Maureen Johnson

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

The Madness Underneath (Shades of London, Book 2)

After her near-fatal run-in with the Jack the Ripper copycat, Rory Devereaux is back in London to help solve a new string of inexplicable deaths plaguing the city.

The Madness Underneath

Nessa Luna

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

When I read the first book in this series, I was hooked. A killer copying the murders of Jack the Ripper (which I have always found an interesting subject), a girl who can see ghosts and a secret ghost-fighting team. I loved it! So I was trilled to find out it was a series, and I was even more thrilled when I found out the second book was out already. I didn’t buy it until last month though, because there were so many other books that I wanted to read, and I just kept this book on my wishlist, until last month when I though tit might be a good idea to finish some of the series that I had started.

I had hoped for a little bit more action, like in the last book, when they confront the Ripper-copycat, but this book was mostly about Rory getting back to Wexford and getting back to her normal life (and failing miserably). I was really happy when Boo, Callum and Stephen came back into the picture, because I really liked them in the previous book.

Eventually, the action started to happen, and I got more and more excited about this book. There wasn’t a lot of ‘big’ action like in the last book, but the last couple of pages made me sob like a small child whose ice-cream had just fallen on the ground. This only made me want to read the third book even more, even though that won’t come out until March next year (!!!!!!)

Out of all the characters, and not counting the ghost-squad (aka Boo, Callum and Stephen), I liked Jazza the most, because she was just so relaxed around Rory, not really fuzzing about her, and I just liked the fact that she knits when she’s nervous (I just like people who have the patience to knit). Charlotte got her place in the ‘characters I like’ category as well, because she changed since the last book (I guess that bang in the head did something good to her). And I just felt pretty bad for her during the last parts of the book, (view spoiler)[she got abducted by these crazy people and they still haven’t found her by the end of the book, and I hope that she’s alright because omg. (hide spoiler)]

Like I said earlier, the last couple of pages made me cry, and I think people who’ve read the book know what I am talking about, and I just have one question for the writer: Why?! WHY?!?!?!?!?!

There wasn’t really anything I disliked about the book, except maybe for the lack of action, but hey you can’t have everything you like in one book!

Elisa Bieg

I am SO mad right now. So, so mad.

I don’t often get mad at my books. Annoyed, disappointed, bored, exasperated, in eye-rolling mode... those are relatively frequent emotions (if we want to explore the negative end of the spectrum. There are happier ones, too. But we are 
  nowhere
 near them right now.)

I liked the premise of this series. I liked it a lot. It has a lot of elements of dark academia, without being quite that dark.
And it has a supernatural element. And a young X-Files sort of police force. And a charming mess of a girl as an MC.
All good.

The first book was interesting and a fun read. Not excellent, but very promising. 
It was a given I would continue.

In comes this book. A little dull, frankly. Just chugging along, weirdly paced... we can see more or less where it is going. And then in the last 80 pages it all goes down! Excitement! Surprises! Cute moments we thought we’d have to wait a bit longer for!! Yessssss.... but NO. 
Because DOOM hits. And it’s bad.

*takes deep shaky breath, tries to regain composure*

It’s so bad. Worse than you are thinking. And honestly I think it’s a cheap shot, and it feels like something added just for shock value, in a book that was 
  just a shade above humdrum.


I’m sad. And mad. And disappointed. And mad. 
I don’t know if I will continue reading this series, but it won’t be any time soon. 

I don’t know if I’m rounding up or down, but I’m giving this 3 STARS.

jess

WOW. wow. wow wow okay so i read the name of the star like like a freaking long while ago and i spotted the name of the star and its sequel book the madness underneath in the library so i thought why the hell not. now i don’t even like paranormal books under normal circumstances, but i enjoyed these the first time around. 

a bit about name of the star first. it would have worked very well as a stand-alone novel and i was a little hesitant to read the second one because the first one was so good, but this one. oh, man, this one stepped it up a lot. 

the jack the ripper thing was completely done way with but following that was something even worse and entirely more creepy. oh, god. i’m not going to spoil it but i did not see that coming. i did see a little bit coming, like the fact that rory was going to kiss stephen, but i did not see the other thing about stephen coming. (i also know what the coma scale is hahahahahaahahahahahaha ease the pain of this book hahahahaahah)

so let’s see. i liked jazza a lot in the first book and was kind of sad that she seemed to be more absent in this one, but it makes sense, because jazza is supposed to be “normal” and rory is not. i did not like jane. i thought she was really creepy and warning lights rang in my head some of the time when she was onscreen, and i should have paid more attention to those warning lights. 

i liked the portrayal of post traumatic stress. rory’s voice is great and she really manages to get it across well. i liked charlotte a lot, actually, a lot more than i did in the first book. (cliffhanger oh god cliffhanger.)

now, the plot. it started out slow and then started escalating, slow at first, and then it shot up. it shot up and i did not see that coming, and then things happened and there was barely any rest until the book ended and i’m really anxious for the next one and i don’t even like ghosts. 
see, this book is just - oh god. i’m catatonic with anxiety. 

i guess i’d recommend this for anyone who likes paranormal, because it is a really good paranormal book, wow, and it’s like a 9.5/10, because while it was not perfect, it was very very close. like, seriously.

maya <3

finally finished this book after a month :,) that’s how much it bore me- rory was insufferable this book, she’s generally boring but this book made her 10x worse. there was almost 0 actual plot, 90% of it was rory going on and on about the reaper attack and giving us her pointless thoughts about stupid bs. the only thing that made this book worth finishing was stephen, callum & boo & some cute moments between rory  and stephen. idk if i’m gonna even read the third book cause i enjoyed the first one quit a bit but this one was just so boring and hard to get through. the only good side is that it’s short, almost 300 pages but even then it took me a month because of how much i didn’t wanna read this. if the point of this book was to give us more chill rory moments, i would be fine with that had maureen made her actually likeable

Jessica Williamson

3.25

Y'all, I'm not even sure anything happened in this book? I mean, I know there were a couple of plot points and that weird ass twist ending that I am NOT here for, but it was just . . . blah. 

Also I guess I just realized this isn't a trilogy and it's been approximately a decade and the series hasn't been finished yet. Why do y'all let me do this shit to myself?

cover 4; characters 3; plot 2; pace 4; writing 4; enjoyment 3.

Laura Springall

I don't have too much to say about this. I feel like the plot could have been more exciting. But I still love the characters. I wasn't expecting that thing that happened at the very end to happen. And I'm really quite sad because that character is my favourite character and also part of my OTP so.
I still don't like Rory very much, especially in this book. Everything she did just made me so mad. Like why?? Why would you do that you stupid person you???! Gaaahh
And of course, as always Maureen Johnson's writing is fantastic. I love her description, and her dialogue is hilarious! One of my favourites "the wibbliness got wibblier." I still laugh about that XD

Ashley shackelford

The New York Times bestseller! A new threat haunts the streets of London… Rory Deveaux has changed in ways she never could have imagined since moving to London and beginning a new life at boarding school. As if her newfound ability to see ghosts hadn’t complicated her life enough, Rory’s recent brush with the Jack the Ripper copycat has left her with an even more unusual and intense power. Now, a new string of inexplicable deaths is threatening London, and Rory has evidence that they are no coincidence. Something sinister is going on, and it is up to her to convince the city’s secret ghost-policing squad to listen before it’s too late.

The Madness Underneath (Shades of London, Book 2)

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