Wintergirls

Instead of sugarcoating taboo subjects, Anderson is adept at laying whatever taboo subject is at hand—in Wintergirls, it is primarily eating disorders; in her acclaimed novel Speak, it is rape—and exposing the reader to the realities teenagers can and do face. Wintergirls is not “just”

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about eating disorders, though; the tagline on the cover reads: “You’re not dead, but you’re not alive;” it is about losing sight of yourself until you are in a state of limbo between what you really are and what you want to be. Such is the case with Lia, the female protagonist of the novel.

Lia and her best friend Cassie are seniors in high school; they feed, mentally, off competing with one another to become the thinnest. Lia’s method of choice is to restrict her calories—she cannot see any type of food with automatically tacking on the amount of calories it contains, and she creates elaborate excuses to dodge eating full and regular meals. A typical diet for Lia is such: “diet soda (0) + lettuce (15) + 9 tablespoons salsa (40) + hard-boiled egg white (16) = lunch (71)” (76). Lia’s stint at an inpatient recovery center has only briefly stymied her deadly competition—one which she admits she will never be satisfied until she reaches zero: “The only number that would ever be enough is 0. Zero pounds, zero life, size zero, double-zero, zero point. Zero in tennis is love. I finally get it” (220).

Cassie is a bulimic, although her character has died in the beginning of the novel. This event has triggered Lia’s restricting behaviors and it is not until later that we fully learn the horrific extent of Cassie’s death and pain. Cassie’s “ghost” visits Lia throughout the novel, encouraging her to remain “strong” in her quest for thinness and also to remind Lia that Lia did not pick up the phone when Cassie called her from the hotel room in which Cassie ultimately died. Even though “Cassandra’s Jane’s insides popped like a pink party balloon” and “[n]obody sang to her or held her or helped her pick up the broken pieces…She died alone,” that does not impede Lia’s downward spiral (166). She wants “075.00 [pounds. To get there [she’ll] need to crack open [her] bones with a silver mallet and dig out [her] marrow with a long-handled spoon” (190). At the end, though, even when Lia is almost a “real girl” for brief spans of time, “the whispers start up again” and Lia realizes: “Food is life. And that’s the problem. When you’re alive, people can hurt you. It’s easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion. It’s easier to lock everybody out. But it’s a lie” (275).

Anderson’s unique writing style adds flavor and excitement to the narrative. Lia censors her own thoughts, as the text displays what she truly thinks crossed out and then what she “should” think immediately afterward. For example: “Five days ago I weigh 101.30 pounds. I had to eat at Thanksgiving (vultures all around the table), but since then it’s been mostly water and rice cakes. I am so hungry that I could gnaw off my right hand. I stick three pieces of gum in my mouth, throw out Emma’s potato chips, and fill the tank. I am disgusting” (27). The emphasis on her “true” thoughts, her self-censoring, heightens the emotive narrative response of the reader, allowing us to witness Lia’s real thoughts and distortions all at once. Teens are all too aware of what they “should” think and what they “should” feel, and would appreciate Lia’s struggle to articulate herself. Further, Anderson also displays Lia’s guilty and other difficult-to-express thoughts in smaller font type, thereby emphasizing Lia’s complexity in admitting even to herself certain feelings. Most of the time, the small font is in reference to Cassie: “I am walking up the stairs. I am walking in my room. I am –
you left her alone.
– shut up, I am throwing my purse on the bed. I am changing into my pajamas. I need my robe, I think I hung it up – I open my closet.
you left me alone” (97-98).

Instead of shying away or softening the realities of anorexia, Anderson displays the twisted mindset of Lia full frontal. Lia’s hellish descent into anorexic relapse and overwhelming depression is not comfortable or easy to read, but it is necessary. The story will appeal to teen readers with its emphasis on teen relationships and teen struggles; the desire to fit in and look “good” is forefront in a teen girl’s mind. Anderson’s reminder that becoming a “wintergirl” is deadly will serve as a thinking and talking point for teens, friends, and family.

