Under Story

Author: Chloe Benjamin
Genre: Speculative Fiction
512 pages
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, September 2026

Synopsis
The New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists returns with an intimate yet epic love story—and a sweeping odyssey of scientific discovery. Under Story invites us to consider the promise of this life, what might lie beyond it, and how far we would go for more time with the people we love, cementing Chloe Benjamin’s place among our best, and most lasting, storytellers.

“We wake up to tomorrow, never yesterday.”

At the end of the world, biologist Laurel Salter is hiding from everything she’s ever known. For ten hours a day, six days per week, she works as a dishwasher at McMurdo Station, an isolated research base in Antarctica. She tells no one that before she arrived, she was a renowned young scientist with a promising career, a husband, and a family.

But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can’t outrun her past. When a strange light appears across the ice—and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo—her former husband, Eli, won’t be far behind.

Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole, and into a world, they can barely imagine. Can she persuade him to risk everything to fix the burden that hangs between them—to turn back the clock and live their story a second time?

A breathless page-turner and a love letter to our planet, Under Story grapples with the great questions of our time: human hubris, the precarity of the natural world, and the mysterious webs of consciousness that bind us. A modern epic of science and soul, of bravery and redemption, it offers a vision of the future that demands we reckon with what we owe to one another, and to the earth itself.

My review
Under Story by Chloe Benjamin completely swept me away. It’s an emotional, captivating novel that I truly couldn’t put down. While it lives firmly in the realm of speculative fiction, it’s also a profound love story between two people, between parents and their child, and between humanity and the natural world. I felt completely transported into the world Benjamin created, one that was so vivid and convincing that I’m still thinking about it.

This is an ambitious novel in the best way possible. It feels both intimate and universal, balancing personal grief and longing with questions that stretch far beyond one family. It’s a tender, thoughtful exploration of love, aging, memory, and the risks we’re willing to take to reclaim what we’ve lost. Benjamin redefines what a love story can be. She crafts a duoverse that feels grounded and entirely plausible, turning a high-concept premise into something emotionally real.

The characters are authentic and believable. I could feel their heartbreak, their longing, and their desperation to recover not only what they lost, but who they once were, individually and together. Their willingness to venture beyond the known in the face of devastating loss made their journey powerful and compelling.

The novel is rich with science, and it’s clear Benjamin did her research. I sometimes lose interest when a story leans too heavily into technical detail, but that never happened here. Benjamin has an gift for making complex ideas accessible without oversimplifying them. Even when I didn’t fully grasp every scientific nuance, I never felt left behind. (I now know far more about fungi and neutrinos than I ever expected!) The science is essential to the world-building and to the emotional arcs of the characters.

Under Story is bold in its scope and beautifully written. Benjamin’s storytelling is immersive, intelligent, and deeply affecting. It’s a world I would step back into in a heartbeat. I’m calling it now. This will easily be one of my top five novels of the year.

Many thanks to NetGalley, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Chloe Benjamin for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

My recommendation: an amazing story and definitely worth the read!