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    The Madness Underneath
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    The Madness Underneath
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    The Madness Underneath
    Ebook286 pages3 hours

    The Madness Underneath

    By Maureen Johnson

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateMar 28, 2013
    ISBN9780007432288
    Author

    Maureen Johnson

    Maureen Johnson is the bestselling author of several novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, the Truly Devious series, the Suite Scarlett series, and the Shades of London series. She has also written collaborative works such as Let It Snow with John Green and Lauren Myracle and the Bane Chronicles with Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan. Maureen lives in New York and online on Twitter @maureenjohnson or at maureenjohnsonbooks.com. 

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    Reviews for The Madness Underneath

    3.5/5

    283 ratings36 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This installment felt chaotic and disappointed in itself. It is so clearly the beginning / middle of a story with absolutely nothing resolved at the end, very different from the first book. There were moments when the vernacular was overdone, stretching for believable speech and not quite reaching it.
    • 4/5
      I was entirely unprepared for this one. I enjoyed the first book, it was fun and had what I thought was a great idea behind it. This one started a little slow and went to a weird place that I didn't expect. Then those last 30 pages or so. I was not prepared for that and for what it did. I'm not going to spoil it, but I will say have all the books there with you. You'll want to jump straight into book three.
    • 3/5
      This wasn't a second book so much as a setup for the final book, though it did keep my interest and I enjoyed reading it. Johnson's writing is (as usual) very funny, though I didn't enjoy the plot (or lack thereof) or twist ending that much.
    • 4/5
      After her encounter with the ghost of Jack the Ripper a few weeks ago, Rory is in therapy, resisting every minute of it. She jumps at the chance to return to school, and to London to the young, ghost-hunting police. But school isn't holding her interest, as she gets drawn further into the ghost world.Not as good as the first one, but not bad. The school aspect is pretty marginal here.
    • 4/5
      The Madness Underneath picks up where the Name of the Star left off. Rory has been making a slow recovery from the Jack the Ripper copycat, and is finally allowed to return to school in London. There she is reunited with the Shades, those who help with ghost-fighting. She eventually shares with them that during the Ripper incident, she became the Terminus--a means for which ghosts can be destroyed. When another mysterious murder happens close to the school, Rory is suspicious that a ghost, and not the man accused of committing the murder is responsible. Investigation leads the others to believe in the possibililty, but Rory's world is about to go poof when the school threatens to expel her. She is lead to a "therapist" who tries to help her out, but things aren't always as they seem, and Rory soon discovers that the therapist is partly responsible for the murder, among other things. When Rory is kidnapped, the Shades come to her rescue, which is where this book ends, to be continued in another in the series.
    • 3/5
      Book 2 in Shades of London. Rory is recovering from her encounter with the ghost that tried to kill her while dealing with the fact that she's now the only terminus, a device that can "kill" ghosts. Unable to catch up with her schoolwork and struggling with her relationships, Rory sees a new therapist who seems to help. New ghost murders draw her back in to the ghost hunting group.
    • 4/5
      Summary: After her near-fatal run-in with a knife-wielding (and very pissed off) ghost, Rory Deveaux has taken some time off from the prestigious London boarding school to recuperate. She's seeing a therapist, but she can't ever say what's really on her mind: not only was she attacked by a ghost, but since the attack, she seems to have become a human terminus - able to end a ghost's existence with a mere touch. When her therapist suggests she return to London, and to school, Rory is eager at the chance to get back to her normal life. But now she's behind in her schoolwork, her friends and boyfriend are acting skittish around her, she can't make contact with the other members of the London ghost-hunting police, and there are a string of bizarre deaths that Rory knows are somehow connected to what happened between her and the Ripper.Review: The Madness Underneath was a quick read, and on the whole I enjoyed it, but it suffered from a bad case of middle-of-the-trilogy-itis. The Name of the Star had a lot of disparate elements going on, but it told a single cohesive story, even with the twists and turns. The Madness Underneath, on the other hand, didn't really have a central plot thread (other than "Rory tries to readjust to normal life") tying all of its pieces together. The result was that the book felt pretty scattered, with sections that I thought were going to be important to the plot fizzling away into nothing, and sections that seemingly came out of nowhere being used mostly to set up the next book. Unfortunately, the pieces of the book that I most enjoyed - the investigations with the Shades, and the visit to Bedlam (y'know, the parts that involved actual ghosts) - were seemingly in the former category. They may become important again in the next book, I don't know, but they're dismissed pretty quickly and mostly ignored for the back half of this book.This scattered storytelling also made it difficult to get really emotionally invested in Rory's problems. She's at school, she's with the Shades, she's back at school, now there's a bunch of new characters - it felt like the relationships that Johnson wanted us to care about weren't really given enough screen time to develop. It also didn't help that for the last chunk of the book, Rory was acting extremely, extremely dumb. Rory is not depicted as particularly brainy, but neither is she dumb, and yet kept doing the “I have absolutely no qualms at all about this extremely suspicious and qualm-inducing situation” thing that absolutely drives me bonkers. But all-in-all, even though the pieces didn't work together particularly cohesively, it was still a fun and easy read. Johnson can write snarky dialogue (or snarky internal monologue) very well, and this book did have a more distinctly London-y feel than its predecessor, which I appreciated. I'll certainly read the third book when it comes out, in hopes that she can tie together all of the various threads established in this one. 3.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Not a stand-alone, and with a cliffhanger-y ending, so I'd actually recommend waiting until the last book is out before reading (or re-reading?) the series. But it's good fun for fans of modern YA and/or ghost stories.
