Maureen Johnson. THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH

This is the sequel to THE NAME OF THE STAR, which I loved and reviewed here. MADNESS begins shortly after the near death events from the first book. Rory is recovering at her parent's house in Bristol. But she simply wants to get on with her life. She can't talk to anyone about the actual events that led up to the stabbing, since they involve the secret ghost-fighting society, in which she's a quasi-member.So she'd like to just go back to Wexford and continue school.

Rory finally convinces her parents that she's ready to go back to school, and she heads back to try to catch up on all that she's missed. but just as she's settling back in, she gets caught up in a murder that she swears was committed by a ghost. She gets Stephen, Callum and Boo involved and realizes that she may never be just a "normal" high school student anymore.

This one took a while to really get going. There was a point when I began to wonder if I wanted to finish it. It was really slow. It had the wonderful characters, sense of humor and quirkiness that I expect from Maureen Johnson. But there just wasn't a lot going on until about half-way through. Then some really interesting characters were introduced, along with some cool historical aspects that I enjoyed. But the last few chapters really stood out and the book finished up with a shocking ending. So, of course, I'm going to be excited when the next book comes out.

If you enjoyed the first book in this series, you'll want to read this one too. And if you've been living under a rock all these years and haven't read anything by Maureen Johnson, by all means get right on that! My favorite is SUITE SCARLETT. Check out the other books I've reviewed by her here. You will LOVE any of them. Her characters and memorable settings are fabulous!

In closing, the trailer: