Under the Wolf, Under the Dog

Rapp spoke on the IRA panel and talked about finding "his" voice in the pages of Catcher in the Rye, and about trying now to give voice to modern day Holdens. Yet the relative innocence of CITR (how did that book ever get banned?) is nothing like Rapp's world where broken kids sometimes land in equally broken institutions that try to fix them. Here, Rapp tells the story of Steve, doing time in a youth psychiatric hospital, stuck in the middle between Blue Groupers (suicidal teens) and the Red Groupers (addicts). Loaded with metaphors, allusions, and plenty of dog symbolism, Rapp gives voice to Steve telling about his life in the hospital, and the series of events which led him there. Rapp writes beautifully about ugly things, in show more particular a scene where Steve loses control and destroys a room full of television sets. Review originally appeared in Novelist. show less

This compelling narrative of journal entries by a 16-year-old boy immerses the reader into his deteriorating mental state. Unable to cope with his mother's death and his brother's suicide, he contemplates suicide himself. In a home for troubled teens he rediscovers “living.” The poetic language and gripping vivid images portray his spiraling out of control and his redemptive steps of recovery.

Steve Nugent is writing his story from a facility for troubled teens. He has survived his mother's death from cancer, and his older brother's suicide, but just barely. Here, he describes the events that brought him to this place. Because of his honesty, he's not always a likable character, but his story is compelling.

This is a depressing book and I would not be inclined to recommend it although it received the Schneider Family Book Award for Teens in 2006 and was the ALA Best Young Adult Book of 2005. The story is told in the first person by a 17 year old boy as a cathartic exercise suggested by a counselor in a private facility that houses teen drug addicts and suicidal risks. In 300, often agonizing pages, replete with horrific descriptions of his mother's advancing cancer, his brother's suicide by hanging,and his descent into a murky abyss of deep depression, erratic behavior and self mutilation, the story leaves an uncomfortable imprint in this reader's mind. Caution is advised.