    • 4/5
      I didn't realize this was a book two until I started reading it, but the author did a nice job providing back ground information. I certainly could read it and was given enough of a context that I had some idea of what happened in book one. Rory heads back to her private school after trying to recover from her encounter with Jack the Ripper. Rory has the sight, the ability to see ghosts, which has recently been enhanced into the ability to dispatch of ghosts to make them cease to be. She's affiliated with a super secret police branch of those who work with ghost related crimes. While she's back at school on a trial basis for the last three weeks of the term, she does almost nothing in terms of school related work. She does, however, do a remarkable amount of sneaking around especially in light of the fact that the school has increased security on her account. She's torn in trying to understand her gift. She meets a strange psychologist who seems to put her at ease in addition to her continuing work with Stephen. A thriller that moves that action along, but is definitely a setup for the next installment in the series.
    • 4/5
      Rory returns to Wexford school in London while trying to recover from her recent attack by the Ripper ghost and to cope with new-found powers gained in the first book of this series, The Name of the Star. This book really picks up traction in the second half and ends with a great cliffhanger, leaving the reader wondering what will happen in the next book. The Shades of London series is recommended for fans of The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater and the I Hunt Killers series by Barry Lyga.
    • 5/5
      It looks like I'm going to have to keep on loving Maureen Johnson. I've read -- and enjoyed -- her realistic fiction books like 13 Little Blue Envelopes, The Last Little Blue Envelope and The Bermudez Triangle. She's easily a go-to author for a great book.Johnson's first paranormal series (after Devilish, an unrelated stand-alone was released in 2006) started in 2011 with In the Name of the Star. See my review here.In the Name of the Star brought New Orleans teenager Aurora "Rory" Devereaux to London's Wexford Academy for her last year of school. It also brings back Jack the Ripper . . . or what appears to be Jack the Ripper.[spoilers for ItNotS below] After a run-in with the Jack the Ripper copycat that nearly killed her, Rory's stuck-in Bristol under the ever watchful eye of her parents. Away from Wexford, Boo, Callum, Stephen, everything that's come to be her life while in England, Rory's going a bit stir crazy. When her therapist suggests she return to London, it's somewhat intimidating, but also incredibly welcome.While the Ripper may be gone, London is not yet safe and sound. Unexplained deaths are occurring and it may be up to Rory to uncover how their linked -- and convince the Shade (the city's secret, ghost-fighting force) of the connection. All while still dealing with the events that very nearly cost her her life and the changes it brought.The Madness Underneath is very much a sequel to In the Name of the Star. While you can read this second book without having a great memory of what happened in the first (or where it left things), you'll probably be lost on a few things if you haven't read it at all. There's not a lot of recap. There was also quite a bit more character development in Name of the Star and you'll feel more for those characters -- Jazza, Alistair, etc -- if you 'know' them better.Which is all not to say that The Madness Underneath is not amazingly fantastic because oh how much it is. It's just much more fantastic if you've set everything up well for yourself by reading In the Name of the Star first.I love that the plot of this book is so different from the first and yet is so similar. This is very much a series but definitely not a series using a formula for its books. There is cohesion with the characters, the world's that created (the Shade, the ghosts, how all of that works), but a lot of great newness. The new characters that are introduced in The Madness Underneath and the role they play in the story seems a bit different, at first. The way that it all plays out is something, though. This one has an ending that I want taken back or changed . . . and then I don't because I want to see where it goes in the next book . . . and then I'm back to wanting it changed. We shall see.
    • 4/5
      The first book in this series surprised me because it was so good, so I have been excitedly waiting to the second book (this book) to be released. It didn't disappoint. The story evolves quite a bit with Rory making some very big decisions and changes in her life, as well as venturing into romance for the first time. She is learning more about her abilities, especially her unique ability to banish ghosts, and she also begins to see that not everyone can be trusted and that she needs to make some choices about who are really her friends and who may be just using her for her abilities. Everything is not as clear cut as she'd like, which is so true of life in general...something many young people grow to learn as they mature and face difficult decisions in their lives. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!
    • 3/5
      Very much the second of a trilogy. I enjoyed it a lot but it mostly felt like set-up to take you from The Ripper storyline from the first book through to this bigger ghost story. Looking forward to the final book.
    • 4/5
      The second book in the trilogy finds Rory returning to school after the Ripper attack and to new mysteries. I enjoyed the book immensely, although I am now waiting on the 3rd book to find out what happens.
    • 4/5
      I just have to get this out of my system... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

