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A review by eandrews80
Undertown by Melvin Bukiet
1.0
I'm about to give this book one star and rip it to shreds, but before I do, please know that I generally love children's / YA lit, and I have the utmost respect for academics. That said:
Dang, this was TERRIBLE. Somewhere in this absolute mess of a novel is a genuinely interesting (if unrealistic) adventure story. I wish I could hire an excavator to come dig it out. (And by excavator I mean editor. Wow, did this book need an editor.)
The tone of Undertown is, simply put, weird as all get-out. According to the book's jacket, Bukiet is a professor at Sarah Lawrence, and it's like he wanted to introduce a young audience to SAT words and the idea of critical literary analysis, but he does it in such a ridiculously clunky way that you're left shaking your head in disbelief. There are also random sections where he completely drops the plot and gives a chatty history of New York City. Oh, and did I mention the thread of sexism weaving its way through?
If you want to read a book about what goes on underneath New York City, check out the Gregor the Overlander series. It's approximately a million times better than this.
Dang, this was TERRIBLE. Somewhere in this absolute mess of a novel is a genuinely interesting (if unrealistic) adventure story. I wish I could hire an excavator to come dig it out. (And by excavator I mean editor. Wow, did this book need an editor.)
The tone of Undertown is, simply put, weird as all get-out. According to the book's jacket, Bukiet is a professor at Sarah Lawrence, and it's like he wanted to introduce a young audience to SAT words and the idea of critical literary analysis, but he does it in such a ridiculously clunky way that you're left shaking your head in disbelief. There are also random sections where he completely drops the plot and gives a chatty history of New York City. Oh, and did I mention the thread of sexism weaving its way through?
If you want to read a book about what goes on underneath New York City, check out the Gregor the Overlander series. It's approximately a million times better than this.