The novel opens with Eliza describing the pain of dying. Her narratives describe her own personal journey of suffering from unipolar disorder in which she had unremitting depression and how she struggled to keep this illness a secret from everyone outside her family. Eliza reveals that she had trouble sleeping all through her childhood and her thyroid was tested when she was thirteen.
Ellie James Sokoloff has been to eight therapists in an effort to overcome her claustrophobia, all to no avail. She's given up on the therapy but is hoping that by continuing to force herself into closets or bathrooms she might heal herself. But stuffing herself in the bathroom of the suite she shares with fellow student Sam Whitker isn't working. Ellie and Sam are students at Ventana Ranch, a boarding school located in the Santa Cruz Mountains on the California coastline. Approximately one hundred fifty high school juniors and seniors, all of whom study natural sciences. Except for Ellie who is the first liberal arts student in the school. Ellie had hoped for a fresh start at Ventana Ranch. Her claustrophobia attacks began after her parents divorced and moved from California back to the East Coast. This was after first grade when Ellie was seven-years-old and she and her mother were living in an apartment in Manhattan. Despite seeing a child psychologist, a therapist, Ellie suffered many attacks. Thinking maybe the attacks were triggered by moving from the open air of California to the urban density of New York city, Ellie decided to apply to a school in California in the hopes of curing herself. Sam returns from a hike just as Ellie emerges from the bathroom in distress, telling her that someone is hacking the burls off of the redwood trees on one of the trails. Then they hear the sound of sirens and see the Coast Guard arrive.When Ellie sees them pull up a body with long blonde hair Ellie is shocked because it is Eliza Hart, once a childhood friend from kindergarten and grade one when Ellie lived in Menlo Park. Ellie was shocked to discover that Eliza was also enrolled at Ventana. Sam believes Eliza likely committed suicide but Ellie isn't so sure. Police set up floodlights around the area of the cliff where Eliza was found, leading Ellie to believe that the police are considering that Eliza might have been pushed off the cliff.
Ellie decides to walk down to the valley but on the way she overhears the Harts talking with Detective Roberts. He asks whether Eliza had depression and if there was anything strange about her in the days prior. While Mr. Hart is unresponsive, Mrs. Hart assures Roberts that Eliza was normal. They are joined by Alan Carson, the dean of students as well as Julian Alvarez who tells the detective that a week earlier he saw Eliza arguing with someone outside her dorm. Although he could not identify the person, he recognized Eliza by her blond hair. As a result of Julian's information Detective Roberts wants all students to remain on campus for interviews despite it being spring break, telling Dean Carson that police will monitor who comes in and out of the campus.
The next morning Ellie awakens to students gathering outside Eliza's dorm room window. The sight of the students brings back memories of the previous months and Ellie's struggle to fit in. By Halloween, the new start that Ellie had hoped for hadn't materialized; she was isolated and unable to make friends. In January, Ellie decided to reach out to Eliza and reconnect with her. She paid a visit to the suite Eliza shared with Arden Lin and Erin Smythe but her invitation to lunch was rejected by Eliza who accused Ellie of stalking her. Completely shocked, Ellie realized that it was Eliza who spread the terrible rumours that Sam told her at Halloween; that she is a pathological liar, sent to a school back east for troubled kids and who broke up her parents marriage. Ellie has no idea why Eliza hates her.
On Friday, Sam convinces Ellie to attend the memorial service for Eliza. She's reluctant because she knows everyone knows Eliza Hart hated her. But Sam is insistent. However, after the service, Erin and Arden confront Ellie and Sam. Erin threatens Ellie, telling her she will be telling the police about her stalking Eliza. Erin insists that it was Ellie fighting with Eliza that morning.
All of this distresses Ellie considerably. Sam tells her that the interviews will be conducted in Professor Clifton's old office which is small, meaning that Sam knows about her phobia. On Saturday the police begin interviewing students, so Sam suggests that they go for a hike as a distraction. During their hike on the Y trail, they encounter two men who are cutting the burls off of redwoods to sell. Ellie and Sam hide and listen as the men, one of whom is named Mack, talk about Eliza Hart. From their conversation it appears that they have been using Eliza's ID to gain access to the redwood forest on the campus that some of the money they earned through the sale of the burls was being split with Eliza. Ellie wants to go to the police but Sam insists that they do not have enough information.
With her police interview scheduled for 4pm that afternoon, Ellie decides that to learn more they need to follow Mack and the other man after they leave the forest. Ellie believes that learning more will help her clear her name and may help them understand what happened to Eliza. Little does Ellie know she will uncover a clue that will open the door to her own mysterious phobia while answering many of her questions about Eliza and her death.
