Book Review: Underneath, A Novel (OT)(morbidly obese mother kills her children)

Underneath, A Novel, by Lily Hoang (Red Hen Press, 2021, 260 pp, $16.95)

In a word, wow!

A "Fictionalized True-Crime Novel"

We know how it ends and yet we still find it mesmerizing. We know she kills all four of her children but we read on to find out how - and why - and when.

Told primarily by the last, the oldest child of four (from three separate men), to be murdered by her morbidly obese mother, Underneath is spell-binding. You almost want to read it in one sitting but you can stop anywhere and come back to it. You also want to rescue the child narrator who is more adult-y than her young mother whom she loves because, of course, we love our mother. And you may also, just maybe, want to rescue even the mother - as a child, that is.

You will want to understand how and why but you really can't. You do sympathize, you do follow this true tale of revenge, or, rather, redirected and misplaced revenge. Does crime pay? In the end?

Who Can Benefit from Underneath?

Anyone who has a problem, anyone who doesn't fit in (doesn't this describe us all at some time?), anyone who eats when upset (don't we all have our comfort food?), anyone who has been bullied or has seen someone else being bullied - you may not solve your own situation but you will feel that others understand. 

And you will understand the title and the cover illustration, but maybe not the color of the cake on the color.

Written by a five-time author-English professor, Underneath's story will stay with you, one you will want to discuss with others.

Stylish

Author Lily Hoang has melded prose and not-quite-poetry and has varied the voice - from the story being told by the mother as a young girl to being told by the girl who is no more. Hoang interweaves conversation and narrative so well that even though she does not tell you who the narrator is (and it changes), the reader knows. And the astute reader will notice several chapters with identical titles. . . . all, food for thought - and for discussion, but not English class discussion. Rather, average person discussion.