The wait is over! The characters, mysteries, and overall story that made Alexandra Monir’s The Final Six so great are all back and better than ever in the series’ second installment, The Life Below.

The Life Below picks up where The Final Six left off in terms of plot but, unlike its predecessor that was charged with setting up the world and laying a lot of context groundwork, picks up the pace and is a nonstop thrill ride from start to finish.

Life in space is far more isolating that Naomi had predicted. While she isn’t completely alone up there, she may as well be. Though she knows her fellow astronauts, there’s tension between them. Part of that is due to Naomi knowing a bit more about their mission than the rest, particularly the terrifying risks they’re taking.

But in order to keep her family safe and give the future of humankind a chance of survival, she must go along with the mission and do her best to see it succeed. Though it never fully interferes, her longing for Leo and wondering where he is makes things more difficult. Well that, and a freak event that leaves the ship and the Final Six without a way of communicating with Earth.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, Leo has been secretly recruited to scientist Greta Wagner’s space program in the hopes of helping his fellow astronauts avoid their impending doom and reunite with Naomi. But all of the information Wagner fills in for Leo is only the top of the Europa iceberg in terms of the terrible danger they’re all facing. Danger(s) they’ll discover soon enough.

The Final Six, the first book in this series, felt a bit like a Hunger Games-inspired story, but with just a bit less death. However, with all of the training and information dumps, the story moved at an almost frustratingly slow pace at times. The Life Below, on the other hand, is almost the complete opposite.

From the first page, the story and the action (of which there is a LOT) moves along at a clip. In fact, although weeks (potentially months?) elapse in the solitude and vastness of space over the duration of the novel, it only feels like a few days. It never feels drawn out or meandering. On the contrary, it streamlines the time it takes to travel through space and makes it a pretty easy novel to breeze through.

Although time and events move rather quickly, they’re still treated with a fair amount of consideration and depth. Sure, there are moments of less-than-believable stakes or rushed action and decision-making (like not calculating new trajectories and the like when the Final Six’s ship mass fluctuates unexpectedly over the course of their mission), but there are also moments where the forward motion slows so that characters can process complex information and situations while on the run. The pace rarely deviates from its breakneck speed, but the book never sacrifices necessary actions or character developments to keep things moving along.

The dynamics between the Final Six chosen for the Europa mission are incredibly fascinating to watch unfold. In the previous book, there were sometimes so many characters that it almost didn’t seem worth investing in those that weren’t the two main players. Here, characters introduced in that first book are given space to breathe and really demonstrate who they are. The story is still told through Naomi and Leo’s alternating perspectives (with a surprise perspective thrown in at the very end) so it’s not like the secondary characters suddenly step into the spotlight. But they all get much more attention than before.

Speaking of Leo and Naomi, although the couple is separated by billions of miles, their love and affection for each other is still as strong and palpable as the day they parted. There are quite a few tender moments that happen between them in The Life Below that will make anyone shipping the two very happy. Those moments also add a necessary sweetness among the pretty horrifying revelations that are peppered in along the way and serve as reminders of why humanity’s future is worth fighting for.

There are definitely hints in The Final Six of the terror to come in The Life Below, but I will say that there’s a lot that took me by surprise. Questions of motivations and secrets get partial answers but really lead to more pressing questions. This novel will keep you guessing until the very end (and then some) because this isn’t the end of the story. The final climax (and really the other few climaxes that precede it) sets up a thrilling story for book three. One that will not only engross readers, but also prompt reflection on ethics and the role of humans in the wider universe.

Once it gets going, The Life Below never lets up. But it’s combination of satisfying character beats, moments of true terror, and interesting plot twists make it the kind of book you won’t be able to help but read in a single sitting.

About ‘The Life Below’ by Alexandra Monir

As Naomi lifts off into space and away from a rapidly deteriorating Earth, she watches the world fade away, and along with it Leo, a Final Six contestant she grew close to during training. Leaving Earth behind is hard, but what’s ahead on Europa, could be worse. The International Space Training Camp continues to hide the truth about what happened to the last group of astronauts who attempted a similar colonization but failed mysteriously. With one shot—at this mission and to Europa—Naomi is determined to find out if there is alien life on Europa before she and her crew get there.

Leo, back on Earth, has been working with renegade scientist Dr. Greta Wagner, who promises to fly him to space where he can essentially latch on to Naomi’s ship. And if Wagner’s hypothesis is right, it isn’t a possibility of coming in contact with extraterrestrial life on Europa—it’s a definite. With Naomi unaware of what awaits, it’s up to Leo to find and warn her and the others.

With all the pieces of their journey finally clicking into place, everything else starts to fall apart. A storm threatens to interfere with Leo’s takeoff, a deadly entity makes itself known to the Final Six, and the questions the ISTC has been avoiding about the previous failed mission get answered in the worst way possible. If the dream was to establish a habitable domain on Europa… the Final Six are about to enter a nightmare.

The Life Below by Alexandra Monir is available now. Be sure to buy your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore. Also, don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads “to read” shelf!