[Review] The Madness Underneath; Maureen Johnson

Release Date: February 26, 2013
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Format: Hardcover (gift from Grandmom!)/

Summary from Goodreads:
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.

What I thought: Okay, when I saw MJ in Decatur, she asked the crowd to not say any words, or spoil anything, but just make a sound if anyone had finished the book yet. There were about, oh, 10 of us who had the book finished, and it sounded like a beached whale taking its last breath. Just, in general, sort of a disgruntled uuuunnnnnngggggghhhhh.

This is not to say that this book isn’t REALLY FREAKING GOOD, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that this book managed to get inside my chest, root around, dig out my heart, toss it in a blender, and then serve it to me under the pretense of a strawberry milkshake.

I really loved this book. I loved it a lot. It didn’t have that thing where the second book in a series always is the worst? It definitely lived up to the standard set by The Name of the Star, and gave the upcoming third book, The Shadow Cabinet, a LOT to live up to. I’m even more excited now about this series than I was before, and Maureen’s talent just keeps getting better.

The only downside to this novel is that the third book is “Expected 2014,” and there’s still a fourth to eventually follow.

Read this if: you are a human person, because everyone should. (If you like ghost stories, if you like history based stories, if you enjoy having your heart ripped out of your chest and dangled in front of you like a carrot in front of a horse, if you are interested in London.)

Out of 5: 5/5
This is book 20/120 for 2013