Tag Archives: Depression

Review: Detached by Christina Kilbourne

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

detachedDetached
Christina Kilbourne
Dundurn Press
Available August 13, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After her grandparents’ unexpected deaths, Anna begins to feel untethered from her life. She fantasizes about suicide, the only end to the awful pressure of existing that she can see. On the outside, her best friend Aliya senses something isn’t right with her usually level-headed friend. But as Anna’s behavior becomes more and more erratic, it’s hard for her friends and family members to face the truth that something is deeply wrong.

This is a fairly dark story about a teenage girl suffering from depression. What I liked most was having the inside and outside views of Anna—in her point-of-view and her friend Aliya’s. I found it easy to empathize especially with Aliya because while she watched Anna spiral downward, she wanted to help, but she didn’t want to overreact. Where’s the line between someone having an off day versus some kind of deeper masked depression? I had several friends who wrestled with thoughts of suicide in high school, so that definitely resonated with me.

There are a couple of sections of the story written from Anna’s mom’s point-of-view that I didn’t think were really necessary. Of anything, they felt the most preachy and repetitive, since often we saw the same scene again through Anna’s perspective.

Often a story about depression (sometimes even without meaning to) glamorizes the depression itself. This story doesn’t do that. Anna’s feelings are disturbing, even to her, but she feels trapped by them. They make her blind to the things going on around her—things like the boy who has a crush on her, and the joy she once felt spending time with her friends. Detached captured that element of depression really well, I thought, and it also offers hope without feeling chastising or belittling to Anna’s experience. We see the trauma that not only she experiences. We see it in the reactions of her family members and her friends.

While I think this is a great examination of depression and suicidal thoughts, some of Anna’s ideas and pursuits are a bit graphic. This might not be a good read for someone in the midst of these kinds of feelings. Friends and family members of someone suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts might find the window into Anna’s and her family’s experiences validating or helpful.

See the content notes for additional information.

Cultural Elements
None.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Moderate profanity. The first half only uses mild profanity infrequently. After an intense event, Anna ups the ante and swears quite a bit (which she acknowledges).

Romance/Sexual Content
Kyle hopes to ask Anna out, but instead chickens out.

Spiritual Content
Anna briefly contemplates jumping in front of a car to end her life, but worries about facing God afterward. What if she killed innocent people in the process?

Later, she comments that maybe God figures she deserves to die after all when one of her plans to kill herself seems to be coming together easily.

Anna faces her family’s grief over her depression, and for a moment wishes to go back to believing she succeeded with her suicide.

Violent Content
Anna spends a lot of time fantasizing about and planning her suicide. She makes several attempts to kill herself, one of which is pretty violent. A boy hangs himself in a tree on Halloween. He appears to be the victim of bullying.

Drug Content
Anna and her friends sneak off to parties a couple of times. Anna drinks beer and lies to her mom about it. Aliya and her friends also drink.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Remember to Forget by Ashley Royer

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Remember to Forget
Ashley Royer
Zonderkidz

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

After Delia’s unexpected death, seventeen year-old Levi spirals into depression, unable to speak to anyone. When several attempts at therapy fail, Levi’s mom sends him from their home in Australia to Maine to live with his estranged father. Bitter, angry, and hopeless, Levi’s determined not to let anyone into his life, especially the girl who reminds him so much of Delia. For her part, Delilah’s content to let Levi to himself. He’s rude and erratic, definitely not the kind of guy she needs in her life. But beyond his angry exterior, she senses his deep hurt and finds herself powerfully drawn to the aching boy caged behind his silence.

Crafting an angry yet likeable character has to be one of the hardest challenges in literature. While it was clear that Levi’s deep grief often motivated his surly outbursts, I found it hard to understand why Delilah was so captivated with him. It’s a pet peeve of mine, too, for a story to follow a romance between a hero with what could become abusive behavior (unpredictable, explosive anger.) While we’re supposed to know and believe in the ultimate well-meaning, sweetness of Levi’s heart, his behavior toward Delilah is, at times, disturbing. He never hits her or anything like that. But honestly, when a boy behaves the way Levi does toward Delilah, we tell her to lose that guy.

All that said, I know we are supposed to root for him and want him to find healing. Certainly healing from grief is a journey, and it’s noble to stand by someone through that process. I think I just needed to see something admirable in Levi. Some reason for Delilah to invest besides the simple mysterious cause of his anger/grief.

I don’t know much about selective mutism, though I’ve read a review on the blog Disability in KidLit of a book dealing with progressive mutism. (I’d be interested to see what they say about the portrayal in this book as well.) I liked that in Remember to Forget, it wasn’t a simple matter of Delilah being the one to break through Levi’s silence. I like that his healing came in layers, too. Though he struggles with continuing to take his medication, the meds do ultimately play a positive role in his recovery.

Over all, this was a pretty simple, sweet story about a boy recovering from grief and learning to give himself permission to be happy again. As far as content, it’s fairly clean. See below for details.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
Aiden and Delilah take Levi to a party where teens drink alcohol. Delilah and Levi don’t drink, but Aiden does. Delilah and Levi leave him at the party.

Levi takes several medications to manage depression and anxiety. He struggles with feelings about the medication and sometimes avoids taking it. Levi also smokes cigarettes. He eventually, he decides to quit.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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