Review: The Tunnels Below

Sometimes I fear all the fantastical worlds that could ever be imagined have already been created in literature — that there’s nothing else, no other secret worlds left to discover between the covers of a book.

And then a novel like The Tunnels Below comes along and I can't get the smile off my face!

The Tunnels Below is a brilliant, fantastical adventure that takes readers into a new and exciting world below their feet — a unique, inventive and intriguing world filled with mystery and whimsy.

Set in London, Cecilia Hudson-Gray is heading out with her family for her twelfth birthday. But when she accidentally boards a train that takes her deep into the tunnels of the subway, she discovers a secret world like no other. 

There is a whole world hidden in the secret tunnels of the underground, filled with magnificent creatures who have no idea that another world exists above their heads.

Cecilia just wants to get home, but since no one in the tunnels below believes there is any other world but theirs, they are convinced she has simply gotten lost and confused and just needs to remember who she is (it sometimes happens to those that wander in the dark tunnels).

Cecilia finds some allies and tries to fit in until she can find a way to get home, but there is unrest in this strange new world, and Cecilia is soon dragged into a brewing revolution. 

Faced with decisions about what is wrong and what is right, Cecilia must decide if she will stand up for the good and battle the bad, even though the tunnels are not her world. Does she have the courage to uncover the truth, to fight for creatures she’s only just met and try to make life better in the tunnels?

This is a brilliant middle fiction novel for fantasy and adventure lovers. Highly addictive and filled with so many twists and turns, it’s thrilling from start to finish. This is a book for every child who has dreamed of finding the tiny door at the bottom of the garden and wished they could open it and walk through.

With relatable as well as fantastical characters and a rich and detailed world to explore, The Tunnels Below is a book I guarantee people will be talking about.

Title: The Tunnels Below

Author: Nadine Wild-Palmer

Publisher: Faber Factory, $16.99

Publication Date: June 2019

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781782692232

For ages: 10+

Type: Middle Fiction

from Kids' Book Review http://bit.ly/2x6B1Ck