Review of "Underneath" by Robbie Dorman
- Megan Diedericks
- Apr 19
- 1 min read
"Everyone loves talking about the cold down here," said Mary.
"It's always there," said Alex. "It becomes everything." (Chapter 1)
Underneath by Robbie Dorman is a horror novel with an interesting blend of science fiction.
The idea that human evolution stemmed from somewhere in the Antarctic ice is a concept I found incredibly intriguing. The particle-theory was described in a way that made it easy understand!
It took me a little while to get really into it, there were a few typos that pulled me from the story, and I wasn't the biggest fan of all the said's that followed nearly every piece of dialogue—but I can understand when you have that many characters, you need to make it abundantly obvious who's saying what. These things obviously don't make the story bad overall, because I did enjoy it!
My favorite part was probably the description of how the human body reacts to hypothermia; how motor skills halt and a person is reduced to animal-like instincts—it felt vivid and claustrophobic. Which leads me into my admiration of how no gory detail was spared by Dorman!
The commentary on how an obsession (science/discovery, in this instance) can make a monster out of someone and/or drive them to madness was well-executed. I also found loss is prevalent in Underneath, and those scenes left the biggest impression.
Lastly, I, of course, enjoyed Mary's character. She took nobody's shit and my only wish is that she punched more people (half a joke...)
All things considered, this novel hits hard with the questions it raises about humanity and survival.
