Beneath the Rising

Nick Prasad and Joanna "Johnny" Chambers have been best friends since they were kids, despite differences in ethnicity and class (he is poor and brown while she is rich and white). She's a brilliant inventor and prodigy and Nick often feels that he plays second fiddle to her, but when she invents a clean reactor that some truly creepy beings from another dimension want - and may be able to use to wake up and come to our world - the two of them need to team up to find a way to defeat Them.

This is Mohamed's debut novel, and the second of her works that I've read. She shows an impressive range in the two (the other was a novella, And What Can We Offer You Tonight), telling very different stories about very different characters. Nick is our show more narrator here, and as he learns more about the horrors of Them, he also struggles with his love/hate relationship with Johnny. I had a tough time feeling a ton of sympathy with either of them, but the plot carried me along with enough interest to keep reading. The pacing was a little uneven, exacerbated by my putting down the book a lot when I was in the middle of it either because I didn't want to read it right before bed (this is the closest to horror I will read) or because I needed to prioritize other books, such as the one for book club. Though the first in the trilogy, the story is self-contained and wraps up in a satisfying way. show less

This book started off really well and I was really enjoying the voice of the narrator and the banter between him and Joanna, (Johnny). However, as the story progressed, my interest began to wane. For nearly the entire book, the main characters never really developed past a "YA" sensibility. Their banter, which was fun at first, began to grate, (prediction: many of the pop-culture references will not stand the test of time). There were also just too many convenient coincidences and narrow escapes - and too many continuity errors. Seriously, how can an author state that both characters have their hands cuffed behind their backs and a few paragraphs later one of them knocks two cops unconscious and then 'grabs' the other 'by the front of show more their shirt' and hauls them toward the door? After making good their escape by running through the streets and hiding in an alley, they use the sunglasses Johnny stole from one of the cops she knocked out to pick the locks on their handcuffs, thereby confirming that they were still tied up that entire time. Sorry but that is simply lazy writing and poor proof-reading as it should have been caught by a competent editor - or at least during beta reads. It may seem as though I'm being too harsh, but this type of thing will pull me out of a story in an instant, and I find it difficult to get back in because now I'm looking for more issues, (and finding them), rather than simply enjoying the story. Ah, well...

At about 30% in, I was leaning toward a 7 or 8 out of 10, but ended up at a very average 5 out of 10 - and now I'm thinking that was probably too generous. Disappointed as I was really liking this one at first. show less

Cosmic horror with a YA feel as two young friends, one a wealthy child prodigy, the other a close friend who works in a supermarket stock room, discover that the prodigy's new miracle power source opens holes into other dimensions where ancient godlike beings sleep, waking them and drawing their attention. There's a fair bit of angst in this as Nick ponders his friendship with Johnny, their relative status in terms of race, wealth and class, but there's secrets and betrayals ahead as they race across the world to stop the gods returning. It's well written, mostly fast-paced - some of the angsting drags things down a bit, and the central relationship is well-realised.

So...this book.

This book is a lot of things.

The first among them is, this book is likely one of the longest reads I've had this year. In a year where a week is a looooooong time to read a book cover-to-cover, regardless of size, this one took me three weeks. Why? To be completely honest, I was lucky to get through five pages without falling asleep. Now, was it because the book was boring? No. Was it because it was badly written? Again, no.

So, I bought this book straight off the Adult Horror rack at my local bookstore. And, to be fair, there's some horror elements in it, but there's very little adult in it. This is absolutely, 100% a Young Adult book as far as I'm concerned. And while there's nothing wrong with that, I read my fair share show more of YA, I was expecting a full-on horror novel for adults. It never quite got there, and the book felt like every punch was pulled. That was one reason I kept nodding off.

