Underneath is a book with a very dark premise although it wasn’t as predictable as it might have been from the blurb. Although we are introduced to the darker reveal of a woman trapped downstairs in the cellar right from the very first chapter, we are left to ponder this as the book takes a more meandering, flash-back approach to the story. We learn all about Steve and his relationship with the flighty Liesel for a good 60% of the book – the origins and their ups and downs. This was a great way to give us character development and as a result the characters are well-rounded and we get a deep insight into their personalities and feelings. There are also quite a few twists including an major assumption which is shattered by a huge turn of events later in the plot (no spoilers!) My main criticism with the book was that Steve and Liesel are completely unlikable. Steve in particular is very oddly written; he obsesses about a character that Liesel makes up and only ever mentions once and he is supposed to be very into travel but we don’t really hear very much of his experiences. There were also some really cringey parts in relation to sex, if I read the phrase ‘my prick tingled’ one more time I was going to throw my kindle out of a window! Steve also references a woman’s mood in terms of ‘her time of the month’ and there’s also a rather derogatory description of someone who may have downs syndrome at one point. It’s hard to tell how much of this is deliberate to make Steve unlikeable and how much is the authors writing style (or what the author thinks a male character would feel) but I haven’t read anything by Ms Goodwin before so I can’t really tell. The flash-back chapters about Steve’s past were interesting although I felt they were a little repetitive in places and there were some events where it was not particularly clear what had happened. Liesel started out as a character I enjoyed and had sympathy for - she’s a free spirit who has no intention of settling down or having children. I was with her for most of the story until her personality takes a mad swing half way through where she doesn’t get a job she wanted and spirals down from there. This seemed so at odds with the woman we were presented with at first that I had a hard time adapting to the 180 shift. She also then seems to hate Steve whenever she sees him again as if he’s done something terrible to her but this isn’t really explained. As the whole point of Steve’s character progression is to show someone on the slip into madness and his personality also changes it felt like too much of a similar shift with not enough pay-out. If she had stayed as a nicer character who just wanted to help Steve for example, we would get the juxtaposition of him going off the rails with her. With no-one to root for throughout the plot you are kind of left not really feeling too invested in the story. Overall, I enjoyed the progression of the plot showing Steve’s decline into insanity and some of the crazy choices he made which are nicely balanced with some childhood flash-backs to illustrate how he became who he is today. However, I did feel in some places the language used was a bit cringe-worthy, it was needlessly repetitive in places and with no-one to root for you were left feeling a little lost as the reader. Thank you to Anne Goodwin and Inspired Quill for the copy of Underneath in exchange for an honest review.

40 year old hospital theatre orderly Steve, has spent the last 20 years travelling the world. After a substantial win on the lottery, he decides that it is now the right time to settle down in one place. When he meets Liesel by a chance encounter, in the hospital canteen, it is love at first sight. During their first meeting, Steve asks a surprised Liesel to go house hunting with him. Whilst viewing a property that they thought was okay, the deal clincher is that it has a cellar hidden away. Steve purchases the house, telling Liesel that she can move in with him. This is the start of their relationship. Both have ambitions in life, and neither wants children. That is until Liesel meets her friend’s baby and becomes broody. With Steve unwilling to budge in his thoughts about having a child, Liesel gives him an ultimatum. Change his mind by Easter, or she will leave him. This forces Steve to take drastic action. I got to the end of ‘Underneath’ and questioned everything that I had read. This is a twisted dark psychological book, one that does play with your mind and has you wanting to know more. Unfortunately, it played that well that I got to the end and hadn’t a clue what had gone on. It is written in the first person, Steve’s point of view. What I presumed he had shown us happened in parts, turned out often not to be the case. Then we have the back and forth to his childhood that is written without warned, just a jump from the present to the past, and back again. The main characters are both deeply damaged by past events in their life, and both had very unusual personalities. I really couldn’t warm to either of them, or any of the other characters in the book if I’m being honest. Their relationship had ‘doomed’ written all over it from their first meeting. The book isn’t split into chapters, but rather six long sections, each opening with a page of Steve’s thoughts regarding someone he has locked in the cellar, though we are left to wonder who. We do get to know that it is a woman. I just didn’t get it. I think this is the first time I have ever finished a book and gone, ‘what on earth happened’. There either wasn’t enough information to process what was truly happening, or there was too much information, which in turn obscured what was really going on. I’m sorry, but this really wasn’t a book for me.