Underneath

I've always been rather afraid of reading YA novels - just because I've never actually read this genre.  Even as a teenager, I found classic novels much more to my taste and have never actually stopped since then.  'Tis the time, however, to leave one's comfort zone, and experience new challenges (or at least this is one of my resolutions for the new year...).  With this in mind, I read Underneath, by K.P. Burke, telling the story of a teenage boy and his encounters with bullying, love, redemption (and deception).

I was surprised at the twists of this story.  Having had substantial experience in reading literature, it's not often I don't immediately know what's going to happen within 2-3 pages (of course, it doesn't help that by reading it on Kindle I can't read the end first, which I would in a paper book --  but this is another post altogether...).  The story is seriously profound in its approach to the problems young people are facing, suspense up to the very last moment and twists that may actually haunt a reader and an excellent use of the written language when describing background information.  All in all, a very good sample of modern suspense literature...

... if only it had been a proper, full-length novel.  This is actually a short story, and therein lies its one fault:  Everything is crammed together, and I got overwhelmed with the continuous flash-like flow of information.  Before I had time to absorb what had happened, the twist in the story would throw me in a new pit where I would have to adjust my brain cells and restart absorbing... (I don't know whether this is how YA novels are, but I would consider myself a well-trained reader with enough potential of absorption of difficult and sometimes heavy novels, so I don't think this would be a problem for me).  It's a shame really, because I find the content very good and I believe it should be used to entice a younger audience into the world of literature.

Read for Mystery and Suspense Reading