The Underlighters by Michelle Browne

The Underlighters by Michelle Browne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Make no mistake, this tale is for adults.

The Underlighters by Michelle Browne presents an interesting concept reminiscent of the children’s series - The Chronicles of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau – but make no mistake… this tale is for adults.

The author introduces a variety of characters that I really thought I would like. There is a diverse group of 18 year olds with a wide range of talents, skills and employment including electricians, child care workers and prostitutes. I would have liked to know more about the characters.

Quite a bit of time was spent introducing characters working in the sex industry but I was still confused by some of the distinctions – a sugarplum is a what? (As opposed to a “C” girl. Sorry, the actual term used throughout the story, is graphic and jarring.) And too, they all seemed just so young!

There were not enough backstory woven into the telling for me to comfortably immerse myself in the story. I remained pretty foggy over exactly what had occurred to bring them to where they were at the point of the story even though it was no mystery or secret apparently to the characters. I had the impression from the chapter headings or diary dates that less than 50 years had passed since they’d had to flee the surface.

Where were they exactly? They seem to be in a basement under an apartment building – a huge basement with access to the surface of the world via elevators that existed prior to whatever happened up there. However anytime the author described a location within the city or on the surface, the story really developed an atmosphere and a sense of place. I could “see” the bars they gathered in and the house where they ran into the spider-dogs. Superior.

I had a lot of questions left about “the Dust.” What was known about “the Dust” – was it just on the surface, did it leak through to the city, or was its appearance in the tunnels strange. Was the dust sentient? Did they know this or suspect it before the confrontation on the surface at the end of the book? And how did the dust affect people that came in contact with it? What was “Dust Fever?”

Having said all this, I would absolutely positively read more about these same characters and any further developments. I still want to know where they’ll go from here, whether relationships will develop, their future below the surface of the planet, how the “Lost Ones” or “Sandmen” will survive or be incorporated into the community. In addition, I look forward to reading more by Michelle Browne especially after the teaser at the end of this one about And the Stars Will Sing. I have been hooked.

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