after her near fatal stabbing. Her therapy sessions aren’t working to well as she knows that talking honestly about what happened would only make her seem as though she’s lost a grip on reality.

She does however return to Wexford, but it’s clear her relationship with Jazza and Jeremy have changed. She can’t even be too friendly with her ghost library buddy because something within her has changed – something that would make her very valuable if a lot of people found out about it. She could be a lot of help to the Boo, Callum and Stephen, but Stephen seems determined to keep her from getting into their world, but he can’t totally exclude her when she figures out that a murder committed by someone deemed insane, may have had a paranormal culprit.

The ending shocked me! Rating 4 out of 5

Characters
Rory is as funny as ever, although her focus has totally shifted in this book. Where she was always a good student, even when she thought herself to be falling behind, this time around she’s most definitely falling behind at school – and although that stresses her, she can’t seem to bring herself to truly care. Rory is affected by a general malaise – she can’t be who she truly is if she has to lie to her best friend and her boyfriend, and everyone but Boo, Stephen and Callum. These three friends have the job of fighting malevolent ghosts in London.

Boo and Callum are wonderfully unchanged, although they’re both irritated that there work is currently being hindered. Stephen’s consistently dour, but this time around Rory’s paying a little more attention to him and sees that his stand-offishness is underpinned by a self-sacrificng nature. With a little more probing on Rory’s side, the reader gets to understand him better.

Jazza and Jeremy feel the need to tip-toe around Rory, but it’s really Charlotte who’s changed the most out of Rory’s schoolmates. Rating 4 out of 5

Writing Style
Although the plot worked well for me I found the pace a little slower than the first book and a few scenes dragged – although never enough to make me lose interest. Once Stephen concedes that Rory may be able to help the team, the reader gets to sit back and enjoy their constant verbal sparring. It’s cute and slowly we see that these two opposites – Ms Chatterbox vs Mr Contemplative, Ms Impulsive Vs Mr Planning – do attract. It’s less about an overwhelming attraction and more about a slow build up of friendship and affection.

The bits with the murder and ghosts certainly chilled me, and there’s still a lot of humour that kept me smiling.

I love the descriptions of London and the underground, and there’s quite few hints at mental health in this book. Rory’s feeling the strain of having to lie, Stephen divulges some distressing facts about his family life, and then there’s the ‘mad-guy’ accused of killing someone…not to mention a link to Bedlam and all the therapy sessions. The interesting thing of course is that some of the ‘mad’ people are saner than the supposed ‘sane’ people and that works perfectly. Rating 4 out of 5

Overall
The Madness Underneath is wonderfully titled for a contemplative tale about the stress of not being able to speak your mind, and feeling powerless – and it’s a clever pun about the plot! This novel’s as beautifully narrated as the first book, with witty observations, and foreshadowing that the change Rory’s facing now, is as nothing to the change awaiting her.

I reviewed “The Name of the Star” some time ago and I was not very impressed with it. As an avid Ripper follower I thought I would have gotten into the story rather quickly, but alas all I saw were problems, uninteresting characters, and an evil that made me think of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers (you know, wants to be evil but is really just comical?). When I picked up “The Madness Underneath” it was just because I was determined to continue the series whether I liked it or not. I am a stickler for finishing what I start and this was no exception.

First thing is first, I absolutely love the redesign and matching covers of the two books. It makes the cover whore in me smile. I found this cover to be intriguing and I loved the purple coloring. Next, I noticed that it was not as thick as “The Name of the Star” which I appreciated. Johnson too some of the useless details that she had used in the first novel and was better at delivering the plot of the story. Finally, the characters seemed more personable in this book than the last. I have no clue what happened that changed Rory from irritating ditz to relatable girl but whatever magic Johnson weaved, it worked. I found Rory to be delightful in this. Possibly because she was not the constant victim in this book. She fought back a lot more which made for a nod of pride from me as a reader.

Most of this book was Rory confronting the aftermath of her brush with The Ripper in the first book. It delved into her psychology, which as a psychology major made me extremely happy. I was glad that the budding romance between Stephen and Rory was explored a little more and found myself actually swooning for two characters to finally make a go of things that originally I had detested to the highest regard.

In this book, Rory finds out that not just her psychological stability is shaken from her explosive climax with The Ripper. Apparently the occurrence may have been so traumatic that it also stirred up the long buried ghosts that reside under the foundation of London. It was interesting to watch Rory actually do detective work for herself instead of just following the lead of the Shades. The terminus state of her body made her feel stronger and more confident which led her to be almost stubborn in her determination to be involved with the ghost hunting police squad. Who doesn’t like a girl who won’t take no for an answer? I love empowered female leads and seeing Rory turn into that from the sniveling weakling she seemed in the first book was a welcome change.

In conclusion, this book blew my expectations out of the water. I highly expected to cast this book aside just like the first with a snort and a roll of the eyes. Instead I found myself intrigued, perplexed, and generally happy with the way the book turned out. It is always nice when a series doesn’t continue the way you thought it was going to and turns into a book you enjoyed.

The book was not perfect, but what book is really. Only a select few in my opinion. This one straddled the line between being okay and being impressive. If there were a way to skip over the first book and read this book alone, I would suggest it, but, alas, you must slog through the first to get to the this book otherwise you’d have no clue what is occurring between the characters.

Review Posted on: http://www.ladybugliterature.blogspot.com