Review: Lying Beneath by Kevin Moran

Lying Beneath by Kevin Moran

Lying Beneath is based on the premise that a secret society had been living beneath a presumably American city for around a century. The hidden city beneath the city controls its population by telling them that there is major war going on in the world above them and that they are enjoying a relatively prosperous life in their hidden home because they are conducting vital research for their war effort developing new weapons and equipment. When Ayla, a struggling waitress, stumbled upon the hidden civilization, the basic lie that has sustained this society for a hundred years is in danger of being exposed for the fraud it is.

 

So there are three stories wrapping around each other in this novel. First, there is Ayla who is trying to figure out how to get free and escape back to her own world. Second, there is a totalitarian government with apparently very limited means of enforcing its will, struggling to control Ayla and access to her. And finally you have two groups—some scientists and some revolutionaries—trying to find out what’s really going on in the world above them.

 

Over all I enjoyed the story, but there are some major weaknesses which troubled me right through to the end. First, I never understood why the government didn’t just take possession of Ayla as soon as she appeared. There were some efforts to explain this through established rules and procedures, but they just weren’t convincing. This is why I described the totalitarian government as having “very limited means of enforcing its will.” Controlling access to someone they describe as an enemy spy would seem to be the bare minimum necessary to maintain their fraud—and they do know it’s a fraud because they later go to the surface to capture Ayla’s boyfriend.

 

Of much greater concern to me was the questions that didn’t get asked by either side. Ayla is constantly interrogated about “the war.” Why did she never say, “Which war? Where was it being fought? Who was the enemy?” I could never tell for certain what war started the whole mess that is the premise of the story. It might even have been the U.S. Civil War. If I was Ayla, I’d have started listing every war we’d fought right back to the Revolutionary War and pointing out that none of these lasted very long and we kept winning them and we were now the major military power in the world and that no one could truly threaten us. And if I had been one of the scientists questioning her, I would have asked a lot of questions not only about the wars, but about the equipment they had produced over a hundred years to help wage it. There are dozens of questions that could have been asked, all of which would suggest that the scientists weren’t getting accurate information from their government.

 

So this is the sort of book that’s an enjoyable read, but you can’t think about it too much. And I found that to be a particular shame, because this novel could have supported some very big ideas.

 

I received this book free from Voracious Readers Only in exchange for an honest review.