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For those who have read other works by Laurie Halse Anderson, you’re well acquainted with her propensity for writing about adolescents facing serious issues. Wintergirls is no different. It delves deep into the psyche of an eighteen-year-old girl struggling with a very serious case of anorexia

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nervosa.

I’ve read other books about girls with eating disorders. All of them worked their way under my skin, but not all of them truly upset me like this one did. Wintergirls is not for the faint of heart or stomach. Protagonist Lia’s disturbed thoughts and disordered behaviors are laid out in great detail, including her frightening visions of her best friend Cassie, who suffered a terrible death due to bulimia and who seems to have returned from the grave to tempt Lia to succumb to her anorexia and join her. As I was reading, I vacillated between appreciating the horrific, but honest, details—because anorexia truly is a horrific disease—and being very upset by them. Sometimes I wondered if they were too much. Ultimately though, I think that the grittiness of the story is necessary in truly impressing upon the reader the direness of Lia’s illness.

The reader also sees that Lia’s illness affects not only her but her family as well. There is a lot of conflict between Lia and her mother, and between her divorced parents concerning her health. Lia has a young step-sister, whom she loves very much, but who is deeply upset and disturbed by Lia’s struggles. Wrapped in her illness and her own head, Lia spends much of her energy hiding her life and herself from her family.

Wintergirls is a “typical” representation of anorexia cloaked in unique details. Lia struggles not only with her eating disorder, but also with the death of her best friend and with her hallucinations. There is “suspense” in that the reader is waiting to find out how Cassie died and why she called Lia’s phone thirty-three times in the final hours of her life. And there is the constant question: will Lia finally choose treatment and recovery?

Wintergirls will help you to better understand the horror that is an eating disorder. But it’s not an easy book to read. It’s heavy, potentially triggering, and chock full of pain—so read with caution.

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Actually, 3.5 stars, but that's ok. I star books not on how "good" they are but on how much I like them, and unfortunately for me this fell into the wanted to love it more than I did category. But: it is good. And in some ways I think that the things about it that aren't my favorite reading style

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are some of the things that will make it work in the long view, and I really respect that.The prose of Lia's narration is nuts. It is all over the place and highly dramatic and sometimes sort of purple, and meander-y, and singleminded. However: that is exactly how messed-up teenagers feel, exactly. So, I can really understand Halse Anderson opening the floodgates this way. To me it was all right to read, but I think to a teenager it might be fantastic. That is very very fine. Whatever the "job" of an issues book for young adults is, I think this book can hold to it.Even though: a part of me was really hoping to come to an empathic understanding of an anorexia sufferer's outlook while reading this book, and I didn't. Probably that means I just can't. Usually though I can find that, I can relate to the problem people, but the area of eating disorders has never been one of them. To me it is like watching a mystery and when they give you the answer at the end, you think, that doesn't make any sense, how did the perpetrator get from A to B to form their motive? Why? In the book, Lia repeatedly refers to her "broken" sight of herself and her acknowledged inability to understand what's real based on what other people think. I wish that I knew what she really meant, though.I rounded up the rating because I still really, really, really, really love the foundation of this book a lot. I think it is a really really good plan for a book. The fact that Lia is not ok at all right from the beginning, the fact that her dead friend is trying to pull her all the way over, the fact that Lia's life looks real and not bleak. There are extraordinary ingredients at work here. And the climactic last scene between Lia and Elijah is amazing, a misty-eyer.The book made me remember something I'd forgotten, which was a girl in my high school homeroom, whose name I can't remember but her initial landed her near my desk. She wasn't my friend (she ranked higher than me) but in 11th grade we all saw her start to wither and shrink, and later she was just sometimes gone for many weeks. To be very, very completely honest, I hardly noticed.

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Summary: Lia and her best friend Cassie made a pact to become skinny together. But then Cassie drops Lia, and a few months later Lia finds out Cassie has been found dead.

Review: I didn’t want to read this. I knew what it was about—a girl with an eating disorder—and I didn’t want to

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knowingly subject myself to that world of pain.

