Oneworld’s Rock the Boat signs a 'haunting' new Gothic YA by Jihyun Yun

Oneworld’s Rock the Boat imprint has snapped up And the River Drags You Down, a "haunting" new Gothic YA by poet Jihyun Yun in a two-book deal.

Senior commissioning editor Katie Jennings acquired UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada but including audio, from Catherine Cho at Paper Literary, on behalf of Annie Hwang and Serene Hakim at Ayesha Pande Literary. Rock the Boat will publish the first book in the autumn 2025, simultaneously with Knopf Books for Young Readers in the US.

"The book is a Gothic YA inspired by a ghost story from Korean folklore about two sisters – one who dies under mysterious circumstances, and the other who brings her back, with devastating consequences," the synopsis says.

Jennings added: “I’ve been searching far and wide for a voice-led, multilayered Gothic tale and I’m beyond thrilled to be publishing Jihyun Yun’s unsettling, gorgeously written and deeply moving YA debut on the Rock the Boat list. Jihyun Yun is a rare talent and her unique, poetic voice, coupled with a raw, honest approach to grief really got under my skin. This is the spookiest and saddest of books – in the best possible way. I can’t wait to bring it to the broadest readership here in the UK.”

Hwang and Hakim added: “This novel taps into the horror of all-consuming (quite literally) grief and the relentless force of love in the face of it.”

Yun, who is the author of the poetry collection Some Are Always Hungry (University of Nebraska Press) said: “Writing this book was an exercise in negotiating with rather than against grief, and it is my hope that [it] resonates with readers wherever they may be in their journey towards something akin to healing.”