Review: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Publisher: Viking

Source: Purchased
Pages: 278
Series: Standalone
Release Date: March 19th, 2009

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“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 are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

I have never read a book about eating disorders before. I think that it is a very serious subject to read about. I also think that it is a really hard topic to write about. Because so many have to fight with this disease every day, you have to make sure that you get things correct so you don’t make these people feel even worse about themselves. (I hope that makes sense!) I had heard a lot of good things about this book, so I decided to give it a try.

This book was very powerful. During some parts of it, I literally felt like I was Lia. Sometimes it got so bad, I had to stop reading, gather my thoughts, and remember that I am NOT her. I am NOT dying. I think that if you are going to read this book, you need to be able to be mature about this subject and be able to not let it affect you in such bad ways. I think you should be strong enough to pull yourself out of the deep hole that this book puts you in.

Although I am a huge fan of romance, I am kind of glad that this book didn’t have any. When the character Elijah is introduced in the book, I got really worried. I thought she was going to be falling for the “bad guy.” She was already dealing with a lot and I didn’t want her to have to deal with him too. I had a funny feeling that he was going to be the one to save her in the end, but I am so glad that the only one who saved her was herself. By her saving herself, it made the story even better.

I thought that the style of writing was really neat. It is one of those things where you either love it or hate it. In my case, I loved it. I thought it was really cool how she was having these separate thoughts and they were crossed out in the book and then told things she actually said out loud.

Even though this book started off a little slow, I thought it was overall a really great book. Like I said earlier, I think you need to be mature about the topic involved in this book, but it is definitely a good read.