Under Story by Chloe Benjamin
Your next book club read has landed with Chloe Benjamin’s new fantasy sci-fi! Under Story will leave you with the need to discuss every last chapter in detail.
I’m reeling after finishing Laurel and Eli’s time-bending journey. This is one of the times that reading an early copy is painful because this book is worthy of long talks about the meaning of life over many glasses of wine.
Laurel has decided to take a steward job — essentially a cafeteria worker — in Antarctica after her divorce. The reader knows she’s not handling things well, and as she opens up to her newfound family of scientists and fellow stewards, it’s revealed she feels responsible for the loss of her child. Enter the last person she ever expects to see walking off a plane onto the frozen tundra she now calls home — Eli, her ex-husband.
As it turns out, Eli has traveled to Antarctica to study a mysterious arc that has appeared out of nowhere. This “anomaly” is a stunning source of color and light, and that’s about all they know.
A Mysterious Second Chance
As the reader is taken back to the days Eli and Laurel fell in love, Part I paints a picture of a normal life until tragedy strikes. A tragedy so brutal that the anticipation of it had my heart racing only to completely break it a few pages later. So many emotions are expressed through a journey of grief that it’s impossible not to feel Laurel’s suffering.
The comic relief to be found back in the present day in Laurel’s coworkers turned found family. Benjamin struck the right balance during science-heavy passages. I found myself relating to quips like “I thought you said this was going to be interesting” and “Well, that explains everything,” expressed in the most sarcastic tone my mind could conjure. If there’s one thing I appreciate in science fiction, it’s when the author makes us laymen feel seen and a part of the story.
A plan unfolds a third of the way into the book, and I had full-body chills. I just knew this adventure wouldn’t allow me to put the book down once it kicked off. The shared loss between Laurel and Eli effectively created a helplessness that had nowhere to go but a place where there’s no risk they wouldn’t take for the possibility of another chance. And yes, the Arc is involved.
People often ponder the idea of what a person would give up for just one more day with their loved one. Laurel and Eli have the chance to risk it all, not knowing if they’ll get a day, a year, or a lifetime with their lost son, and I held my breath, holding hope for them. Knowing we can’t always get what we want, could I make peace with trying anyway?
When Science Fiction Hits Close to Home
There were scenes in this novel that I had a visceral reaction to. When the author is able to create an idea out of thin air and make it feel like something that could happen to you, you know it’s good.
I love a science fiction novel that doesn’t dumb the science down, and manages to translate complex ideas in a digestible way. Under Story strikes this balance beautifully — leaving me feeling a little smarter than I was before.
As with all sci-fi, I’m left wondering if I’ve profoundly changed the way I see the world or understood none of the concepts presented. I think that’s a good thing, though. What is the point if not to challenge the reader mentally and emotionally? While this has fantastical elements and time-bending science fiction, it is also a story of love and loss. Do you find the ones you love — romantic, platonic, and familial — in every timeline? Do you lose the ones you lost in every timeline? Some things aren’t meant to be undone. I was left feeling hopeful and sad in equal measure. What an incredible ride!
About Chloe Benjamin:
Chloe Benjamin is the author of The Immortalists, a New York Times bestseller, and The Anatomy of Dreams. Her third novel, Under Story, will be published in September 2026.
A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, LibraryReads favorite, and #1 Indie Next pick, The Immortalists was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and others.
The Anatomy of Dreams received the Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award and was long listed for the 2014 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
Originally from San Francisco, CA, Benjamin is a graduate of Vassar College and the M.F.A. in fiction at the University of Wisconsin. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages. She lives with her husband and two Maine Coon cats in the San Francisco Bay Area.
