Underneath Everything

by Marcy Beller Paul

• ISBN10: 0062327216
• ISBN13: 9780062327215
• Publish Date: 27 October 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.com.au/9780062327215

Reviews

[Angie]

I have no idea what I just read, but I think I liked it. Underneath Everything is kind of a bizarre trip through a super toxic and questionable friendship. When it starts, Mattie and Kris have already separated themselves from their other two "friends", Bella and Jolene. It's been about a year and a half, and Mattie is itching to get back into the social scene before she graduates. She drags Kris to the bonfire, where she runs into Hudson, the boy she was crushing on and whom Jolene stole. Then the girls head to the after party, where secrets come out, new ones are created, and everything gets rearranged.

Underneath Everything was...I honestly don't know. There's no plot. It's 100% character driven. But even then I had no clue where the narrative was going or what that ending means. Mattie just kind of falls back into her old life. Instead of being just her and Kris like it was for the past year. It's now her and Jolene, despite all of the crap she's done to everyone. That friendship is not a healthy one in any way! The things Jolene does to Mattie are not things you do to a friend, or even an enemy. I don't even know what to call their relationship because it can't be friendship. Although towards the end, lines certainly get blurred between friendship and something more.

I can't really say much about Underneath Everything without spoiling it. These girls carry a lot of secrets and a lot of issues. I had to keep reading to know more! I read it in one sitting. I was expecting something bigger at the end though. Things heat up, and then fizzle out. I'm not quite sure how to feel about it, because my feelings about Mattie and Jolene got so twisted by the end! Do I want them together or apart?! I don't know! Apart is the healthy, logical choice. But together they kind of have something explosive which no one understands. This was just a really weird one for me.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[anne]

Great book on friendship.

[shannonmiz]

This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight
So, I did enjoy the writing in this book. And the character development. And I really think that I will read more from the author, because I enjoyed the style.

But the actual story? I don't quite "get it". I mean, the point has escaped me, if there is one. I will say that the book started out really strong. Mattie had been betrayed by her friend Jolene, who knew she really liked this guy (Hudson) and snuck in and started dating him. Have you been there? I have. It isn't fun. At all. Not only is the dude you're having some hardcore (clearly unrequited) feelings for unavailable, but you've lost your best friend in the process. So while hearing this backstory, I was feeling for Mattie.

She basically disappeared from the social scene until one day, she decides to finally go to a party. And who does she run into? Hudson, of course. And, he is single, what luck! Jolene remains a mystery, though. All we really know is that she is an awful "best friend", and wasn't great to Hudson, or basically anyone. Jolene is not a nice person.

But Mattie is still kind of obsessed with her. And maps, Mattie is also obsessed with maps. I have no idea why. So the story meanders through navigating the social scene Mattie has re-entered, along with finally getting to be with the boy she's wanted to be with forever. And there's talk of Jolene, and how she's influenced Mattie and Hudson's relationship, as well as Mattie and Kris's. I just kept waiting for the meandering to be over, and for us to get into some real plot.

And the whole time I was expecting something really outlandish, some kind of huge twist, or revelation, or.... something. Anything. In the end, I just kind of felt like the story lacked purpose. I kept reading, waiting to find out what the point was, and maybe there is one that I simply didn't understand.

Bottom Line: ::Shrugs:: The writing was nice, and I did have sympathy for Mattie and her situation. I just wish something more had happened, because it just felt like a nicely written glimpse into some girl's life.

*Copy provided by publisher for review.