Book review: Under the Surface by Diana Urban

I am the very first to admit I am a giant scaredy-cat. Most horror will give me such vivid nightmares that sleeping becomes near impossible for me. High gore? I'm out. Jump scares? Absolutely will not engage with that story again. In fact, the only time I will engage with horror is if the story seems worth the anxiety I will inevitably feel. However, reading the book blurb, I knew this was a story that not only could I handle, but I would enjoy.

The Paris Catacombs, in my opinion, are one of the creepiest places on Earth. A person could offer me a million dollars to go down there, and I would turn down that life-changing money in a heartbeat. Between the walls of bones, the suffocating darkness, and the many ways to get lost in a way you'll never be found, it feels like a real-life horror story waiting to happen. Which is why it makes for the perfect setting of this novel. Diana Urban does an amazing job at making the Paris Catacombs come to life - sometimes literally! The way she writes the endless tunnels makes them seem smaller and smaller - as the reader gets more claustrophobic the longer our characters stay in the tunnels. This book is a study of how a setting can best serve suspense, with it being clear Diana Urban researched to make her descriptions as realistic as humanly possible.

In addition to a completely terrifying setting, the novel plays with many traditional horror tropes. As stated above, I don't do this genre very often, so I found the use of these tropes incredibly comforting. They provided just enough future knowledge to where I could put together clues and theories to keep my mind from flying off the rails, while there were still plenty of surprises that made the novel not feel too predictable. It can be a delicate balance, and I think there may be too much trope reliance for some readers. However, I found this to be a fantastic way to enrich the story, and kept me wondering what would happen next.

While the majority of the story takes place underground, the secondary plotline of the novel shows what is happening to those who didn't wander into the catacombs. These parts read more like a mystery and allow the reader to better understand how these sorts of cases are investigated. I also found these cutaways from the catacombs helped me with my ability to process the novel, as these allowed me to catch my breath, focus on the clues, and wonder whether any of the people above ground would even think the girls had gone away to the catacombs.

While outside my normal genres, I was so glad to have read this book. Between the engaging setting, the fun blend of mystery and horror, and the characterization, I feel like this is a fun YA book for people who are either too scared for adult horror or for teenagers looking to dip their toes in the genre. While I hadn't read any of Diana Urban's previous work before this book, I plan on going back and reading the rest of her novels. Her writing is amazing and took me on an adventure through somewhere I dare not go in real life.

Under the Surface is available for preorder through Penguin Random House and will be released on August 13, 2024.