Under the Wolf, Under the Dog

Alternately heartbreaking and starkly humorous, this teenager's brutal story of escape and desire for redemption is masterfully told by award-winning writer and film director Adam Rapp.

I'm what they call a Gray Grouper. The Red Groupers are the junkies and the Blue Groupers are the suicide kids.

Steve Nugent is in a facility called Burnstone Grove. It's a place for kids who are addicts, like Shannon Lynch, who can stick $1.87 in change up his nose, or for kids who have tried to commit suicide, like Silent Starla, whom Steve is getting a crush on. But Steve doesn't really fit in either group. He used to go to a gifted school. So why is he being held at Burnstone Grove? Keeping a journal, in which he recalls his confused and violent past, Steve is left to figure out who he is by examining who he was.

KLIATT

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, September 2004: Steve is in a resident treatment facility for junkies and suicidal teens, and in order to figure out how he ended up there he keeps a journal, looking back at his life so far. And what a grim life it has been—his mother died of cancer a few months ago; his drugged-out older brother, a former basketball star sidelined by sciatica, committed suicide recently; and his father is almost catatonic with depression. "Grief does strange things to all of us," one character notes, and Steve, in trying to cope with his losses, goes off the deep end. He kicks in TV sets at his father's electronics shop, and gets so wasted on cough syrup he ends up blinding himself in one eye. He runs off with June, a young girl he meets, and then abandons her on a bus. The end holds out some hope, however, as Steve acquires a girlfriend and starts to come to terms with his past. As with Rapp's recent 33 Snowfish, this is a gritty, wrenching, and convincing tale about a teen in crisis, and the anguish Steve experiences comes across clearly. Black humor and memorable images abound, and there are echoes of Holden Caulfield, too. A disturbing but memorable read for mature teens. (An ALA Best Book for YAs.)

Adam Rapp is the acclaimed author of five previous novels for young adults, including, most recently, 33 SNOWFISH, which was named a Best Book for Young Adults (Top Ten Pick) by the American Library Association. In addition he is an accomplished playwright whose plays have been produced by the New York Theatre Workshop, the Bush Theatre in London, and the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Adam Rapp is also the author and director of WINTER PASSING, a movie starring Ed Harris and Will Farrell.