But then I went to my favorite locally owned bookstore to hear Laurie Halse Anderson speak. I got there too early and didn’t have anything to read with me, so I picked up Wintergirls and read the first 15 pages. It took all my self control to put it back on the shelf and wait for it to come in at my library.

I finished this book in less than 24 hours, on a workday no less. Lia was so real to me that when I wasn’t actually reading, she’s all I could think about: Would she pull through? How long til she hit bottom? Would it be too late?

Lia’s story haunted me because I know that countless girls out there have stories just like hers. Now that I have a daughter, this issue hits close to home. I can’t protect her from the impossible idea of “beauty” on TV, in magazines, from other kids. What can I do as a parent to foster a healthy body image? I really don’t know.

Reading Lia’s story convinced me that not knowing the answer to that question is unacceptable. So if you know of any good nonfiction books on this topic, please let me know.

I highly recommend this amazing book. And when you’re done reading it yourself, lend your copy to a parent you know.

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Lia's not the smartest girl in school. She's not the fastest or the funniest or the most talented. But, by god, she's the thinnest.

Cassie was thin, too - a frozen Wintergirl throwing up everything she ate - but now Cassie is gone. She's crossed over. And Lia, she of the jutting bones and the

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strongest will, might be next.

This is a very grim story and it won't be for everyone, but I loved it. The writing is sharp and poetic, just as finely crafted as Lia's body, and just as devastating. Lia was so very real to me. I alternated between wanting to shake her and wanting to hug her. Highly recommended.

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It was painful to read this book. I constantly found myself screaming at Lia to stop starving herself, and for her parents to just LOOK at her and see what she was doing. Very powerful.

I've read more than my fair share of scary stores--from the works of Edgar Allen Poe to Stephen King to Richard Matheson. But few of those works have ever chilled me, scared me and horrified me as much as Laurie Halse Anderson's "Wintergirls."

Part of it could be that Poe, King and Matheson are

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dealing in horrors that are terrifying but can be easily rationalized away as being supernatural in nature. The scary part of Anderson's novel is that what you're reading about is all too scarily real for a lot of young people in our world today.

Lia is a teenage girl with an eating disorder. The story is told from her first-person persepective, making it all the more compelling. As the story begins, Lia is coming to terms with the death of her one-time best friend Cassie. Cassie called Lia 33 times on the night of her death, but Lia never answered. Now, Lia is haunted by that in the most literal sense of the world. Cassie begins to appear to Lia, questioning her and slowly the novel reveals the nature of their friendship and the scary pact the two made together. One afternoon, the two decide to see who can be the thinnest among them.

The pact leads to two admissions to the hospital for Lia and she's slowly on the way to a third. Lia doesn't purge like Cassie does. Instead she denies herself anything more than 500 calories a day and spends hours exercising to try and reduce the few remaining pockets of perceived fat on her body. Lia is convinced that if you can't see bones through her skin, then she's too fat.

The obsession with becoming thin is scarily and eerily presented here. Lia focuses on the weight she wants to be, at one point saying the ideal weight would be zero for herself. Lia also feels like she has tiny evil forces inside her that are only released by cutting herself. She also goes to great lengths to ensure that her step-mother and father don't realize she's losing weight, including drinking copious amounts of water before weigh-ins and sewing quarters into her robe that she wears during the weigh-ins.

Even the horrifying revelation of how Cassie died doesn't deter Lia from her path toward destruction.

Lia's story is a scary, dark one that is probably all too real for many young women in our world today. Anderson's decision to tell the story from inside Lia's head and to see her internal battle with wanting food and convincing herself she can't have it is one of many incredibly vivid moments in a book that will keep your attention. I read and liked her novel "Speak" because it allowed readers inside the character's head. "Wintergirls" follows the same convention but takes it to a wholly different level. Readers will both identify with Lia, but we're kept detached enough to see that what she's doing isn't heroic, but self-destructive. You'll be rooting for her to get the help she so desparately need and as the situation slowly sinks into greater and greater dispair, you'll be hoping and praying Lia won't meet the same end as Cassie.

