Review: Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


There are two stories here. One is the story of two longtime BFFs separated by class, race, and genius, now teetering on the cusp of adulthood and wondering how to reconcile their vastly different places in the world with an enduring friendship that might be blossoming into something more. The other is a tale of cosmic horror, of the hidden magical secrets of this world and the worlds beyond. If you'd asked me before picking this up which I'd prefer I'd have picked the latter without blinking; eldritch horror is the best of all horrors, and anyone claiming otherwise is a liar. But to my surprise, it was the story of Johnny and Nick---she a white world-famous child prodigy who has quite literally changed the world, and he the very brown working-class son of Guyanese immigrants, working at a grocery store and wondering about his future---that had me reading on.

Johnny and Nick have been BFFs since early childhood, when both were taken hostage during a terrorist attack and ended up getting shot with a single bullet, then remaining friends ever after, despite living in two very different worlds. Their relationship sits the heart of this story, and the author achieves a rapport between the two that took definite skill. Their relationship---he, unsure of his place in the world and very unsure of his place in her world, she keeping more secrets than anyone too young to drive ever should---pops off the page, with dialogue that feels fresh and real. I kind of found myself wishing I was reading a story about them facing something other than eldritch horrors, and that's pretty insane for me, cause usually I'm the person yelling that the book needs to stop with the interpersonal crap and get back to the eldritch horrors. (And oh, that ending . . .)

The main issue here is that the story really needed time to breathe. A lot more time. Once our main antagonist enters the story (and to be frank, that entity seemed less 'eldritch horror' and more 'video game villain') we're sent off on a worldwide adventure that feels oddly rushed and insubstantial. The story veers wildly from place to place, plot point to plot point, with our characters getting hit with quests and revelations and infodumps and new scenery. . . and nothing really has enough time to gel. Too often the worldbuilding felt unfinished, with Johnny giving infodumps in the place of plot development.

Overall, this had a lot of potential, and the author manages some really great rhythms between her two protagonists. But it needed to be longer than it was, with more care given to the worldbuilding.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.