Title: Detached
Genre: Contemporary-Mental Health YA
Author: Christina Kilbourne
Publisher: Dundurn
Publication: ebook-August 13th/Paperback September 6th 2016
Cover Rating: 4/5
If you want to read an impactful book about teen suicide then I suggest thing book, highly! This was one of those books where it wasn't so much about the story or the world-building. It was about a subject matter, mental health, and I think the author did this book justice.
When I met Anna she was a little depressed. She felt like she was different from most kids but she also thought most people had the same feelings or thoughts that she did. As the book progressed I watched her make a steady decline. Her personality changed, she was getting more and more withdrawn from the world and you could just tell what direction everything was going. If only that was how the real world worked. If only we all came with little instruction pamphlets that other people could read and see a change in behavior before something horrible happens.
I love how the book was told in interchanging perspectives. It was mainly Anna, her best friend, Aliya and her mother. It was also really interested to see just how mental health had effected/affected all of these lives. From Aliya's aunt to, in the end, Anna's mother. It might not have been a direct effect to some people but even an indirect effect is enough to shake the very foundation of the world. Just knowing that the rate of teen suicides is rising each year is startling.
The family dynamic in this book was amazing. Sadly, not everyone has this kind of support system. But it was lovely to see the relationship between brother/sister, mother/daughter, husband/wife. Some relationships were strained and I think I would have rated the book lower if there wasn't at least a few strained relationships. It is nice to see such a great dynamic but the reality is there are more sad endings than there are good ones. There are more torn apart families than there are supportive ones.
Once I got about a quarter of the way through the book I read a specific part that kind of bothered me and I haven't been able to let it go. I know this is stupid but the line said something about it being September and it felt like the middle of summer... now, it doesn't say what day in September it is and the author is Canadian, I believe, and that's where the book takes place. So... it was the middle of summer. I have no idea why this little thing bothered me so much but it stuck with me for a long time.
The end of the book was inevitable. But as Anna was trying to piece her life back together the author used very vivid imagery to help show us how bad depression does hurt someone. This one moment in particular. Anna was staring out the window at something and just marveling in its color. I found that to be rather beautiful. As human beings we sometimes forget that this world we inhabit is beautiful. We are to busy to stop and just notice the little things in life.
Overall, I gave this book 4.5/5 stars.
*DISCLAIMER* I received this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the Publisher/Author for allowing me to read and review the book.
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