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Lia's friend Cassie has been found dead in a motel. The two girls had been best of friends from when they were young kids and though their friendship had lasted till their late teens, it had taken on a very destructive element. Both girls are cutters and they are both steeped very deeply and

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consumed by their eating disorders. While Lia is a bulimic, Lia is an anorexic, starving herself within an inch of her life. Lia feels guilty when she finds out that Cassie is dead because Cassie had called her thirty three times the night of her death and Lia never took her calls. Lia had been angry at Cassie because Cassie had turned her back on Lia a few months before and accused her of being one of the sources of her problem.

This book was captivating and very disturbing. The life of an anorexic is a tragic and painful life where even an apple can be seen as an enemy in the fight to stay thin. Lia's every meal consists of her calorie counting of every item on her plate, right down to the last pea. There were times where it was hard for me to keep reading because I just could not imagine what new horrible revelations awaited. Lia is so adept at fooling her parents and those around her with different techniques that insure that when she is weighed her weight seems much higher.

How does one say you enjoyed such a book? It was an interesting read that left me sad because I cannot help but think of all the people in the world for whom this is a reality. There were times when I thought the book went a bit long and could have been shorter but it is very possible that my emotions and feelings had been rubbed so raw that I wanted to get away. I felt that the end could have been fleshed out a bit more as it was a bit rushed. But all in all I am happy there was a glimmer of hope.

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Must. Not. Eat.

This is a very powerful, emotional book about two teenage girls with weight issues.
The main character, Lia, has serious anorexia. At 18, she has already been hospitalised twice but still resisits all efforts to encourage her to eat. She equates 'empty' with 'strong'. Lia's childhood

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friend, Cassie, suffers with bulimia, she binges and then brings up, vast quantities of food. As the book opens, Cassie has been found dead in a motel room, alone, having called Lia's mobile 33 times. In recent months they had drifted apart and Lia did not want to speak to Cassie, now she must deal with the guilt that she was not there for her friend when she was needed.

As Lia struggles to come to terms with Cassie's death, she becomes thinner by the day. She uses a host of tricks to convince her ever vigilant mother, father and step-mother that she is eating - leaving crumbs on her plate, pleading a recent meal, cutting food into tiny pieces and picking at it until they have lost interest. She spends sleepless nights on the stepper and does hundreds of crunches in an attempt to burn off more calories that she consumes, she knows the calorific value of every food. Thin is good - she wants to be the thinnest girl in the school.
By the time she is reaching her goal she has started to fall asleep in class, faint and halucinate.
On top of this she is self harming, an activity that becomes progessively more destructive throughout the book.

The author probes Lia's background in an attempt to provide explanations for her behaviour, her parents' divorce, her father's remarriage, her mother's devotion to her job. But she also has a support network and resons to live - particularly her young step-sister, Emma.

There are some clever devices used by the author; particularly Lia's 'bad' thoughts - crossed out and surplanted by 'good' thoughts. (Which, sadly, I can't reproduce here).
However, it was an issue with the way the book was written that made this a four star read for me - sometimes it was a bit too wacky, a bit too teenage perhaps. Given that this is the target audience, then fine, but as an adult reader it alienated me slightly. Putting that aside though, I'm sure this will be a useful addition to the eating disorder novels that more and more teenagers will relate to and I hope it will help some to see it for what it really is - a slow death.

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this book is overly powerful and was hard at sometimes to get though the pages with out having ot put it down. but for being someone who has been though stuff like this it helps to realize even if it ficton other people go though the same things that are going though your help. it puts an outlook

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on what is going on with the people around you and how it affects them and not only yourself. i would highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been though been though the a eating disorder or have cut at any point of thier life

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In Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson tackles rape – and with Wintergirls she takes on yet another subject that girls today are dealing with. Anderson has such a unique writing style – reading a book written by her is more than just a reading experience, it’s shocking to the eye. Between the

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numbered chapters, the small thoughts infringing on the story, and the story itself I felt completely overwhelmed.