Discussion
R.I.P. Eliza Hart begins as a murder mystery but evolves into a story focusing on mental health and the devastating effects it can have on sufferers and their families. After the body of classmate and former childhood friend, Eliza Hart is found on the cliffs adjacent to their school, Ellie believes that she is being considered a suspect in Eliza's death and she wants to know what really happened to this girl who inexplicably hated her. When she and roommate Sam discover that Eliza had a secret boyfriend and was involved with burl-poachers, Ellie decides to tell the police in the hopes of clearing her name. However, this information is not new to the police as Ellie later learns that Mack came forward to talk with them. When Ellie and Sam are unable to discover much about the Eliza's death, Sam believes they have to focus on the clue Mack gave them, that Eliza was afraid of Ellie because she saw something that happened involving Eliza's father.
It is Ellie's encounter with Alexander McAdams (Mack) that provides her with the clue as to why her friendship with Eliza disintegrated after first grade, why Eliza spread rumours about her and ultimately reveals what really happened to Eliza. Sheinnmel is able to create considerable suspense throughout the novel by having the character of Mack not reveal what Eliza had confided to him about Ellie. Mack tells Ellie that " 'You're the one who knows about her family,' he spits. 'She told me everything. You were there the last time her dad - ' He cuts himself off, shaking his head." At this point the novel now presents readers with two mysteries; that of Eliza's death and the mystery of what Ellie saw years ago at Eliza's home. Both of these mysteries are connected in some way. To solve the mystery of what Ellie witnessed years ago, Sam suggests they visit Eliza's home during the funeral in the hopes it will trigger Ellie's memory. This is successful as Ellie discovers why Eliza was afraid of her. "Eliza wasn't a mean girl. She was a frightened girl." The visit also leads Ellie to suspect that Eliza suffered from mental health issues in the same way her father did.
While the overarching story line is the mystery of Eliza Hart's death, both girls narratives detail serious struggles with mental health issues. Ellie Sokoloff is struggling with claustrophobia that has dominated her life since she was seven-years-old. Its effects have been to isolate her from her peers and make her prone to bullying. Her mother sought help for her and Ellie was treated by eight therapists without much success and at great financial and emotion cost to her mother. No therapist had been able to draw out the terrible memory Ellie had of Eliza's father cutting himself and which Ellie eventually identifies as the likely cause of her phobia. Despite the lack of success, Ellie continued to see therapists and even tried to cure herself by doing her own immersion therapy where she would force herself into situations that would set off an attack. She never gave up and when she does uncover the hidden memory she tells her mother, "I want to start going to therapy again..." and she insists that she see a specialist, "Someone who knows about repressed memories and claustrophobia....I'd like to try to stay. With therapy. See if things get better."
In contrast Eliza gives up. Eliza's chapters reveal how difficult her life was, coping not only with her father's serious mental illness but also her own. She first witnessed her father's attempt to kill himself when she was in kindergarten.His treatment was complicated with mixed results. Eliza had seen her father go "to a dozen therapists and tried more medications than a cancer patient" without getting better she is skeptical about therapy..."Most people who don't live with it think that therapy and pills will fix it. I believed that the first few times we sent Dad off to get his medication adjusted: Just a little tune-up and a little time off, and he'd be back better than ever." "It was years before I understood that treatment for mental illness isn't that simple. It's like living with cancer that goes into remission after a course of chemotherapy. It's under control, but it could still metastasize."
Eliza is unable to admit to herself that she is ill despite suffering from insomnia and depression, and being unable to feel strong emotions. Eliza is lonely, an only child like Ellie. And yet despite this, she is high functioning; a straight A student, winning swimming medals, attending class and going to parties. When her mother confronts her, Eliza tells her she's paranoid, "But I was lying. I knew what it was. I just didn't want to admit it." Even knowing she was luckier that most because her parents could afford treatment, Eliza can't go on. "How many times could they adjust my meds and try again? How many therapists' couches could I sit on, complaining about a life that seemed so good on the outside?...I'd run out of fresh starts. I'd had enough."
Her situation is tragic. The full extent of her struggle is finally revealed when Ellie and Sam go to talk with Eliza's mother. For Eliza, keeping up appearances was more important than getting the help she needed. It is during this chapter that the real tragedy of Eliza's struggle becomes apparent and it is heartwrenching.
Besides the theme of mental health, R.I.P. Eliza Hart offers readers the chance to consider the themes of self-acceptance, the meaning of friendship, and identity.
One of the best features of this novel is its cover which shows a girl in distress underwater. This image portrays Ellie's own description of her claustrophobia: "...whenever a door closes in a windowless room --an elevator, a closet, a bathroom--my lungs behave like I'm twenty thousand leagues under the sea, with no escape in sight." Ellie tells Sam, "It feels like I'm underwater. It's not the walls that are closing in, but wave after wave of water, threatening to drown me."
Overall R.I.P. Eliza Hart is a well-paced, riveting novel that blends mystery and realistic fiction and deals with the heavy issues of phobias, depression and suicide in a way that is very balanced.
Book Details:
R.I.P. Eliza Hart by Alyssa Sheinmel
New York: Scholastic Press 2017
324 pp.
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