Review: The Secrets of Underhill - Kali Wallace

Genre: Middle-grade fantasy

Published: Quirk Books, January 2025

My Rating: 3/5 stars

The Story:

Nick and her mother Theo are traveling arborists, moving from town to town to protect and care for the magical plants that the local community rely upon for a living. When their travels bring them to her mother’s hometown of Mistwood, they discover that a mysterious blight has been afflicting the Ironwood trees, which threatens not only the livelihoods, but the safety of large parts of the town. Alongside her cousin Oliver and their friend Lizard, who lives in Underhill - the poorest and hardest hit part of town- Nick sets out to get to the bottom of the mystery of the blight, getting involved in more than she bargained for…

What I loved:

It’s not hard to get me hyped for a cozy-middle grade adventure in a world with botanical magic. The Secrets of Underhill delivers just that. The world is beautiful and vivid and I loved how the author introduced themes of environmentalism and eco-consciousness through it, in a way that would make sense for young readers. Kali Wallace is a star at creating atmosphere; for more evidence look no further than City of Islands or The Memory Trees.

The characters are alright; I loved the friendship between Oliver and Nick, and the bravery shown by Lizard. I also really enjoyed that Nick’s mother Theo plays an active and supportive role in the story, rather than being the standard “absent parent” in coming of age tales.

And don’t get me started on the (magical?) dog character… Any inclusion of a cool dog-side character is a win in my book, both as a kid as well as as an adult.

What I didn’t love:

My favourite middle-grade novels have the power to transcend their age demographic, to where both children and adults can gain something from the story. This makes them so magical, when read together with your child. The Secrets of Underhill, although a fun story for kids up to I’d say about 10 or11, does little for older readers. The plot is very surface-level and it only truly introduces themes, rather than actually explore them. We have a strong environmentalist message, with a money-hungry company overmining natural resources, and it affecting the local community (specifically the less wealthy demographics). Yet this never moves beyond anything more than “cutting trees = bad”.

Similarly, there’s a character who uses they/them pronouns, yet not a word is actually spoken about their gender-identity or what this means to them. To an adult reader, the inclusion of these themes without actually addressing any of them in more depth may come across as performative.

On a story-telling level, I was disappointed with the final act. The resolution of the final problem simply felt too easy for the enormous stakes they were up against. Then, in the aftermath, a weighty choice is introduced to Nick, which could’ve been a powerful moment. Yet the way this is resolved felt like a cop out. [Nick is given a choice between continuing to travel with her mum as an apprentice arborist, or stay in Mistwood to settle and go to regular school and have regular stable friends. This is an incredibly big choice for her, addressing a conflict that has been introduced from the start. Except, she doesn’t really chose either: she tells her mother that she wants to continue traveling with her, but álso come back regularly to Mistwood so she can keep her friends etc. This just felt like the author telling kids: you don’t ever need to make hard choices, you can have your cake and eat it too. This last gripe could’ve just been a me-thing though…

Overall, an enjoyable read, but not a favourite for the ages. I’m absolutely watching out for whatever Kali Wallace writes next.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.