I devoured this book.

What was even more encouraging was hearing from my teenage sister how much it affected her.

I’ve never really been one to care about how I look. When I discovered that makeup irritated my skin, I stopped wearing it without really caring (and thankfully I have a good complexion to help with that). I dress comfortably, but not sloppily and I’m not stick thin – and I’m okay with that, and have been okay with that for years. So I never really understood why.. until this book began to give me an idea of it.

This is one of those tough reads that should be read by parents and teenagers alike. It’s a hard message, but one that needs to be brought out of the closet and talked about – because the more you talk about something, the easier it is to speak up about it, as odd as that sounds.

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The first book that i read by Laurie Halse Anderson was Speak, during my sophomore year of High School. I found the book to be well written and very good. When i found out about Wintergirls, i knew i had to read it! After spending the past 3 days reading it... i am just... really shocked and sort

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of at lost for words on how to describe just how powerful this book is!

Two young girls, best friends forever, under cold moonlight, cut and bind blood- making an oath to be the skinniest girl at their school. What seems to be an ordinary bet between friends reveals dangerous consequences as Lia's best friend Cassie is found dead in a motel room. Although the two drifted apart, Lia feels haunted by her best friend's spirit.

95 pounds is not enough for Lia- she still feels hideous and fat, she can feel the excess fat hanging on the sides of her body, she can taste and smell the calories within the food she is forced to eat. Although she was treated in the past, it was not enough to make her see the damage that she has done to herself. With Cassie gone, Lia has won the bet- but just how far can she pass that bet? What comes after a size zero? What happens when no one can understand Lia's torment?

Laurie Halse Anderson writing is very lyrical and raw in this book- especially of Lia's Character. Anorexia is a very dark and delicate subject to write or talk about- although we all know the physical damage that it does to a person, we don't really get to see or have a clear image of the mental and psychological effects it has. In this book, when we read from Lia's POV we can perfectly see her inner struggles. With every crossed out line of words in the pages, we can see how she fights herself from not eating, how she pushes herself so hard to obtain her weight goal.

It is both haunting and sad reading about Lia. No girl should have to endure such a torment for body image, no one should hurt themselves the way Lia does. This was a very well written book, for all of those who have read Speak, please take a look at Wintergirls!

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I am a huge fan of Laurie Halse Anderson, so I was super-excited to read this book.

Wintergirls is about Lia, an 18-yr-old anorexic. The book starts off when Lia is told that her former best friend, Cassie, was found dead in a hotel room. Cassie was bulimic, a fellow wintergirl, a girl trapped in

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the border of life and death. Cassie and Lia made a pact a long time ago to be the skinniest girls in school, but it evolved into a deadly competition. Lia must come to terms with Cassie's death while dealing with her own disorder, and things become more difficult when Cassie begins to haunt her, begging her to join her.

I absolultely loved this book. I loved the style and I loved the characters. I know a few people with anorexia, and this gave me greater insight into their mental state. The style was unique, and it really added to the story. The writing was equivalent to a stream of conciousness. I didn't get the impression that Anderson was just trying to be clever. Lia was not a perfect character, or a reliable narrator, but I developed sympathy for her. I didn't think it was a "how-to" guide for anorexics, as some people are saying, but rather a warning. Chances are, if you are anorexic, you know all the tricks anyway. I liked all the metaphors and symbolism especially, and it gave another level of depth to the story.

Honestly, I can't pick out anything I didn't like. Laurie Halse Anderson remians one of my favorite authors.

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recommended for: those who treat young people with eating disorders; not necessarily for those suffering from ED

This book was absolutely mesmerizing! I was completely engrossed and I really enjoyed it. This book gets five stars and not four from me, despite a couple of flaws, because Lia seemed so

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real and the writing style was wonderful and the language was lovely.

I’d highly recommend this book to those treating and caring for those suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and certain types of mental illnesses. I think it would be very educational for some, and useful for those they’re trying to help.

