From Goodreads: When madness stalks the streets of London, no one is safe…
There's a creepy new terror haunting modern-day London.
Fresh from defeating a Jack the Ripper killer, Rory must put her new-found hunting skills to the test before all hell breaks loose…
But enemies are not always who you expect them to be and crazy times call for crazy solutions. A thrilling teen mystery.
Warning: There will be slight spoilers for The Name of the Star below!
When I first read The Name of the Star I loved how creepy it was and the fact that it was a completely unique ghost story with an amazing cast of characters who were equal parts entertaining and bad ass.
To say I had high expectations going in to The Madness Underneath would be completely accurate. I expect a lot out of every Maureen Johnson book that I read because I know she is capable of writing amazing things. This book definitely didn't disappoint.
After getting attacked by the Ripper ghost in the bathroom of Wallingford and almost dying, Rory's parents made her leave the school. When the book starts she is staying with her parents, seeing a therapist about the attack and bored out of her mind. Since she can't exactly tell her therapist that she was attacked by a ghost without getting locked up, Rory spends her sessions just sitting there staring into space. I really felt for her throughout the entire book because all she wanted was to get back to her friends.
Luckily for her, Stephen, Boo, and Callum want her back too. So with a little bit of manipulation they convince her therapist, and Rory's parents that the best thing for her is to come back to Wallingford and finish the year. So Rory dives back into the extremely stressful life of dealing with school and ghosts and her now extremely worried parents. At the time I was dealing with the end of the school year and finals too, so again, I just felt bad for Rory. She really struggled with feeling hopelessly behind in this book and that was definitely something I went through this year.
I also really liked the relationship between Rory and Jerome too. They were constantly bantering and calling each other "disgusting" instead of doing normal couple things like saying "I love you". This was a really interesting relationship dynamic to read and it was a great change of pace.
In the sequel, I really liked Stephen's character too. He and Rory spent more time together and I liked getting to see another less uptight side of him. Callum, Boo, and Jazza were also all back in this one and I loved them just as much as I did the first time.
Now, I just have to take a moment to say how NOT OKAY I am with the ending of this book. It was super intense and unexpected and shocking and WOW. Just wow. I need the third book like yesterday because of that cliffhanger ending. Maureen Johnson that was just absolutely evil.
While this book had a slightly different feel than The Name of the Star, I still liked it just as much. Where the first book was much more action packed throughout, this book felt more like a steady, mysterious build-up to a huge explosion at the end. This book was a lot more suspenseful and it left me on the edge of my seat until the very last page.
P.S. Have you followed Rachel and I on Bloglovin' yet? If not, make sure you do because Google Reader is apparently going away soon!
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