Dreaming of Antigone

Gr 9 Up—Life has been unfair to 16-year-old Andria: she was born with epilepsy, her father committed suicide when she was two, and five months ago, her twin sister, Iris, died of an apparent heroin overdose. As Andria tries to adjust to life without Iris, she focuses her energy on staying seizure-free for six months so she can obtain her much-wanted driver's license. During this time, she becomes reluctantly involved with former bad boy Alex, Iris's ex-boyfriend who Andria's family believed was a bad influence on Iris and responsible for her death. On top of feeling guilty for her relationship with Alex, Andria regrets so many other things, like her unawareness that Iris had developed a drug habit and her own actions on the night Iris died. Obvious similarities to Antigone abound, which Andria notes throughout the narrative, even referring to her own life as a Greek tragedy. There is confusion about who is good or bad in Andria and Iris's world, much like in Antigone and her sister Ismene's world. This novel is reminiscent of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You (Penguin, 2014), though not as sophisticated and aimed squarely at young adult readers.