Under the Surface by Diana Urban
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Under the Surface is the latest Thriller from one of my go-to YA authors, Diana Urban. I have been soooooo freaking excited about this one. I love Urban’s stories and synopsis for this sounded hella fun.
Teens trapped in the Paris Catacombs, yes, please!
This story follows Ruby and Sean, two teens enjoying Paris on a class trip. Ruby and Sean are good friends, but lately their feelings for each other have started to lean in a more romantic direction.
They’re both excited to escape from their regular lives for a bit and experience the City of Light together. It doesn’t get any more romantic than that.
Their romantic aspirations are derailed, however, when Ruby’s best friend, Val, sneaks away on the first night to meet up with a French boy she had met earlier in the day.
Not wanting Val to get in trouble, Ruby goes after her, hoping to bring her back before getting caught. In an unfortunate set of events, Ruby ends up reining other classmates, Selena and Olivia, into her endeavor.
When they find Val, she’s with the mystery boy and he has an enticing offer; the chance to attend an exclusive party underground in the infamous catacombs of Paris.
This intricate maze of galleries and tunnels were once used by the city as a way to house their dead, due to serious health concerns regarding overflowing cemeteries. It’s believed that over 6-million bodies were stored there.
As you can imagine, these catacombs are fascinating to many people. The girls weren’t immune. They were dying to explore this underground tunnel system.
Unable to find the party and feeling like they are being watched, and worse, possibly chased, the crew of teens end up hopelessly lost under the surface.
Up above, Sean is the first to suspect that something may be seriously wrong. It’s not like Ruby to disappear without telling anyone. Certainly not overnight. He won’t rest until the adults start to him seriously and begin a search.
And if they won’t, he’ll find her himself.
This book sucked me in pretty quickly. I loved the idea of these teens being in Paris on a Senior Trip and then having the ultimate misadventure. I had no idea how stressful it would become though.
Originally, I rated this 3.5-stars and rounded up to 4, mainly because it did slow down a bit for me in the 2nd-half; that being my only critique, that it’s a tiny bit too long.
With this being said, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, so decided a straight 4-star rating was more true to my experience.
I feel like Urban did a sensational job building the tension in this story. The level of claustrophobia and panic I started to feel, it was real.
Even considering being in the place of Ruby, Val, Olivia, or Selena, OMG, I can’t even imagine how horrifying it would be. Sometimes when I was reading, I had to get up and walk around, to stretch and take a break. It got that stressful, all whilst remaining entertaining.
The interpersonal drama is very YA, but it is a book for Teens, so what else would we expect. It fits the target audience. Also, that never bothers me. If it did, I wouldn’t gravitate towards YA books so often.
I do feel Urban did a great job making these characters relatable as well. They’re all going through different struggles common to the Teen experience. If anything, that should only help to connect Readers more with this story and the nail-biting events contained herein.
The things that happened in the catacombs, it got wild. Urban took it in a direction I wasn’t expecting. For me, I wouldn’t say I disliked the direction it took, but once certain things were revealed, I was slightly disappointed.
In saying this, I am not really critiquing the book, it’s not my story to tell and it’s 100% personal taste, but I just wish it hadn’t gone down certain paths, if you will.
Because of this, the first half was stronger for me than the second, however, I do think overall this is still an exciting YA Thriller, toeing the line into Horror. It succeeded in making me feel claustrophobic almost the whole way through!
Thank you to the publisher, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for YR, for providing me with a copy to read and review.
I feel like this is Urban’s most adventurous work to date. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us next!!