I'm not usually a fan of horror or spooky reads, but this one borders along the lines of mystery, science fiction and a touch of high school romance, too. That balanced out the darker side just a bit. But yes, this is creepy.

After switching schools for the years after her brother's sudden death, Marina returns to her earlier school and students she once knew but has drifted more than a little bit apart from. She immediately meets Brady and finds herself drawn to him. She also notices the letters DW engraved or graffitied everywhere. After watching Brady accompany a girl, who takes off on a train and doesn't return but is claimed missing soon after, she wonders what's going on. When she finds doors in the school's basement marked present, past, and today with only today not bricked closed, she's soon swept off to an alternate reality. Brady and others have already been visiting it, but what it holds may be more than any of them can handle.

This one starts with a bang and doesn't let go the entire way through. Something unexpected happens around every corner, and the mysteries pile up quick. Add the rich world building and hints of science fiction, and there's never a boring moment...barely time to breathe. That drives this read forward and makes it quick and easy to digest. It also left a few spots in a little bit of blur on the logic end, but these passed as fast as they came.

The world building is also well done and was more than just a little intriguing. The flip-flop with the alternate world...one based more on reality (no aliens or anything)...was well woven with more than a few chills and spooky thrills.

The characters offered a variety of personalities, and there was quite a bit of potential on this end, but these didn't sit quite as well for me as the rest of the book. Much of this was due to the very fast-pace. Little time was spent on allowing the characters to gain depth or even allow relationships to truly build. Characters follow other characters or suddenly entrust them with supposed secrets without any real reason to do so. This was also noticeable on the general character arcs, which offered little development.

But for those who love action pure with chills and goosebumps and amazing parallel worlds, this is definitely a read and an exciting ride.

I could NOT put this book down! This tale was woven together perfectly and had my attention from the very start. Both exciting and yet emotional at the same time.

Thank you to Wattpad, Smith Publicity and, Netgalley for providing me with the e-ARC of Down World by Rebecca Phelps.
This book will definitely be perfect for fans of Stranger Things, The Society and, Dark.
Down World creates a spooky, chilling, and almost haunting atmosphere - in both the progression of the plot and the way things are described/imagined.
There is a lot going on with the thriller side of this novel, so there is the chance to have rich imagery of the spooky aspect of Down World.
I did find myself getting annoyed with some of the characters and how they patronised Marina (but I also understand that this is part of the story and Marina's character arc).
Also, I personally couldn't connect to some of the characters on a deeper level, so this was a bit of a shame for me however I know that some readers will be able to empathise and connect better than I did.
If you are looking for a slightly scary easy read then this would be a great option.

Before I get into the review I have to say a quick thank you to NetGalley and the publishers over at Wattpad Books for giving me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Down World is about a girl whose brother has died and her new high school where the doorways to parallel universes are an open secret might give her answers to explain his death. This book comes out on March 30th and is available for preorder now.

I struggled with this book because it had such a great premise and such a lackluster execution. I love sci-fi and I love parallel universes where every decision can lead to different endings. But the main issue I had here was the lack of world building. I know it can be hard when you’re traveling to many parallel universes to really get the reader settled into each place. But I feel like it can be done well. Especially if you look at Passenger by Alexandra Bracken which has a similar problem but with time travel instead of parallel universes. That was done so well in that one and it fell flat for me here. Also, it really felt like the parents were the people we should have been following instead of the main character. It felt like she was just trying to clean up her parents’ messes.

I did enjoy the main character for the most part. I wish that she would have been a little less interested in the main male characters simply because so many other things were happening. Her whole world as she knew it was falling apart and she was kissing boys. Though, to be fair, I might also be kissing boys as the world falls apart around me. I’ve never been in the situation so I couldn’t say for sure. I think Keiran was an under utilized character which is too bad because he was such a sweetheart.

I wish the ending could have done a better job of exploring the main character’s new normal world after everything she’s gone through and all of the tough decisions that she’s had to make. For me, this was really just a “meh” book because of its general lack of depth which is too bad because I had such high hopes based off of the synopsis.

This one was trippy to say the least and the closest to Sci-Fi I think I have read in a while. I can understand why fans of Strangers Things (I've only watched the first few episodes) enjoy it.
At first, the concept seemed pretty simple after you realize what is actually going on with the train and missing kids. I thought, Oh, alternate universe, okay. She can just go visit her brother. Nope. Things start blending and melding and that got crazy.
It was kind of scary in a Coraline sort of way. Like things are just skewed a little until you are "home" but everything is warped. That is creepy in a way that is different than just being on a different planet, because you miss what you had and have to look at the people you love and they don't even know you. I understand why Marina was desperate to get Robbie back. I would do the same. I hate that her mother had that same desperation and left her. That would be heartbreaking for any child. And to come back to her dad being detained for her mother's disappearance. It's like no matter what reality she went to, it was getting worse and worse.
The ending was bittersweet. [ All that and she still didn't get her brother back. At least the sacrifice helped everyone else.

