Review: Wintergirls

Title: Wintergirls

Author: Laurie Halse Anderson

Release Date: March 19^th, 2009

Series: None

Number of Pages: 278

Publisher: Speak

Source: Bought

“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.

“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.

I am that girl.

I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.

I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.

I had been looking for this book for a while, because I had heard many great comments about Laurie Halse Anderson. I haven’t read Speak yet, but I have seen the movie a while back. I was curious about this one, because I have read novels about anorexia before.

The story starts when Lia’s friend, Cassie died. Lia was already anorexic, and she even had been in a center for anorexic. It was strange to read the point of view of an anorexic. She is hiding everything from her family, because of it. It is also strange to see the internal turmoil that she is going true. The voice in her head telling her not to eat, while the other part of her is hungry. It helps understand what is going on in an anorexic head.

I had trouble connecting with Lia. Maybe because she is so different from me. I can’t see myself starving. I love food. It was hard to connect with someone going through that, because I can’t really relate to that. Yet, it made me understand about the difficulties that come with getting better. The voices don’t want to go. They’re still there, nagging her.

Even thought I can’t say it is an entertaining and fun book, I have to say it was captivating. I couldn’t keep my mind of this book. I had to know what would happen. I had to know if she would get better, if she would beat this illness. This book was different from other books on the same subject, because we get into Lia’s head, as she is already deep in anorexia. I really liked the book, and I will probably pick more books by Laurie Halse Anderson.