Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Mon Nov 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

An inquisitive girl encounters strange and monstrous phenomena while exploring a decaying shopping center.When Hailey, an Australian tween, is dropped off by her mum at a low-budget holiday childcare program in a shuttered mall, she isn't enthused. Plucky and adaptable (and one of the oldest kids in attendance), she easily evades adult supervision and meets Jen, an enigmatic teen who promises to show her more interesting things amid the urban decay. Eager to prove herself to someone older, Hailey follows Jen deeper into the expansive, crumbling complex. Meanwhile, the other children make a disturbing discovery: The building is infested with grotesque organisms that defy scientific explanation. Soon it becomes clear that something otherworldly is due to awaken, and Hailey and Jen lean on their tentative new friendship as they face the impending calamity. Gooch's distinctive cinematic style of visual storytelling is both sweeping enough to convey the incomprehensible scale of the skin-crawling horrors the characters face and also intimate enough to deliver poignant moments with impact. Color is inventively used as a storytelling device-shades of muted blues and reds alternate across and within layouts to denote shifts in perspective and create palpable tension. Hailey and Jen have light complexions with black hair and read Asian; there is racial diversity among the supporting and background characters.Coming-of-age meets cosmic horror; unforgettably striking, both visually and emotionally. (Graphic horror. 14-adult)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

An inquisitive girl encounters strange and monstrous phenomena while exploring a decaying shopping center.When Hailey, an Australian tween, is dropped off by her mum at a low-budget holiday childcare program in a shuttered mall, she isn't enthused. Plucky and adaptable (and one of the oldest kids in attendance), she easily evades adult supervision and meets Jen, an enigmatic teen who promises to show her more interesting things amid the urban decay. Eager to prove herself to someone older, Hailey follows Jen deeper into the expansive, crumbling complex. Meanwhile, the other children make a disturbing discovery: The building is infested with grotesque organisms that defy scientific explanation. Soon it becomes clear that something otherworldly is due to awaken, and Hailey and Jen lean on their tentative new friendship as they face the impending calamity. Gooch's distinctive cinematic style of visual storytelling is both sweeping enough to convey the incomprehensible scale of the skin-crawling horrors the characters face and also intimate enough to deliver poignant moments with impact. Color is inventively used as a storytelling device-shades of muted blues and reds alternate across and within layouts to denote shifts in perspective and create palpable tension. Hailey and Jen have light complexions with black hair and read Asian; there is racial diversity among the supporting and background characters.Coming-of-age meets cosmic horror; unforgettably striking, both visually and emotionally. (Graphic horror. 14-adult)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this tightly plotted creature feature, 12-year-old Hailey begrudgingly attends a holiday program in a defunct Australian shopping center that’s still recovering from damages by an explosion 12 years ago. She evades adult supervision and aimlessly explores the structure’s dilapidated remains until she meets Jen, an enticingly independent teenager who offers to show Hailey the building’s more interesting elements. Upon arriving in the mall’s flooded parking garage, the pair find a massive egg, which Jen reveals is her true form. Jen demonstrates additional physics-defying abilities and invites an intrigued Hailey into her psychic “private space,” an alternate realm depicted as a crimson wasteland punctuated by a giant lupine skeleton, the remnants of Jen’s mother. Meanwhile, an infestation of a different type of egg transforms the shopping center into a militarized quarantine area that is quickly rendered futile as the visceral, brain-like objects begin merging into one enormous creature. Red-tinged panels that recount the dramatic death of Jen’s mother alternate with blue-toned scenes of the eggs’ alarming and malicious reassembly until the two parallel stories unite in an inevitable showdown, culminating in an eerie and introspective graphic novel by Gooch (Under-Earth, for adults). Character skin tones match the white of the page. Ages 13–17. (Jan.)

School Library Journal (Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 8 Up— When an explosion levels 20 city blocks, the tragedy plays out in unexpected ways. For Hailey, it means ending up in a discount day camp while her mom goes to work, as Hailey is too young to be safely home alone. While helping the teacher round up wandering kids, she meets Jen, who stokes her rebellious fires and shows her something no one else knows about in the partially submerged underground car park. What has been lurking in the shadows and discarded areas of this Australian cityscape? The friendship between Haliey and Jen develops quickly because both are suffering from similar kinds of loneliness: each of their bonds with their mothers are strained and they find a kindred spirit in each other. It can be rare that a dark and haunting science fiction story has such wonderful and emotional characters. VERDICT Gooch is a powerhouse storyteller, flawlessly joining dread and whimsy in this tale that will delight anyone who has ever wanted to face danger with a friend. In Utero has all the elements of a blockbuster film and will likely fly off shelves.— Adam Fisher