Underworld - Softcover

MacPhail, Cathy; Macphail, Catherine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747570418 ISBN 13: 9780747570417

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2004

Synopsis

A school trip goes disastrously wrong when a visit to local caves turns into something far more sinister. Five school children find themselves trapped beneath the ground. Their best chance of escape is to stay together. Then a member of the group disappears, and their hopes of leaving start to fade. Does one of the remaining four know more than they are letting on, or is there something evil lurking in the caves? The five children find themselves in a struggle for dominance as well as survival.

About this title

About the Author:

Catherine MacPhail won the Kathleen Fidler Award with her first novel, 'Run Zan Run', which Bloomsbury has re-issued, and the Scottish Arts Council Award with her second novel 'Fighting Back', also re-issued by Bloomsbury. Her other books for Bloomsbury include 'Dark Waters', 'Another Me' and 'Missing'. Catherine MacPhail's work is enormously popular with young teenagers, her trademarks being a mix of humour, with pacy and topical story-lines.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7-10 -Readers who happen to be familiar with the film The Breakfast Club may recognize this title as being, basically, a subterranean version of the 1985 teen-angst classic. Instead of being trapped in a daylong study hall together, five British teens-each one with a distinctly different background and temperament-find themselves trapped in a labyrinthine cave during a field trip in Scotland after a rock slide suddenly seals up the entrance and leaves the group's advisor unconscious. The squabbling students eventually realize that they must put their differences aside and cooperate if they are to survive and-you guessed it-within the course of the ordeal, the angriest and most arrogant among them have their tender undersides exposed. Eventually, all of the cave-bound kids come to realize on some level that fear is the common denominator that drives all kinds of superficial teen behaviors and that one can only overcome insecurity through empathy and understanding. The melodramatic tone and stereotypical characters are questionable enough, but it's this type of exposition-and the story is rife with it-that really drives the novel into cheeseville: "That was in another life, another world. The world up there. Down here, they had all changed." Still, less-discerning readers may enjoy the quick pace and spooky suspense as they work their way to the predictably happy ending.-Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI
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About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0747570418
• ISBN 13: 9780747570417
• Binding: Paperback