      After the first book, I wasn't expecting much from this book. It would have been wrong for this one to be as twisted and creepy as the first, it would have been too much. But it stays in the same unique universe.

      But I wasn't expecting that. Or that. Or that.

      Although at times The Madness Underneath feels like a filler, a space between the first and third books when nothing too much *can* happen, it is great in its own right. I don't think you could easily read this book without having read the first.

      I wish that Rory could have perhaps gone back to Alistair and explained her reactions. It's like he was mentioned once and forgotten about and now it seems very unlikely that he'll ever be mentioned again.

      I liked that Rory's life was falling apart. It should have been falling apart after what happened to her. I didn't like that the school didn't really make any concessions for her BEING STABBED AND ALMOST FREAKING KILLED! Surely her exams could have been postponed until the very end of term? Exams are usually at the very end of term anyway.

      In my head I pictured creepier scenes. I pictured a ghostly face peering from the crack in the basement wall, and instead it was a slightly less creepy he's-behind-you.

      I can't wait for the next one though, I *need* to know what comes after that ending! Shades of London might not be the best series out there, but I am hooked. Please have more than 3 books, Maureen Johnson, I could read of this creepy, unique world forever.
    • 4/5
      The ending was completely shocking. Really twisted this in some interesting turns. Rory is a solid protagonist even if she makes poor choices sometimes.
    • 4/5
      Make sure you have read the first one, as this one picks up where the first ends.
      And zooms really fast along, without catching you up much.
      All the things I really loved about The Name of the Star are still in place- in terms of the characters, and the really interesting way ghosts and spookiness work.

      And then... I was reading and reading and turning pages and there weren't any more pages to turn! But I have maddening questions, lots and lots of them.

