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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
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.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
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 © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
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.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Sixteen-year-old Anna is a talented painter with a great future and supportive friends and family, but she secretly struggles with depression. Although she's had these feelings for a long time, she becomes increasingly obsessed with ending her life when her grandparents die in a car accident. Anna weaves a web of lies and makes several covert suicide attempts, but it's not until she overdoses on codeine that she is able to get help. Rotating narratives revisit scenes from different perspectives (Anna's, her mother's, and Anna's best friend Aliya's), allowing readers a greater understanding of Anna's mental illness, its warning signs, and its effects on the people around her. The realistic characters and gritty emotions are sometimes drawn with a clumsy hand in this high/low novel, but the message that depression is an illness, not a choice, resounds. In the preface, Kilbourne writes about the importance of openly discussing these topics. Use this short but detailed book in a classroom or book club setting to start a candid discussion on depression as a mental illness.--Seto Forrester, Amy Copyright 2016 Booklist
