Book Review: Under The Surface by Diana Urban

Ruby has big dreams of leaving her Massachusetts hometown and traveling the world, no matter what her somewhat overprotective father says. Encouraged by her best friends Val and Sean, she’s started a YouTube channel called Ruby’s Hidden Gems to showcase the little-traveled areas around her, in hopes of one day expanding her coverage much farther afield. Now she has her chance with her high school French class’s trip to Paris.

With her best friends in tow, she’s ready to record, edit and publish a video focusing on the less beaten paths of one of the most romantic cities in the world. It took a lot of persuading, but her teachers included a tour of the Catacombs beneath Paris as part of their official itinerary. But when Ruby has the chance to go on an unofficial excursion into the gloomy, gothic labyrinth, she’s torn. On the one hand, she knows it’s dangerous, especially since she’ll essentially be trusting her life to local cataphile Julien. Val may be charmed by him, but the handsome teenager is still very much a stranger. On the other hand, when will Ruby ever get a chance like this again?

Complicating matters is the fact that it’s not just her and Val going with Julien below ground. While chasing impulsive Val through Paris, Ruby happened to pick up two tagalongs: her ex best friend Selena and class valedictorian Olivia. Their potent mix of personalities pushes them all to embrace a grand, reckless adventure beneath the city. But when their group gets lost and shadowy figures begin chasing them through the dark, what seemed like a fun romp soon turns into a terrifying ordeal:

Terror claws up my chest, and I try not to think of the crunching noises under my boots, try not to think how it’s only a matter of time until my phone runs out of power, until my mouth parches, my stomach shrivels, and my legs give out beneath me. Then there’ll be nothing to do but curl into a ball and wait for the darkness to become infinite.

 

Unless they get to me first.

 

No. That can’t happen. I won’t let it.

As Ruby does her best to keep her friends together and get them all out alive, a frantic Sean is fighting the French authorities, his own strict parents and well-meaning teacher chaperones in his attempt to track down the girl he’s been quietly falling in love with for months. Meanwhile, forced proximity under stressful circumstances is causing the girls’ secrets to spill out, threatening to tear them apart just as surely as their pursuers seem to want to. Will Ruby and Sean be able to find their way back to each other unharmed, or will the darkness beneath Paris add yet more sets of bones to its countless number?

Call me naive but I did not expect there to be quite so much death in this Young Adult thriller! Diana Urban does not treat any of them lightly, however, underscoring the gravity of both the topic and her book’s setting. The Catacombs of Paris are a fascinating historical monument that is generally closed off to the public for a reason, and Urban takes the responsibility of depicting that seriously.

She’s also remarkably good at nuance. Whether she’s highlighting the differences between American and French cultures or dissecting the vagaries of the teenage heart, she writes with both realism and empathy. In only one example, a lost Ruby despairs not only of escape but of becoming just another indistinguishable skeleton in a deadly maze of bones, a depressing if fitting end for a life of little renown. But as she finds strength through her relationships, as she finds purpose in giving help and showing grace to the people she loves, she realizes that her impact on the world is greater than she’d ever imagined:

Even though I’m probably about to die, I smile through my tears. “I was wrong. It’s not all for nothing. We’re more than a pile of bones.”

 

We’re this moment. And the last. And every memory we’ve ever made. Every recording. Every note. Everything we’ve created and the lives we’ve touched. We’re our choices, our bravery, our sacrifices. We’re forgiveness and strength and the tears we’ve shed. We’re the friendships we’ve built and the love we’ve shared. Time might go on without us and our cells might wither to dust, but that doesn’t diminish our existence. We all leave a mark on the world.

That’s an important message for any reader, teenager or otherwise, to hear. Under The Surface is a hope-filled heartbreaker of a novel wrapped up in a truly scary premise. Its excellence once again underscores why Urban is one of my favorite writers of YA thrillers.