Under review

After Lukas’s adventure, Filippa is next to get a card with an image on it. And again, some of the young people go along to the location and wait for something to take place. After Filippa, it’s Joel’s turn, then Aya, and so on. Each chapter has a different protagonist and the reader follows them as they traipse around Uppsala, exploring the city and getting to know themselves and one another better. Relationships shift and change; one couple breaks up, while two other people get together, and yet other people share experiences that bring them closer together, or they reveal truths about themselves. Sometimes the places themselves matter, but in other chapters, it’s what occurs there that is the focus.

Every chapter is accompanied by two illustrations by Johan Unenge: one of the protagonist and  one of the location in question. The colours of the illustrations are bright and the locations are inviting; it’s easy to understand the wonder they are meant to arouse in the characters.

Under ('Wonder') can be described as an older middle-grade novel or a lower-level young adult novel; topics such as love and grief are not shied away from. As with many of Anna Ahlund’s books, there are a variety of sexualities and gender identities in Under. This variation is normalised, and all the characters are accepted, no matter how they identify or who they are attracted to. The one character who is less liked in the group is an insecure gossip who tells tall tales for attention and to influence the others; this person is reluctantly included in the group but their behaviour is clearly depicted as unacceptable and unwelcome.

Anna Ahlund’s book invites readers, like the characters, to see familiar people and places afresh, and encourages us not to be scared to be honest about who we are.