Addictive, enticing, entertaining, intriguing. This book sucks you in from the first page and demands your undivided attention to the very climactic ending! I loved the other-worldly vibe to this book and the dystopian like feel to the novel as the story unfolds. Imagine having three secret hidden doors that once you enter you can enter an alternate reality version of the world, different from your own. But once you enter it has consequences. You cannot stay too long, as strange things begin to shift and happen in the other world, and never, ever remove anything from one of the other worlds, no matter how big or small that thing might be… EVER! Or there WILL be consequences.

The novel is written in III parts. In Part I we follow Marina, her parents and her friends lives. Marina is new at her school at East Township. She is in high school (grade 10) and she quickly meets a boy named Brady on her very first day. They quickly become friends. One day she overhears Brady talking to another girl about the DW. Curious, she tries to find out what DW means, and finds out it means the Down World. One night she follows Brady and this girl to the old train station which turns out to be a portal to the DW. This location turns out to be the exact location where her brother Robbie died. In Part I we are introduced to the three doors in the basement of the school that leads to the Down World.

In Part II of the novel, Marina tells her father she is leaving to go away to “camp” and has a plan to sneak away with Brady and enter the DW in search of her brother, convinced that he is still alive out there somewhere. They are on the search for a group of people called The Mystics. In Part III of the novel Marina enters the portal at the train tracks in search of her brother. What she finds is shocking and disturbing, but exciting and new at the same time.

In a world where not everything is as it seems, and there seems to be infinite possibilities and choices to make, what choice would you make? Would you “rock the boat” so to speak and disrupt the Down World regardless of it’s consequences, would you leave everything good enough alone… what would you do? Would you enter the Down World? Would you stay there or would you retuurn?

I loved following Marina and her friends on their journey to the DW and reading their discoveries. It was an interesting concept for a novel and I loved reading along on their adventures. A great book that I definitely recommend!

A crush on a boy in her new school that is an ex-military base, leads Marina to learning about Down World, a doorway to different timelines, different realities. And she wants to find out what happened to her brother. But if you take something from one of them, you have to give something in return. Or there are consequences...

An inviting narrative, you feel instantly close to Marina and care for this basically sad and lonely girl, trying to get past her brother's death. She is good-natured, kind and has a steely determination. Amiable descriptions still vivid, in a way quirky and not. I really like the way information is given here so organically, in Marina's thoughts or through conversations.

It deals with grief and how we all cope with it differently, the power of family, of friendship. And it raises the actions have consequences notion to a whole new level.

Exhilarating but not so fast-paced as to not absorb the character development, the wonderful feeling of mystery and in many parts danger. I cannot express properly how much I enjoyed this book and how it tickled my weird bone, my love of strange occurrences and even stranger explanations. I love how it deals with the possibility of alternate timelines. A complex story done right, where you understand what is going on, never get confused, but are constantly surprised and always intrigued. This author's imagination is a wonderful thing.

Suspenseful, dripping with intrigue, delightfully unpredictable and twisty. This is an absolute MUST READ book.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher of this book for allowing me an Advanced Readers Copy in exchange of my honest opinion.

I don't even know how to begin this review. My mind is blown and my heart aches.
This has to be one of the best books i have ever read in my life.
First i want to express my opinion about the plot itself. This being about alternative realities and some time travelling, i am extremely satisfied with how the author managed to present and develop the story, every situation and turn of events introduced in the story was done perfectly and in a way that was not confusing at all.
Moving on to the technical part of the book, the language and resources the author used here made a whole difference. Not only the places, situations and events were explained in a way that was easy to understand and imagine, but there's something about the author's writing that did not allow me to see the full picture. I found that to be the thing that really caught my attention with this book and i loved it. Being able to comprehend what was happening but still know that there was something else i was missing only encoureged me to devour this book in less than two days.
I've always been intrigued by the butterfly effect and this story is the ideal example an reflection of it. How one action can change everything and how desperate one might become in order to make things go back to normal.
The end of the book got me in tears, it happens so fast and on the last pages that i'm still processing it. I went through a rollercoster of emotions with this piece and i couldn't be more satisfied with the end, although it may not be the one we all hoped for, it fitted perfectly.

This was an ok book! I'm not much on sci-fi books.
But overall this was an interesting story. Fast paced.
The ending was a little blah..... To me. But the book was mostly enjoyable enough.
This is definitely for young fans who is into sci-fi !

I wanted to love this. Had some promising elements, but I got lost somewhere amidst the many dimensions. Time travel/alternate realities are tricky to write and keep things cohesive and understandable. This tried a little too hard to be all things: portals, militaristic/political (ala Hunger Games), love triangle (actually involving 5 people!)...just became confusing and too much.

There's a lot to appreciate and enjoy about Down World by Rebecca Phelps. The concept Phelps works with is creative, and I was immediately struck by this author's use of dialogue. The exchanges among characters move the story forward, and the first person narration creates moments of intrigue as the reader explores this plotline along with the main character (Marina). There is an emotional core to this very clever story, which is probably what I appreciated most about it. Recommended for those who love the YA genre.