Review: Beneath the World, a Sea by Chris Beckett

Ben Ronson is a police officer who has been sent to the Submundo Delta to investigate the killing of Duendes - strange, humanoid creatures with long limbs and a strange psychic effect on the mind. But to get there, you have to pass through the Zona - a journey of a couple of days that you will have no memory of whatsoever when you come out the other side. Locals say that your deepest, most repressed thoughts and desires come to pass here, and Ben is concerned about what he will do while he is in the Zona...

This book was so weird. Like, seriously so weird. The story sounded so promising, but it just fell a little bit flat, to be honest. Essentially, this book is about the human mind and how it can lie to itself - none of us can ever know who we truly are because we are taught to act in a certain way. I thought there would be more mention of the Duendes, but we don't find out much about them at all. They are almost like secondary characters to the main focus of the story: the Zona and it's effect on the human mind. The human characters of the story aren't much better either - they had no real depth and were just kind of dull.

I was really disappointed by this book, despite it's gorgeous cover!