ARC Review--The Buried by Melissa Grey

 

A heart-pounding, claustrophobic new story from Melissa Grey, the author of RATED.

Ten years ago, disaster struck the remote town of Indigo Falls. A horrific event drove the residents underground, into shelters that keep them safe from the danger on the surface. No one speaks about what happened that fateful day, but even the youngest still remember the fear and, most of all, the searing pain when sunlight touched their skin.

Now, a handfull of families inhabit this bunker together, guided by a charismatic leader named Dr. Imogen Moran. There are many rules Dr. Moran has instilled to govern life belowground. You must always tell the truth. You must avoid the light of the sun. You must never touch skin to skin.

But the most important rule, the one that was drilled into their heads from the moment the hatch slammed shut all those years ago, was at the very end of the list. It rattled around in their skulls when all was silent, echoing in the quiet, lonely dark.

You must never go outside.

 

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

 

Melissa Grey’s latest novel, The Buried had all the makings of dark and creepy story with the possibility of monsters to boot! Though it was a dark story, it wasn’t all I thought it would be. I was hoping for something more with horror and a side of mystery what I got was the opposite, more mystery with a touch of horror. So not the creepy read I was hoping for, but still intriguing enough.

We have three teenagers from three different families all living underground in a bunker of sorts. There was an event seven years ago or so that basically destroyed humanity and it was with luck that these families and their benefactor, Ms. Moran survived. But something is happening, now Sash is beginning to question everything she’s been taught over the years and her friends, Yuna and Gabe are questioning things too, while their families are happy accepting everything at face value.

For whatever reason, everyone stays underground, only Moran goes up…up there to the world that was destroyed, looking for survivors or supplies. There’s only one hazmat suit and she takes on the burden herself. Which honestly, that itself was pretty telling.

Then one day, Gabe uncovers something in the maps he has that details their underground bunker, a tunnel that leads to above, not the one Moran uses on the regular. So the three friends decide to go up and explore and what they find is puzzling and frightening.

I guess my first issue with this was that it wasn’t the super scary story I was hoping for! I mean that cover is downright chilling, so I was expecting a story that would chill me to the bones! Sadly, this wasn’t it. The mystery element was still done very well and I was able to figure things out very early on. I mean it was my first suspicion and it proved correct! The whys behind it all were what I had to wait for and they were just as blasé as I expected them to be. I mean when dealing with evil villains do you really expect anything else?

The story alternates between the three friends. They’re all of different cultures and ethnicities which I found to be nice. And there’s a bit of romance going on between Yuna and Sash. Gabe was your odd man out, but he just wanted his friends to be happy together, so that was a nice factor too.

What sort of blew my mind were the harsh rules that Moran put into place. No touching and always wear your gloves were two of the main ones. I guess she wasn’t wanting to help further mankind since they were the only ones left. There was the risk of losing their supplies; food and water and the like. Moran’s family was pretty much prepared for the worst with their bunker, it had me thinking of that old Brendan Fraser movie where he grew up in a bomb shelter and when it opens he finds the world is very different from what his parents talked about.

Parts of the ending are another thing that upset me about this one. Ignoring the lack of monsters and other dark paranormal entities, I found what happened with the teens to be a bit sad when it came to their families. I guess there was a hive mentality going on that superseded family. That’s all I’ll say on that. The ending itself though was about what you would expect it to be once the ball got rolling on the grand finale.

While The Buried wasn’t all I was hoping it to be, it was still a pretty decent read. I just felt like it needed a little more depth and a few more monsters and other dark things wouldn’t have hurt either. Definitely something mystery fans would enjoy as well as this had a richly woven mystery hiding in its layers. It’s a read that will definitely have you questioning certain things about apocalypses and hive-mind mentality too.

 

Overall Rating 2.5/5 stars

 

The Buried releases September 7, 2021