So let's talk about all those elements. Let's start with the hard SF elements that start the book off. We're treated to the non-Iron Man-suited young Tony Stark of Premee Mohamed's novel. Johnny's an off-the-charts genius and scientific prodigy. And she's still a teenager. We're presented with a young woman that started changing the world at the age of six. Fair enough, but it entered into a comic bookish world far too often. Then there's the narrator, Johnny's lovestruck friend Nicky. Nicky happens to be brown, poor, and possessed of unblazing, average intelligence. Yet, they're tight, and have been forever.

Which brings up Major Problem Number One: Nicky's constantly going on about his poverty, Johnny's wealth, his average intelligence, Johnny's big brain, his brownness, her blonde white privilege. It comes up a lot. Far too much. You two are opposite ends of the spectrum. We get it. Move on.

Johnny happens to, with her latest invention, put out a call to sort-of-but-not-quite Lovecraftian monstrosities. Turns out they finally have a way back to our world. And it's down to Johnny and Nicky to try and stop them. And you know what? This right here, was the best aspect of this story, and where the horror elements began to show up. But...

Major Problem Number Two (and the biggest of the novel): The two have to travel the world gathering up various bits of information to be able to shut down the door Johnny's inadvertently opened. Normally, this wouldn't be that much of an issue. It allows for lots of character development and the uncovering of juicy plot elements...

...or it's just a trip from one place to the next, with the characters not saying what needs to be said, instead making a lot of pop culture jokes and complaining about the heat, the hunger, and how tired they are. But Johnny manages to get some of that important info.

Which leads to Major Problem Number Three: And this one is also a deal breaker for me...Johnny leads Nicky around the world, and we're treated to some cool places and some fun narrow escapes. But we're never really given any insight into Johnny's thought processes, nor a detailed sense of why they have to go here and get this particular piece of info. We have to, like Nicky, take it all on trust of the smart kid in the room.

And then there's the mostly off-stage ending, and the epilogue which, quite frankly, ruined the entire story for me.

It was a great idea, but the execution left me wanting. show less

Fantastic. Great prose and dialogue. Great characters, terrifying horrors, actions and scary consequences, past and present slamming together for the MC (Nick) over and over as the girl genius and our MC try to right wrongs and confront mistakes and do the right thing.

The end is at once satisfying and terrifying; the sequel drops March 2, 2021.

I've read The Collected Works of H.P. Lovecraft, so let me tell you definitively; THIS is the eldritch horror you are looking for.

Bonus, this author is a delight to follow on Twitter, weird and funny and genuine.

Bit too weird Lovecraftian monsters for me. Interesting premise though - If you're gifted a superpower being able to think so much faster than everyone else (not necessarily more intelligent but much faster) that comes with the cost of every extra second you spend in prodigy mode is taken off from your lifespan, how do you make best use of it?

Jonny (Joanna) is nicky's best/only friend, but while she's a global superstar savant and saviour, he's the eldest son in a Afro-Caribbean single parent family and has a lot of responsibilities closer to home. He's always glad of every moment jonny can spare for him, even if none of it makes any sense, but he tries to help keep her grounded with teenage banter and she helps him with the family. One show more day she's showing off her latest inventions - a universal power supply when thing start to go wrong. It begins slowly, with just a slightly odd figure observing the kids picnic outing, but rapidly escalates. Joanna realises she's made a terrible error, her power supply is unwittingly opening doors to the Ancient Ones left closed eons ago. She grabs Nicky and rushes off to the middle east to find the lost Keys that will close the Doors once more, but even though the Ancient Ones aren't yet fully in the world their agents can cause probelms even for someone of Joanna's resources. Nicky is left wondering why he's been brought along.

Meh not really my thing. Interesting setting, one good paragraph at the end when the viewpoint of Nicky's family background is very different to the usual setting for Lovecraft, but it's not enough on it's own. show less

This book was nominated for the 2021 Aurora (Canadian sci-fi and fantasy) Best Novel award. I loved the characters and snappy dialogue in this mix of sci-fi, fantasy and horror but found the plot rather chaotic. Despite that, I look forward to reading more from this author.