Beneath the Surface

A story about a dysfunctional family with a paranoid hyper mom Grace, a meek debt ridden father Patrick, daughters Lily and Mia. A routine life till Lily was struck down by an episode of fits in class. She survived, and stress was found to be the cause of the brain short-circuiting. Mia on the other hand had her own theories. The whole story was to see how this family functioned and to find out the reason of the fitsMy first book by Fiona Neill, I liked the book in most parts. The reasons and secrets in that family made me doubly curious to get to the end. The mystery was present at every corner, Mia and her theories enhanced it. An archeological dig and discovery of graves caused her to link the events in the most interesting manner. At some points, I believed it too.The rest of the characters peeked in all the chapters, but it felt they needed to be given more substance. They felt ghostly, I wanted more of an interesting backstory. Past always has an effect on the present and the future, this book brought it to light in a subtle way.The whole book got a special oomph due to Mia. She was one of the most interesting characters I have read in recent times. Her analysis and arguments were so logical that they bordered on illogical. She was different from any child I have known. All my love for this book was for Mia.Overall, the book captured me, and I had a fun evening with it.

Grace, a mother with a troubled childhood wants her daughter to fell nothings of that pain and suffering and grow up as overachievers. She is blessed with two daughters- Mia, the mischievous, eccentric kid who always lands right in the middle of trouble, and Lilly- the perfect child, with good grades and best manners.But Grace can be overbearing at times and one day when Lilly mysteriously collapses during school, hushed secrets take turns. While Lilly is recovering, we get to know that keeping secrets comes naturally to this family. Grace has a secret to protect, whereas her husband Patrick has a different kind of a mess.Being a character-driven book, we are given enough information to empathize with each character and that helps build a connection with them. Even though this book isn’t relatable, I understood the circumstance and the choices each character made.The heart of the story is Mia- with her eccentricity and chirpy and sometimes improper statements. She isn’t paid much attention to and her view of the world is mostly amusing. The problem is that the author doesn’t tie all the loose strings up at the ends. I have unanswered questions and they bother me so very much.While the concept of the story is pretty mainstream, the characters bring the situation to life. The words felt a bit burdensome at times and slowed me down immensely, especially the first 30%. But the story picks up soon after that and it’s all good.‘Beneath the Surface’ is how secrets can cause irreparable damage to her family. It’s mysterious, slow-paced and enjoyable.

Beneath The Surface by Fiona Neill is another revelatory take on the mundane. Grace and Patrick have two daughters; Lilly and Mia. Lilly is a Grade A student and is top of the class.Lilly is pressured by Mum Grace to do well academically, Mia it seems is always on the sidelines.Grace had a terrible childhood, I won’t reveal in which way it was terrible, and so Grace tries to better her childrens’ childhoods, but in doing so places pressure on both.Mia, Lilly’s ten year old sister is the best character I think.Her observations and thoughts are I think what make this book the gem that it is: for example: “human beings are nothing more than layers and layers of secrets” which to me encapsulates the whole book. Everyone in the Vermuyden family has secrets, Patrick, Grace (that’s a sad one), Lilly is your typical teenager in that she wants to break away from the familial suffocation wielded by her Mother, Grace.The description of the Fens, was both bleak and beautiful. Beautifully evocative too.I would definitely recommend this.

I read this book a while ago. It was OK but nothing memorable

In this book as in her previous books none of the characters are perfect but I found them all sympathetic and wanted to know what would happen. All teenagers have issues which their parents can make worse but the most interesting character is probably 10 year old Mia.

Whilst well written with keen insights into human behavior I found most of the characters to be extremely irritating, especially the parents! - I do of course realise that my reaction indicates how well the characters are described!I plodded on with it as it was the book of the month for my book club, but can't say that I enjoyed it, sorry.

Although I bought this book by mistake , as it has the same title as another novel, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of twists and turns and a very interesting and quirky main character with an extremely satisfying ending .