Detached

by Christina Kilbourne

Overview

2016 VOYA Top Shelf Fiction Selection

Anna has always been so level-headed, so easy-going, so talented and funny. How could anyone have guessed she wanted to die?

Anna is not like other people. She’s always felt like she didn’t belong: not with other kids, not with her family, not in her body. It isn’t until her grandparents are killed in a tragic accident, however, that Anna starts to feel untethered. She begins to wonder what it would be like if she didn’t exist, and the thought of escaping the aimless drifting is the only thing that brings her comfort.

When Anna overdoses on prescription painkillers, doctors realize she has been suffering from depression and start looking for a way to help her out of the desperate black hole she never thought she would escape. It’s then that rock bottom comes into sight and the journey back to normal begins.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459734319
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

07/25/2016
Kilbourne (Dear Jo) thoughtfully addresses the topic of suicide through the story of Anna, a young artist who seems to have it all. Anna is starting classes at a new school where she can focus on her artistic talent, surrounded by those with a similar bent. She comes from a loving, well-to-do home and has friends, as well as the eye of a boy named Kyle. Yet those things take a back seat to the yawning void inside her, the insidious sensation that steals emotions and leaves her searching for a way to permanently give in to the darkness even as she tries to hide how she feels with lies and misdirection. Kilbourne draws readers deep into Anna’s thoughts and reactions, but the examination of the effects of suicide continues via the perspectives of Anna’s mother and friend, Aliya. Unfortunately, Anna’s recovery is rushed, especially in comparison to the attention given the events leading up to her suicide attempt. A too-pat ending and glossing-over of what mental illness treatment entails detracts from an otherwise sensitive and forthright discussion. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Detached is a brave book.

Canadian Materials

Kilbourne’s writing is strong; the novel is engaging, easy to read, and flawlessly alternates between the voices of three narrators … [she] delivers a gritty story that highlights the importance of friendship and family bonds.

Quill and Quire

With professional help, Anna realizes that she has everything to live for. With Kilbourne’s help, readers will have a better understanding of teen depression.

Resource Links

Addictive and powerful.

McNallyRobinson.com

Thoughtfully addresses the topic of suicide through the story of Anna, a young artist who seems to have it all.

PW Online

Use this short but detailed book in a classroom or book club setting to start a candid discussion on depression as a mental illness.

Booklist

Told in alternating first-person perspectives that include Anna; her mother; and Anna’s best friend, Aliya, this novel sheds light on mental illness.

VOYA Magazine

Use this short but detailed book in a classroom or book club setting to start a candid discussion on depression as a mental illness.

Booklist

Kilbourne's writing is strong; the novel is engaging, easy to read, and flawlessly alternates between the voices of three narrators ... [she] delivers a gritty story that highlights the importance of friendship and family bonds.

Quill & Quire

Detached is a brave book.

Canadian Materials magazine

06/01/2016
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

School Library Journal

2016-06-01
A depressed girl contemplates suicide.Sixteen-year-old Anna has astonishing talent as an artist, but she feels apart from the world. She has friends and a loving family, all apparently white, but even when her beloved grandmother dies she cannot seem to feel anything. A standout student at an elite arts academy, Anna paints the bridge she hopes to jump from, and it becomes the centerpiece of the school's art exhibition. Despite failing at several suicide attempts, Anna remains quite determined to kill herself, although she never articulates why, even to herself, and she conceals her impulses from everyone else. At last, however, she makes one too many attempts and winds up hospitalized. There, she receives treatment that brings her back to reality, and she also learns unexpected facts about her family's past that hold clues to her condition. Kilbourne writes Anna's story in first-person chapters told by Anna, her mom, and Anna's best friend, creating suspense by juxtaposing the different viewpoints. It's a convincing and affecting narrative about depression, stressing the fact that it is not the sufferer's fault. In the end, readers get a full picture of how good treatment can restore even suicidal patients to a full life. (Readers will wish they could have learned what finally happened to Anna's bridge painting, though.) Absorbing. (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews