The Madness Underneath review

The Madness Underneath (Name of the Star #2)
Maureen Johnson
28th March 2013
HarperCollins Children's Books

After her near-fatal run-in with the Jack the Ripper copycat, Rory Devereaux has been living in Bristol under the close watch of her parents. So when her therapist suddenly suggests she return to Wexford, Rory jumps at the chance. But Rory's brush with the Ripper touched her more than she thought possible: she's become a human terminus, with the power to eliminate ghosts on contact. She soon finds out that the Shades—the city's secret ghost-fighting police—are responsible for her return. The Ripper may be gone, but now there is a string of new inexplicable deaths threatening London. Rory has evidence that the deaths are no coincidence. Something much more sinister is going on, and now she must convince the squad to listen to her before it's too late.

In this follow-up to the Edgar Award-nominated The Name of the Star, Maureen Johnson adds another layer of spectacularly gruesome details to the streets of London that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

The Madness Underneath is, in my honest opinion, just as good (if not better) than its predecessor. Although I think that there were some problems, overall I really enjoyed it and I nearly died at that ending. Seriously. I was REELING.


When we meet Rory at the beginning of The Madness Underneath, she's not the same girl she was, and understandably so. I think that it's fair to say that she'd been through a tough time in The Name of the Star, but if you thought it was going to get any easier for her, you were wrong. There's much more trouble abound. (And yes, I am trying really freaking hard not to spoil anything for you here!)

I really liked Rory in this book. I liked the fact that she was still suffering (not in a weird way, but because it would be kind of weird if all of that stuff had happened and she was just fine and got straight on with life). I liked seeing her start to recover and grow. Plus, there was still a bit of snark from her. There's plenty of Jazz, Boo, Callum and Stephen in this book, too, and they're even better than they were in the first book. I just really love those guys, and I need to know what happens with them in the next book just for the sake of my mental health.

I'm going to quickly say this now, but I don't think that the actual ghost plot worked out that well in this book. That's not to say that I thought it was bad, because it wasn't, but it wasn't as good as The Name of the Star in my opinion. I didn't feel like it was as creepy or that there was as much of a threat, that being said I think that might have been because there was a lot more concentration on Rory as she tried to deal with what had happened to her. Still, I do hope that in the next one shit will go down, and that it will be more creepy and ghostly than ever.

There are many other interesting developments that happen over the course of this book, though, I must say. I can't say too much, but you should really look out on the romance front when reading this, because Maureen made something happen that I didn't even realise I needed to happen until it happened and then the book ends and it's EVIL. I realise that none of that really made any sense, but as soon as you read it you will know exactly what I mean. Just, THAN ENDING. I will never be over it. Unless the next book as an even more evil ending, which would just be cruel. 

Sorry that this has been a bit short and vague, but it's really hard to talk about without saying too much! What I will say is: READ THESE BOOKS.