Thursday, October 22, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed




Beneath the Rising is an Alternate History/Urban Fantasy/Lovecraftian Horror/Thriller novel by debut author Premee Mohamed.  It's a book that normally would not be on my radar, because as I've said before, Lovecraftian stories really aren't my thing usually.  Still, I've enjoyed a bunch of modern adaptations/subversions/whatever of Lovecraft's work, and Beneath the Rising received a ton of praise from authors I follow on twitter, so it has been on my TBR list for a while.

And well, Beneath the Rising is a really interesting take, with a thrilling story from beginning to end that ends on a pretty emotionally devastating note.  People looking for "horror" are going to be a bit disappointed here - Lovecraftian threats are the antagonists here (and Lovecraft is namechecked once) but they're almost never really scary - but the two main characters are really well done, and it moves at a great pace that made it very easy to finish over 24 hours.  I'll be back for the sequel to see how things go from here, although this is a satisfying story on its own.


---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Nick Prasad is a normal 18 year old.  He spends his work days making a menial living, raising money to support and then taking care of his mother and three siblings.  He is entirely ordinary, dealing with post-9/11 prejudice of brown people sure, but ordinary. 

But Nick's best friend, Joanna "Johnny" Chambers, is anything but ordinary.  A world famous super-genius since the age of 3, Johnny's scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry, and practically everything have advanced the world's knowledge immensely, and have saved thousands if not millions of lives worldwide.  Johnny is so far out of Nick's league, but since the time the two were the only survivor's of a hostage taking (leaving them with matching bullet wound scars), the two have been the closest of friends....with Nick honestly loving Johnny, even if he could never tell her that.

But when Johnny invents a revolutionary clean source of energy that could change the world, she and Nick find themselves the targets of things - Ancient Ones - from another plane.  They believe this world belongs to Them, and if Johnny can't find a way to stop them, they will destroy our world completely.  But stopping them will require Johnny - and Nick, who finds himself dragged along - to travel the world looking for ancient clues, and the search will cost Nick far more than he could have imagined....
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Beneath the Rising uses Lovecraftian creatures and ideas (a few are namechecked, and Lovecraft himself is namechecked at one point) but it isn't really a horror novel.  It's instead really a thriller, with our heroes trying to outrun threats both human and inhuman as they travel from the place to place in search of the magic spells they'll need to save the world.  At the same time, while it has plenty of exciting action, this is also very much a character story, told through Nick's first person point of view, dealing with Nick struggling with his friendship and love for a girl who is so very different. 

Beneath the Rising I should point out takes place in an alternate version of 2003, where events have been changed as a result of Johnny's discoveries over the last decade or so.  Some of those changes are obviously caused by Johnny's work while others seem to be butterfly effects - so for example, 9/11 happened, except the planes missed the Twin Towers....although that didn't stop the waves of anti-muslim - and to Nick's dismay, anti-people who look Muslim (Nick's Indo-Carribean (thru Guyana)).  It's a really nicely done setting, since it answers the usually ignored question of how the world could be the exact same with all the changes in this past - it's not.  The setting also of course includes both Lovecraftian beings and people belonging to organizations dealing with such entities, and while we never really go in depth about these organizations (and the person explaining about them is an unreliable narrator) and it all works well.

But really the most important parts of this story are Nick and Johnny.  Nick is a young man who feels an immense sense of responsibility - particularly to the family who relies upon him, as unfair as that is.  He suffers prejudice because of his skin color - even in Canada - and knows he can't afford to go to college because his family both doesn't have the money and because they need him to be the breadwinner and caretaker for the family.  This is something, to Nick's frustration, that Johnny can't really understand - as a young white woman (well 17 year old) - as her family not only comes from wealth, but her supergenius has made her millions since childhood and allowed her to live independently of anyone even before hitting her teens.  But despite all that frustration and their differences, Nick can't help loving Johnny, even if he could never really tell her that outright....and Johnny doesn't seem to have any romantic feelings for anyone* and seems all too willing to overlook the damage her actions may have on others - particularly Nick and Nick's family.  The two characters are amazing in their banter and dialogue, which makes them both very easy to enjoy reading, and their dynamic carries the plot.

*I do not mean to suggest Johnny is Aromantic or Asexual here - we see Johnny solely through Nick's eyes, and Johnny's sexuality is unclear as a result (it doesn't help that Johnny is an unreliable narrator of her own thoughts), although to the reader its obvious she has some feelings for Nick.

 And it's a very well done plot, again taking our characters on a rush from place to place, dealing with lovecraftian threats in person and in Nick's dreams, as well as very human threats like misguided police, cultists, and more.  It all concludes with an ending that is honestly emotionally devastating, which I didn't quite see coming - I expected a twist, just not that twist, and it really makes me interested in how the sequel would handle it all.  Like I said above the jump, despite the lovecraftian antagonists there's never really much horror here (just some early scary suggestions in dreams) and honestly, I never really felt like the main characters were in serious danger - with the exception of one named monster that has his own personality, the rest of them all just felt like interchangeable monster mooks.  But it still works to keep things moving and yeah, the rest really works.


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