Drowning Anna

Publishers Weekly

"Opening with the attempted suicide of a 15-year-old, Mayfield's intense novel unspools at a breakneck pace," PW said. Ages 12-up. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

VOYA

Anna Goldsmith finds herself in a serious situation when she suddenly becomes the butt of another girl's diabolic behavior. The stress forces fifteen-year-old Anna to sink deep into a mind/body disconnect that leads to acts of self-mutilation and eventually to attempted suicide. Taking its lead from front-page news stories, this story set in a private London school portrays what happens when bullying and teasing get out of control. Although there is a point at which parents, friends, and teachers become aware of what is happening to Anna, everyone, it seems, is unwilling to admit to the severity of her circumstances, expecting Anna to "buck up" until the disturbance blows over. Not until several journal entries discovered after her suicide attempt reveal the seriousness of the situation do people close to Anna understand what she has endured. First published in the United Kingdom, Mayfield's latest novel is both shocking and revealing. The American title comes from the Stevie Smith poem "Not Waving but Drowning," a metaphorical piece about a person deep in the dangerous waters of life, who cannot make it back to shore but who also cannot convince anyone of the impending peril. Although one tends to think of such behavior as endemic to boys, Mayfield clearly shows that girls are not immune. Young readers will find this text original and real; parents will read it as a frightening wake-up call. It is a book that begs a conversation. VOYA CODES: 4Q 4P J S (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2002, Hyperion/Disney, 320p, O'Quinn

KLIATT

This novel covers a topic rapidly becoming familiar territory because of current pressing social problems. Sixteen-year-old Anna is bullied at school by Haley, who was her best friend. Because of Haley's popularity and manipulative tactics, Anna is abandoned by even her second-best friends. She first finds relief in mutilating herself with razor blades, but eventually attempts suicide with her mother's antidepressants and a bottle of vodka. Anna's story is told in flashbacks, journal entries, and from multiple points of view, exploring family, social, and school dynamics. This briskly moving novel enters into its central conflict on the first page and reveals the pain endured by victims of a group of girls with subtle but vicious bullying tactics. Haley is relentless in her pursuit of Anna, but the motivations of this seemingly nice middle-class girl are never explained. An interesting character is Melanie, the plain jane caught in the middle. Sometimes she is seduced by the infrequent but alluring offers of Haley's friendship; but she also admires and likes Anna. Her failure to take a moral stand against Haley's bullying exemplifies the dilemma most teens face when bullying occurs in schools. KLIATT Codes: J*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior high school students. 2001, Hyperion, 253p., Ages 12 to 15.
—Myrna Marler

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-Anna Goldsmith, 13, moves with her family from London to a northern town. Beautiful and an ace student, she is praised by her teachers, given a violin solo, and assigned to play center fielder in hockey, displacing Hayley Parkin, who is her first and seemingly devoted friend. What Anna doesn't know is that Hayley is an adept manipulator and all of her classmates live in fear of her. First she draws people in to learn their sensitivities and secrets, then launches whisper campaigns against them. Once she has totally isolated her victim via social ostracism, she launches physical attacks. When Melanie Blackwood, who really wants to be Anna's friend, gradually gives in to Hayley's pressure, Anna begins to cut herself. Upon discovering this activity, her well-intentioned but all-too-busy parents call on the teachers for help. A few superficial changes take place, and the adults work to set the "personality clash" to rights. But Hayley is just getting started. Although the vocabulary is simple, this book is complex in structure. The first chapter is told in present tense via an omniscient narrator as Anna sets in motion what will be the climax of the plot. The next chapter features Melanie reminiscing about how all of this started. Anna, who is comatose through most of the book, speaks mostly through her diary entries and letters. The shifting narratives contribute to a compelling story that will strike a chord with many young teens. Published as Blue in the United Kingdom, this book should reach large numbers of readers here as well.-Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The slow but near-total destruction of a bright and talented teenage girl is clinically anatomized in this British import. When Anna Goldsmith, bright and talented, moves from London to the north of England, she is at first embraced by Hayley, the most popular girl in school, and then pushed away in slow, subtle, and absolutely vicious increments. The story opens with Anna's suicide attempt; to bring the reader in on what led to this, Mayfield (A Time to Be Born, not reviewed, etc.) tells Anna's story by presenting three parallel narratives. Melanie, a schoolmate and friend, relates the course of Anna's relationship with Hayley from her arrival some two years before the story opens, when they were 13. Melanie, essentially decent, provides an insider's look at both Anna's slow disintegration and the insidious attraction of Hayley's favor-to which Melanie is in no way immune. Even as Melanie reveals the observer's viewpoint, Anna's mother Frances sits in the hospital with her comatose daughter, reflecting on how little she herself had observed of Anna's decline into desperation. To try to understand, she reads Anna's diary, the written entries counterpointed by Frances's own memories of the events recorded. This slow backward and forward unfolding of Anna's increasing depression is remarkably effective. Most successful is Melanie's account; that she knowingly allows her genuine friendship with Anna to be undermined by Hayley for the sake of popularity will strike chords of recognition with teen readers, most of whom have a Hayley somewhere in their own lives. Justice for Hayley is less important than Melanie's and Frances's realizations of their own failures to nurture Anna; in the end, thestory represents a bleakly compelling cautionary tale for teens and their adults. (Fiction. 10-14)