What Feeds Below, by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
The Book
Synopsis:
The darkness isn’t empty. It’s hungry.
At the edge of the City of the Void, a massive chasm extends miles into the earth, its treacherous terrain overrun with vicious monsters and carnivorous plants. For orphaned best friends Petra and Jade, guiding treasure-seeking tourists down into the Void is the only way to earn enough to pull themselves up out of the slums for good.
Petra prefers to play it safe and take jobs only in the Void’s upper levels, where the dangers are better understood, while Jade wants to risk a descent to the deepest and most mysterious Sixth Layer. Because the deeper they go, the better the payout, and the sooner their dreams can become reality. Their friendship is Petra’s whole world, and Jade’s approval means everything—so Petra agrees to do it Jade’s way.
When their job goes wrong and Jade is lost in the Void, Petra must plunge deeper than she’s ever dared to save her friend. But she doesn’t know the truth of the Void . . . or what really waits for her in its depths.
My Review
What Feeds Below is a novel that blends together fantasy and horror (especially body horror), pairing it together with a plot suited to a younger audience but which is still enjoyable to an adult one; but what is especially remarkable is the creativity of Schlote-Bonne in the creation of the Void and its dangers and the character work paired with this dive into the Void.
For orphaned best friends Petra and Jade, guiding tourists down into the Void is the only way they can aspire to pull themselves up out of the slums and establish their own clinic, so they can also help the rest; they have different philosophies to approach to Void diving, but their friendship is the constant among the two. After a job goes wrong, and Jade is lost to the Void, Petra will be forced to go deeper than ever, an expedition to the deepest layer of the void in order to save her friend, and find whatever awaits her in the depths.
Petra is an excellent main character, one that we get to know as we get deeper into the Void; her anxieties and flaws, how she's plagued by insecurity, but also a person that is seriously trying her best. She might be too prone to trust others, but there's a real character growth in parallel with the plot; it's difficult to not empathize with her, especially in such a difficult situation.
What also traps you into reading this novel is the sheer creativity that is reflected in the own Void and its creatures: a six-layered location full of strange (and valuable) plants, mutated creatures and even some humans that have spent too much time in the Void; body horror is the name of the game, and each creature is even more terrifying than the previous one, a bit in consonance with the increasing danger of the layers.
The pacing is fast, as this is a relatively short story, devoid of fluff, going straight to the point; you can devour it in a few sessions.
What Feeds Below is a well-executed YA horror proposal, a sheer display of creativity in order to scare the reader while also giving us an enjoyable plot about a girl overcoming the difficulties. A solid novel by Tatiana Schlote-Bonne.
The Author/s
Tatiana Schlote-Bonne
Tatiana Schlote-Bonne (Shh-low-tee Bo-Nay) is the Indie and USA Today bestselling author of the horror novels What Feeds Below, The Mean Ones, and Such Lovely Skin. She has an MFA from The Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. When she’s not writing, she’s either gaming, lifting weights, or teaching people how to lift weights. She is of Japanese, Mexican, and European descent, and lives in Iowa. Find her on IG @thebuffwriter