The Above Ground series - Above Ground by A. M. Harte

_thelighthouse

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"Fast-paced apocalyptic fantasy/romance"

While I’m not a huge fan of the apocalyptic fantasy genre, Above Ground is well-written and well-paced enough to keep me invested despite my bias.

The story opens with an exceptional hook, protagonist Lilith and her friend Emma, dwellers underground, visiting the surface for a freak show. The events that transpire at the show introduce Lilith to a werewolf named Silver, and thus her adventure (literally "above ground") begins.

The world is well-conceived and introduced in careful bits and pieces, filled with weres of all sorts, money-grubbing ewtes and hints of the complex social strata of an underground city. The writer keeps a firm grasp on the narrative, moving the reader along at a quick pace without neglecting the details that make the world so believable.

The cons: I was put off by the white text on the dark background, and had to stop reading several times due to eye strain. Though the weres and other creatures are well-described, physical descriptions of humans are rather thin—we don’t discover how old the protagonists are, or even what they look like, until several chapters into the serial. The main characters seem poised to become the Alpha Couple of the series, a trajectory that starts off subtle but veers into obvious and slightly unbelievable considering how short a time they’ve known each other.

Rating: 7 / 10