      So, possibly a good idea to wait until you have the third book in hand, or you will read the last page, and say WHAAAAAAAAAAT???? really loudly in a subway car full of people who will be confused.
    • 4/5
      Rory's still recovering from her near death at the hands of a ghost, but decides she wants to go back to school...which was where she was attacked. Granted, she's less eager to get back to school as she is to see Boo, Callum and Stephen, members of a secret police department, all of whom, like her, can see and speak with ghosts. But then, more people begin dying. And Rory's failing classes. And she doesn't know what to do about her newest ability. And this book will end on a cliffhanger that will make you want to throw it across the room.Read it anyway. :)
    • 2/5
      I liked the first Shades of London book quite a bit and I was looking forward to this one, the length of time it sat on my shelf between purchase and reading notwithstanding. That's how things go around here.With the utmost respect for the author and others who may disagree with my opinions, here are the things I didn't like about this book, in no particular order:1. The amount of space dedicated to reminding me what happened in book one.2. The geography factor. I'm dumb at maps. (I know, that's me and not the book. Oh well.)3. The mystery referenced in the title is not fully resolved.4. I'm mixed on the main character's quirky side stories. Pro: they were amusing and built up her unique teen voice. Con: they were distracting and bounced me out of London and into Louisiana a bit too often.5. The cliffhanger ending. (I'm not spoiling it, I'm just sayin'.)However, the all-telling question is this: will I buy the next book in the series?Sigh. Yes. Of course.
    • 3/5
      This book was OK....but I don't think I'll be reading the next one to follow. I've given it a 3/5 because it was simply OK. It wasn't horrendous, but I did not enjoy reading it as much as the first instalment.*SPOILER ALERT* I feel as though it has fallen from an interestingly based criminal series to one of conspiracy. I would have much preferred the author explore the possibilities of crime by ghosts rather than take the (seemingly) more easy rode of chalking it up to a secret society which intends to take over the world.Also, I felt the main character's conviction and smarts slip in this instalment, pandering to her blonde, southern-belle stereotype a lot more. I had been glad to find a YA novel which depicted a strong female lead (even if she was obviously still coming into her own, given she IS a teen) that challenged these stereotypes, both to the readers and to the international characters she came into contact with in the book.
    • 4/5
      I sure hope there's a third book...
    • 1/5
      I enjoy the smoked typography on the cover, like the shiny cover.Had too high expectations over the book and the story...but this is the middle, the middle book of a trilogy. I found the story not much moving and getting back to the point a where it left the first book.The story in The Madness Underneath is about Rory being sent to live in Uk with her parents and having psychologist sessions once/twice a week where she talks random stuff just to let the sessions be, but obviously she is not going to talk about what happen in Real, being stabbed by a ghost. She lives undercover and she is so bored, so bored that she spits the idea to her psychologist she is ok, she feels ready to go back and start to live again, but that's the moment where the psychologist plays a crazy thought and suggest to her parents Rory seems to be ready to face the situation back and it would be the best for her to return home...Her parents are slightly against, but then they do move and she is sort of thrown back into High School's last year and exams approaching... She still sees ghosts and nothing has changed, she is back and meets the rest of the team, but her emotional state throughout the book is - floating, throughout the whole book - Rory is emotionally distressed, the reader gets a lot of self-thinking from Rory's side, it is as the title suggests - smooth surface and smiling faces, but the madness underneath. The one star rating is because I found it boring, I could not connect to any of the characters. I had high expectations, but I couldn't make sense - the story purpose for where the book was going, what message was it carrying. I found the part with Ripper and the actions lame, without depth and lacking the atmosphere. I am going to skip reading the last book in the series.
    • 4/5
      I would like to give this book five stars and still may, once I get over the disappointment of the ending.

      Rory is an excellent character. I enjoyed reading the narration, which is both smart and funny, a very pleasant change from some of the angsty-YA novels that I've read lately in which the narrator is whiny and inarticulate.

      This novel is a roller coaster, with some situations that surprised me, and then the ultimate scene that I found to be a let-down, and I am going to think about that scene to try to determine why Johnson felt it necessary for the novel and the continuation of the story.
    • 4/5
      A wonderful book! But I did not like the ending and I cannot wait until the next book in the series comes out.
    • 3/5
      After reading the first book in this series, The Name of the Star, I was really excited to get to know the characters better in the next installment. Unfortunately, I felt like everything I liked about the first book was missing in the sequel. The plot was forced and awkward and the villain situation was absolutely ridiculous and not believable at any point. The murder that opens the entire book is completely unimportant. The main character felt whiny and annoying and I never thought that in the first book. How is she surprised that she's failing her classes when she hasn't done a single tiny bit of work? What did she think was going to happen? All the characters that were important in the first book are pushed to the background, including the roommates and most of the special squad. It felt like they were added in as an afterthought instead of a driving force.BOTTOM LINE: The plot fell flat for me and I don't think I'll continue with the series. **A huge part of my complaint about this book probably goes back to the narrator of the audio version. I read a hard copy of the first book but listen to the second one and the narrator was just not a good fit. Her voice was fine, but she insisted on doing accents for every character. The biggest problem I had was that the main character is southern, but every time she's thinking or narrating her part it's in a regular American accent, and then when she speaks out loud to another character she has a thick southern accent. It was completely inconsistent and jarred me every single time.
    • 5/5
      STEPHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!! What happened to youuuuuuuuu??? OMG you can't be dead!!!!!!
    • 4/5
      Many thanks to netgalley.com!

      I am again reminded why I love Maureen Johnson! Stir in some horror/suspense and it makes it that much better.

      This series can only get better.
    • 4/5
      Maureen Johnson! I'm so angry with you right now because I loved this book, but it ended on a cliffhanger and now I have to wait seven months for the next one to come out. Why would you do this agonizing thing to me? Seriously though, this book pushes Rory's story along in a way I really enjoyed. I cannot wait for the next to come out.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed it, but it was very much a "bridge" book-dedicated to setting up the plot for the third. I love the series and Rory, though, and look forward to the next book!
    • 2/5
      Why do authors feel the need to fuck with our hearts? Why Stephen? Who not fucking Jerome or Charlotte?
    • 3/5
      The first chapters were a little dull but the ending made up for it.