Going Under

by Kathe Koja

Overview

Because all my life had been a chrysalis, with you, Ada and Marshall and our house; even though we did other things and saw other people, the summers at the lake, and all those homeschoolers' parties, it was still always just – us.

Hilly and her brother, Ivan, have been homeschooled by their parents. All their lives it has been just the two of them – Ivan and Hilly, brother and sister, pilot and copilot. Until Hilly breaks out of their cozy cocoon to work on the local high school literary magazine as an extracurricular activity. Ivan feels betrayed: it's no longer just the two of them. And when Hilly goes into a depression after the suicide of a friend she has made at the magazine, she drifts even further away from Ivan. Hilly's parents insist that she see a psychotherapist. Ivan steps in to help manage Hilly's recovery by taking her to and from her appointments but compounds the betrayal by establishing his own relationship with the manipulative therapist.

Through the alternating voices of Hilly and Ivan, and drawing on the myths of Persephone and Narcissus, Kathe Koja explores the souls of two teenagers caught in a world where love takes you deeper than you ever dreamed you'd go.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374326821
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	09/05/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

KATHE KOJA is the author of several notable books for young adults, including Buddha Boy and The Blue Mirror, both ALA Best Books for Young Adults. She lives near Detroit, Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

Koja's (The Blue Mirror) novel explores the complex relationship between a teenage brother and sister, through their alternating first-person narratives. Hilly's friend recently committed suicide, and Hilly continues to be haunted by it, so her parents take her to a psychiatrist. Hilly's older brother, Ivan, believes that all Hilly really needs to do is to write about the event. As a stall tactic, he convinces their parents to switch Hilly to another psychiatrist with a long waiting list-who specializes in adolescent girls and coauthored a book called Persephone's Crisis: Adolescence and Separation. But Dr. Roland takes on Hilly right away; she (and, likely, readers) sees through the narcissistic doctor immediately, but Ivan does not. The man starts to play the two siblings against each other; again, Hilly is onto him, but Ivan begins to distrust his sister. The Persephone myth looms large, as Hilly flashes back to an experience in a cave (in a theme that is never fully flushed out), and hides under a tarp outside to write in a secret journal. Unfortunately, the nature of Hilly and Ivan's relationship remains muddied. Yet Koja crafts some striking moments in connecting the two siblings' chapters ("I don't mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy," Ivan admires from Roland's book; later, Hilly observes about her doctor, "Maybe telling the truth was like lying, for him"), and Hilly grows through the course of the book, emerging from her hell as the healthiest of everyone in her confused family. Ages 14-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 9 Up-This novel mixes themes of betrayal, independence, and psychological manipulation with recognizable ancient Greek myths in a modern-day setting. A conniving psychologist pits two gifted, home-schooled siblings against one another, the narcissist Ivan and younger, more vulnerable Hilly (likened to Persephone). In alternating chapters, carefully paced to escalate the tension, each one tells about the assaults on their formerly close relationship. Hilly grows and finds her inner strength while Ivan simply refuses to change until his self-image cracks. Well executed in its setup, in its foreboding aura, and in the feel of each person's voice, the end result is unfortunate; the underlying character motivations are unconvincing. With the exception of Ivan's urgently earnest psychobabble ("sickness can-be utilized as a mode of defense, a deep moat of illness around the castle of personality"), neither one of the siblings appears to be either extraordinary or worth the machinations of the villain, whose "evil" actions are themselves unbaked. Still, for some sophisticated readers, the sense of paranoia and mythological references will resonate with deeply felt significance.-Rhona Campbell, Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

This distinctively ambiguous story features Hilly and Ivan, two intelligent, home-schooled siblings, and tells how their relationship is forever changed as Hilly copes with a tragedy shortly after making the decision to work on a literary magazine at a public school. Older brother Ivan has a curious and inappropriate amount of power over Hilly and their parents, leading readers to wonder if something sinister lies beneath the surface of the narrative. Hurt at Hilly's decision to have a life outside of their familial cocoon, Ivan takes control of her recovery, encouraging her to journal her feelings and see a therapist. But the therapist, too, embodies something disturbing, and eventually he seduces Ivan into betraying Hilly for his own gain. Ivan's and Hilly's voices alternate to tell the story, and seem to embody the myths of Persephone and Narcissus, which are heavily alluded to throughout. Like many Greek myths, Koja's narrative is laced with foreboding, but an uncertain ending leaves readers to decipher the story's messages about family, intense love and betrayal. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews