Losing Christina

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Losing Christina is a three book young adult thriller series by Carolyn B. Cooney about a girl from an island who leaves her home to study on the mainland. She and her older friend, Anya, stay at a boarding house with the Shevvingtons. Mr. Shevvington is the principal of Christina's new school and Mrs. Shevvington is the English teacher. They seem like model citizens until they start to psychologically torture Christina and manipulate the people she loves into believing she is ungrateful and even insane. When Anya starts to lose her mind, Christina must engage in psychological warfare against the Shevvingtons to save her own mind and Anya's.

Tropes used in Losing Christina include:


  • Adults Are Useless: Though Christina never lied to her parents while she lived with them, they do not believe her word against Mrs. Shevvington's.
  • All Abusers Are Male: Averted. Mrs. Shevvington is arguably MORE evil and insidious than Mr. Shevvington.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: Christina and Anya's beauty gets described almost Sueishly in parts. Mrs. Shevvington's oatmeal face can never be mentioned enough.
  • Gaslighting: Naturally.
  • Kill It with Fire: The Shevvingtons end up trapped inside their own burning house and their remains are dumped out in front of the beach party guests.
  • Les Yay: Christina/Anya, Christina/Dolly.
  • Madness Mantra: Anya continually says, "the sea needs...me."
  • Most Writers Are Adults / Wise Beyond Their Years: Christina wins psychological warfare against two abusive adults when she is thirteen.
  • Nightmare Fuel: And how!
    • The ending of Fire when the Shevvingtons are burned alive and their remains are dumped out in front of beach party guests.
    • Pretty much the entire series.
    • The revelation that the Shevvingtons are collecting souls by taking away everything that matters to young girls and then forcing them to live in rooms surrounded by all the things they used to find beautiful or calming.
  • Paranoia Fuel: Hoo boy.
    • The painting constantly changing from a calm, quiet sea to a stormy violent sea.
    • Mr. Shevvington's changing contacts.
    • Objects like cigarettes randomly getting planted in Christina's bag to get her into trouble.
    • The real guest bedroom Christina moves into later in the trilogy, which seems to be a reflection of her soul.
  • Psychological Horror: The entire story.
  • Sadist Teacher: Both of the Shevvingtons are this.
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