Reality can be the difference between a dream and a nightmare… in his private office immediately puts him on edge. The bureau wants Max to go way outside his comfort zone to enter the dreams of suspected serial killer William Knox.
To get a confession and secure the future of his prison program, Max must gain Knox’s trust by any means necessary—and survive the minefield of secrets waiting inside a murderer’s mind. Secrets that could turn Max’s reality into a living nightmare.
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The writing itself is pretty simplistic. It reads a bit like young adult fiction, even if that’s not what it’s marketed as. Could have used more detail and atmosphere. I was hoping for a lot more depth and character development than there actually was.
I definitely didn’t like the end. The main conflict of the story was resolved and then it goes on tangents. Part of the ending tangent that bothered me the most was kind of a rip off of Inception that I didn’t think had a place in this story. It’s more thriller than horror in my opinion. While there are unexpected twists, the structure of the book is almost formulaic.
The weirdest thing about this book is how the characters don’t believe in suspending disbelief in areas where I actually would suspend disbelief in real life (and I’m a pretty skeptical person generally). That’s sort of a cryptic statement, let me explain. So, it’s set up towards the beginning that Max needs to make sure Knox doesn’t know he’s going through his dreams. It’s also set up towards the beginning that this basically takes place in the real world where most people don’t believe in mind reading. With that in mind, there are parts where Max is talking to an FBI agent about things that are necessary for secrecy, and it goes in really weird directions. Max says that if he just disappears from someone Knox’s dream then Knox will know his mind is being read. I dunno, if someone disappeared from a dream I was having, I (and probably everyone else except the author of this book?) would dismiss it as just dream weirdness. In another part Knox notices Max in his dream, so Max introduces himself as a new professor at the school Knox worked at and gives himself a fake name. That part made sense. But then Max insists to the FBI agent that they make a fake profile on the university website for his alias. I think for most people it wouldn’t be especially weird to meet a non-existent person in a dream, but it would be super weird to find out that someone you only remember meeting in dreams actually exists in real life. Besides, Knox is in jail at that point, so he’s unlikely to use the internet.
The dreams in general didn’t operate the way I would expect dreams to operate. Not nearly surreal enough.
Another thing that was questionable was the fact that the goal was to get a confession. They claim they know Knox is the killer. If they knew he’s the killer then they’d have enough evidence to prove that to a jury in a fair trial, right? So what do they even need a confession for? The mind reading thing has got to be illegal, I mean, with the whole right to remain silent and everything. I want serial killers out of society as much as the next person, but due process is just as important. Otherwise the judicial system itself becomes a serial killer (or something similar where there isn’t the death penalty) and we can’t have that.
So The Monster Underneath is entertaining enough light reading I guess. If you’re looking for a deeper examination of the human condition that will actually make you think, this isn’t it.