The Madness Underneath (Shades of London, #2)

by Maureen Johnson

[girlinthepages]

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

Lately I’ve been super into binge reading series, so as soon as I finished The Name of the Star, I immediately ordered the next two books from Amazon. I couldn’t get enough of the cold, drippy London setting, the ghost hunting, the unlikely alliances- I was hooked. I anxiously picked up The Madness Underneath hoping to return to Johnson’s unique tale that merged ancient London horror with the quirky and dark Southern roots main character Rory boasts.

While The Madness Underneath picked up fairly soon after the events of the first book, I feel like not a lot happened in this book. There’s this whole reveal with her boarding school, Wexford, being built on top of an old asylum, but I feel like the surface of that premise was barely scratched- instead, it’s very much a book to develop Rory’s character as she struggles with the aftermath of the events of book one, and how to find her place in a world where her priorities have radically shifted. I didn’t mind the lack of action in this book, as I really felt for Rory and what she was going through- being so isolated by her ability and not having anyone to relate too (although her school situation was getting a bit ridiculous- you do have to do your homework AT SOME POINT). The book then all of the sudden ramps up very, very quickly toward the end and while my ship finally sailed, it was overshadowed by a VERY VERY VERY TERRIBLE CLIFFHANGER/PLOT TWIST THAT WAS NOT OK AT ALL. I literally went on at length about how it ended to my poor boyfriend until he finally fell asleep on me but I couldn’t go to bed because I was so shook.

Also, I have to admit, while I definitely understand Rory is reeling from a semester full of trauma, I also felt like she was so sassy and skeptical of everything in the first book and she someone ends up getting manipulated a lot in this book. So while I appreciated all of the character development in this book, I also did find myself feeling like Rory went too far in the “woe is me direction” and become a malleable sheep for plot reasons.

Overall: While not as good as The Name of the Star (which is to be expected, since it doesn’t have the Ripper premise), The Madness Underneath is still a decent installment into the series that allows for a lot of character growth for Rory. Though it functions as a bridge book, I can’t wait to pick up my crisp, new copy of book three off my shelves and satisfy the feels left over from the brutal cliffhanger ending.