Beneath

A Novel

By: Ariel Sullivan

Narrated by: Brittany Pressley

Hundreds of years before the Illum ruled supreme, humanity risked everything to rebuild after a devastating war in this explosive dystopian romance and prequel to Conform.

Twenty-three-year-old Sasha Cadell knows time is running out in the underground city, filled with survivors of the nuclear fallout six years ago. She works in the Expansion Sector, trying to escape the memories of those she lost. Her bleak existence is upended when Tristian Hayes, a stunningly handsome, frustratingly determined commander of the Force, recruits her to join him and his elite team of soldiers as they embark on a secret mission to the surface.

Sasha is thrust into brutal training with stakes far beyond mere survival. The fate of the remaining humankind depends on their success—or failure. As she confronts her own demons, Sasha finds both allies and foes in the training program, as well as a sizzling attraction between her and Tristian that threatens the walls she’s built around her heart.

But under the surface, secrets and deception run as rampant as illnesses. And not everyone will survive the rise of a power more terrifying than anything they’ve ever known.

Critic reviews

Praise for Beneath

“As someone who is forever chasing the feel of reading The Hunger Games and Divergent when I was in middle school, Conform might be the closest I’ve gotten to it yet.”—Cosmopolitan

“A dystopian love story that will have you yearning for more from main characters Sasha Cadell and Commander Tristian Hayes, who are set to embark on a secret mission to save mankind.”—US Weekly


Praise for Conform

“Luminous.”—People

“Ariel Sullivan is a writer to watch.”—Sarah J. Maas

“An irresistible romantic debut.”—Veronica Roth

“I couldn’t put it down.”—Jessamine Chan

“A must-read.”—Jean Kwok

“Utterly transportive.”—Michelle Min Sterling

Lots of potential

I’ve enjoyed both books by this author and I understand cliff hangers are needed. That said after being left out to dry on book 1, my expectations of the prequel book 0 is to bring us to book 1, not happy with where it stops.

Overall it would have gotten 4 stars but I couldn’t because of the ending and lacking character development it gets 3 stars overall.

Narrator/Performance was good 4 stars. The story is good so 5 stars there.

Good pace, but repetitive

The plot moves forward well, despite leaving many loose threads. The main character backstory starts to get repetitive about halfway through without adding any new insight into their actions. Other character development would have brought more to the table than this repetition. Sex scenes seemed to be for the sake of having sex scenes without bringing much realistic thought to how characters would behave in the situation. The narrator is great.

Hit all the marks!

I was QUICKLY captured by this book - blazed through it in less than 3 days. One of those books I stayed up late past my bedtime for! Time to catch up on sleep haha

Deaths Angel

Oh wow. Dystopian done so right!

Narrator was PHENOMENAL

Story just wow the last 20 percent 🤯🤯🤯🤯 insane.

The epilogue…..WHAT, HOW, WHEN???


Listen to this now. You won’t regret it.


And ummmm TABITHA 🫨🫨🫨🫨

The twists!!

4⭐️

The twists in the last 25%--WOW! As someone who usually guesses correctly what the twist(s) will be, this ending had me totally shocked! I had to listen to some end chapters up to 3x though to really understand what was going on.

I enjoyed the writing style and storyline. However, the gang of characters had very similar personalities to the Fourth Wing characters: your hottie, your jokester, your bitter female, your loyal Dain, etc. It felt a bit unoriginal. Also, the FMC needed to get over her issues. She talked about them (to herself) ALL THE TIME and clung to them like a child who doesn't want to let go of his security blanket.🙄

This is not a slow burn, but the MMC and FMC getting together made sense to me. There are a few spicy scenes. There is a side gay couple.

The narrator was SUPERB!!!!

I will definitely continue with this (and the Conform) series.