Underland


Young Adult - Paranormal
262 Pages
Reviewed on 05/01/2016
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by K.J. Simmill for Readers' Favorite

Underland by Chanda Hahn is a young adult paranormal novel with urban fantasy elements. Kira hadn’t always been lost; once she’d had a family, a father who loved her and shared with her the experience of his Navy SEAL training. When she had awoken with night terrors, he had chased them away, but when he died the nightmares became flesh. She fled the streets to escape the wrath of her violent step-father, and for two years she had survived. Then one night the monsters returned, plunging her into a world of slavery where she was sold to the highest bidder. Humans are the lowest of the low, the bottom of the food chain, so what chance does she really have in this mythical world beneath the streets? As if things weren’t bad enough, she is selected to participate in the games. Her new prison is already filled with enemies, creatures thought only to be myth, who would prefer to kill her rather than look at her, especially given the entrance she made into their territory. Can she form the alliances needed to survive in this terrifying world, and how can she, a lowly human, hope to compete in a game in which even those with a lifetime of training struggle to survive?

For me, Underland had a very Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman) feel to it. Not in the sense of a mirrored storyline, but in the creation of a vast world below ours, where creatures once feared, and those forgotten, now live. Combine this with the more well-known Hunger Games series, a fight to the death for the pleasure of those watching, add a chance of earning freedom and creatures of legend, and you have the fantastic story woven by Chanda Hahn. The author’s style of writing is suited to the new adult, young adult age group, which is the chosen target audience, and it reminded me in places of the horror genre. The only thing which would have enhanced the reading experience for me would be a little more description in some places. There is this vast land, filled with more creatures and monsters than you can imagine and, whilst scope is implied, a few more details would have expanded the greatness and magnitude of this world, seeing it reach its full potential.

I would recommend this book - by a quarter of the way through I didn’t want to put it down and I had become invested in Kira and her struggle, wanting to know what happened next. The gripping tale of an underdog trying to survive alone against all odds is enough to grab any reader’s attention, but throw in mythical creatures and ancient gods and you have a combination bound to inspire.