ARC Review: Under the Surface by Diana Urban

I received this book for free from Bookish First, the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Under the Surface by Diana Urban
Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on August 13, 2024
Genres: YA Thriller
Pages: 368
Source: Bookish First, the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating:
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Blurb:

An epic survival-thriller about four teens who get lost in the Paris catacombs for days—a gripping and propulsive story of love, danger, betrayal, and hope… even when all seems lost.

Ruby is terrified to cave to her feelings for Sean and risk him crushing her heart.

Sean is pumped to spend a week with Ruby in Paris on their senior class trip, and he’ll wait however long until she’s ready to take things further.

But when Ruby’s best friend sneaks out the first night to meet a mysterious French boy, Ruby goes after her with two classmates, but caves to another temptation: attending mystery boy’s exclusive party in the Paris catacombs, the intricate web of tunnels beneath the city, home to six million long-dead Parisians. Only they never reach the party.

Underground, as something sinister chases them, they get lost in the endless maze of bones, uncovering dark secrets about the catacombs… and each other. And if they can’t find a way out, they’ll die in the dark beneath the City of Light.

Aboveground, Sean races to find the girl he loves as a media frenzy over the four missing teens begins.

From award-winning author and rising YA star Diana Urban comes a twisty tale of four teens lost in the dark beneath the City of Light and the race to find them.

My Review

This is an author I’ve wanted to read for a while, so I was excited when I won an ARC from Bookish First. It seemed appropriate that I picked it up to read when the Olympics were in Paris as well!

Most of the story is from Ruby’s viewpoint, as she goes to Paris on a school field trip. Of course she is a travel blogger/influencer, and really wants to see certain things that are unusual. One of those things is the catacombs. Also on the trip is her ex-best friend and her current best friend. Her current best friend, Val, is a bit of a wild child. In fact she sneaks out the first night there to go to a party with a cute guy she met on their daily outing. When Ruby finds out, she tries to stop her. But sneaking out she gets caught by her ex-best friend, as well as another of their friends. Those two girls end up sneaking with her so they don’t get caught either. When they catch up with Val and this guy, he is already getting ready to take them down a manhole to a secret entrance that isn’t open to the public. He says he is going to a party with other “cataphiles” people who like exploring the catacombs.

Of course once they get down there, things just don’t go right. Julien, the guy, won’t let her take pictures for her travel blog because people can’t know how the cataphiles get down there or they might get caught and those ways blocked off. Of course some get hurt. They get lost. It floods when it rains, and then there seem to be people chasing them, dressed in skeleton costumes, scary skeleton costumes. Through their traversing for over 3 days, they come to know each other. Secrets and lies that had come between Ruby and her best friend Selena come out. Ruby also learns that maybe Val isn’t as good a friend as she says she is.

We also get a bit of the story from Sean’s viewpoint. Sean is another of Ruby’s closest friends. In fact she thinks she likes him as more than a friend, and that maybe he feels the same way. But he will be going away after high school where she won’t see him all the time, and she’s not able to deal with people leaving her, like her mom, and her friend, etc. Sean also is interested in Ruby. And he wants her to know. He also doesn’t trust Val, after she did something that we find out about in the story with the ones lost in the catacombs. And when the girls disappear, he makes it his mission to do whatever he can to help them get out, as well as be there for her when she makes it out. In doing all this, he also takes steps to let his father know what he really wants to do with his life, and starts to figure that out a bit as well.

There are a lot of tense moments as we follow the girls through the tunnels with their mysterious French cataphile tour guide Julien. And lots of moments of waiting, as Sean and the other teachers, students and French police try to find them. Definitely was a good story, and will have it available for my students to read!