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UnderratedReads is devoted to discovering underrated books and under-represented authors. We highlight hidden gems from around the world–honest reviews only, never pay-to-play.
Category Archives: Fiction
Goldenseal – Maria Hummel
(Reviewed by JD Jung) Lacey and Edith, ages seventy and seventy-one respectively, have been estranged for forty-four years. It’s now 1990, and Edith decides to travel across the country to visit her one-time best friend. Lacey, born in Prague, … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Fiction, Modern Literary Fiction, Reviewers' Top Picks
Tagged friendship, Los Angeles, relationships, socio-economic class, WWII
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My Killer: A Supernatural Crime Thriller – Gary Sherbell
(reviewed by JD Jung) NYC assistant district attorney Joel Marcus has made a lot of enemies as a prosecutor. Add to that, he is unhappily married, but stays because he loves his young son. To get through all this, he’s … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Sci-Fi/Speculative/Fantasy/Mythology
Tagged Crime, prejudice, supernatural, thriller
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Mission Churchill – Alex Abella
(reviewed by JD Jung) 1933-Havana Cuba: Irishman Marcus Riley’s objective is to kidnap the visiting Winston Churchill and hold him hostage in exchange for IRA members serving time in London prisons. However former Detective Inspector Walter Thompson, now serving as … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Historical Fiction
Tagged Cuba, London, Nazism, political fiction, thrillers, Winston Churchill, WWII
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The Shining – Dorothea Lasky
(reviewed by JD Jung) The Shining, a collection of over thirty poems, takes us to places similar to those that the Overlook Hotel made famous through Stephen King’s novel and Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same name. Though just as … Continue reading
Posted in Dark/Sordid/Bizarre, Poetry
Tagged artists., identity, poetry, relationships, self-destruction
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Forgottenness – Tanja Maljartschuk, translated by Zenia Tompkins
(reviewed by JD Jung) “I was an inconsequential being who had suddenly become deathly afraid of life.” Our present-day narrator suffers from mental/psychological disorders: frequent panic attacks, obsessive compulsive disorder, substance abuse, and changing levels of agoraphobia. Eventually she breaks … Continue reading
Posted in Historical Fiction, Slavic Literature, World Literature
Tagged history, mental illness, political activism, politics, Ukraine
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Ilium: A novel – Lea Carpenter
(Reviewed by JD Jung) “The game of espionage, at its essence, is observation, seduction, patience. And a fluid relationship with your sense of self. To commit espionage at the highest levels you have to be willing to forget who you … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Reviewers' Top Picks
Tagged CIA, espionage, M16, Mossad
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Broadcast Blues (Clare Carlson Mystery Book 6) – R.G. Belsky
(Reviewed by JD Jung) Clare Carlson, news director for Channel 10 News in New York City is experiencing a mid-life crisis. She’s about to turn fifty years old, three times married, and still looking for Mr. Right. Let’s also not … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers
Tagged crime fiction, murder, New York City
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The Vacation House – Jane Shemilt
(Reviewed by JD Jung) 2003 -Thirteen-year-old Sofie and her family toiled at a vacation house on the island of Paxos, Greece. This house was owned by a wealthy British family and frequented every summer by them and their friends. When … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Mystery and Thrillers, Reviewers' Top Picks
Tagged class, Greece, London, Sexual abuse
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Violets – Kyung-Sook Shin, translated by Anton Hur
(reviewed by JD Jung) #CommissionsEarned “San’s attraction did not originate this summer. But rather it has lain in wait for millennia before bursting forth all at once. “ San was no stranger to abandonment. Her father left right after she … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Far Eastern Literature, World Literature
Tagged culture, Korea, mysogeny, Seoul
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