Detached - Softcover

Christina Kilbourne is the author of Dear Jo, which won three reader’s choice awards. Her writing has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Slovenian, and Ukrainian. Christina lives in Bracebridge.

Gr 9 Up—Anna is a talented artist, has great friends and trusting parents, and goes to a wonderful art school, but she's not happy. In fact, she feels disconnected from her life, friends, and family. When her grandparents die in a tragic car crash, Anna's thoughts of suicide take over and she tries multiple times to end her own life. Finally, she manages to hoard enough prescription painkillers to overdose—a clean, easy death. That attempt is a failure, too, and Anna must begin the long climb out of depression and back to the world of the living. Told from alternating points of view, Anna's story unfolds slowly and is somewhat lopsided; most of the book is dedicated to her suicide planning, while very little time is given to her treatment and recovery. Kilbourne's storytelling is rather flat, and the plot drags through Anna's multiple suicide attempts and her mother's and friends' oblivious reactions to her cover-ups. There is a hopeful ending, but most teens won't connect with Anna or the other main characters. VERDICT An additional purchase for school and public libraries that need to beef up their selection of books about mental illness.—Ashley Fetterolf, Indian Creek Upper School, Crownsville, MD