I’d be reluctant to suggest it to young people who suffer from anorexia, bulimia, or severe depression because, as with just about every single book about these subjects, it could be a harmful trigger. It’s not that the book glorifies these ailments, but the graphic descriptions of coping methods could set some off on a dangerous and self-destructive path. Then again, I’m sure this book will appeal to sufferers and it has the potential to actually help them, especially if the book is discussed.

As when reading all books about anorexia nervosa, or people starving for whatever reason, reading this made me want to eat! Too much!

I cared about Lia and also her step-sister Emma, and I very much enjoyed the numerous references to other young adult and children’s books & authors. The fact that Lia is a reader is impressive.

I read a paperback advanced uncorrected reader copy. There were lots of strike thrus and other copy that made me unsure what the final book will be. Pages 224-225 were completely blank with no text. The novel in this form was 278 pages, 282 pages with the acknowledgments.

One “error” drove me nuts. Lia (the main character) and her best friend Cassie and also Lia and a friend Elijah play the Hearts card game, apparently with a deck of cards and not on a computer, but you need a minimum of three players, not just two, in order to play Hearts. (I did message the person who provided the ARC to me about that, and also about one of the author’s choices of wording that didn’t ring true to me. Apparently, the final copy of the first edition of the book is printed, but she’ll message the editor about my concerns, and if they agree with me it’s possible changes will be made in future reprints.)

I had very recently read this author’s book Speak. (I had seen the movie years ago. The movie was good; the book is great.) Unlike Speak, which despite the serious subject matter was hilarious, this book was not filled with humor. There were a very few mildly amusing parts but it’s a much darker novel than Speak. It really gets into the mind of an eighteen-year-old girl (told first person by her) suffering from anorexia nervosa and depression. The story is compelling, at times actually terrifying, and I did cry, but reading it was well worth the painful feelings I experienced.

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“Wintergirls” is the heart-breaking story of Lia, an 18-year old girl who is anorexic and has been hospitalized twice for her problem. Until her hospitalizations, Lia shared everything - including eating disorders - with her bulimic best friend Cassie. After Lia was hospitalized, Cassie began

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to ignore her. Until, that is, the night Cassie called Lia’s cell phone 33 times before being found dead alone in a motel room.

Laurie Halse Anderson seems to specialize in young adult books on difficult topics, and “Wintergirls” is no exception. Lia is both dealing with Cassie’s death and her own illness. The hospitalizations have not solved the root of her problem and she is continuing to do whatever she can to get more and more weight off, to eat less and less, without her father and stepmother finding out.

This book was definitely disturbing, mostly because you as the reader are so deep inside Lia’s very disturbed mind. You watch as you censor her own thoughts in an attempt to convince herself that she is not hungry and doesn’t need to eat. This story is grim, yet hopeful. It is incredibly painful being inside Lia’s mind, reading the names she hears about herself inside her head, but there is the promise of the possibility of redemption. I think this is an important book for teenage girls and for those who deal with teenage girls, to understand how eating disorders grow and the effect they have on lives. Anderson did her research and consulted with mental health professionals so that her book would ring true. You will be engrossed by this book.

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My heart broke for Lia -- NO ONE should go through what she did in this book. I felt the emotion, the sacrifice ... the cold, hard depression that was displayed amazingly well in this book. Although sad and maybe even upsetting, this book tells young girls what it's like to go through something to

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emotionally painful as anorexia, and cutting.

I loved the passion and desire representing in Anderson's writing. This book is truly one to read. I'm actually reading this book for the second time.

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This is an absolutely phenomenal book. Never before has the image of anorexia as a battle become so clear. Ms. Halse Anderson portrays this beautifully through well-chosen, almost poetic, words and phrases. The mental anguish of Lia makes itself forcefully known through the crossed-out words and

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asides and is utterly chilling in its honesty. These crossed-out passages belie the the fight between body and mind and are a clear indicator that hope is not lost.

Much of the book is spent in flashbacks, as Lia reminisces on scenes that helped foster her anorexia. These memories are a stark reminder that one does not wake up and decide to develop an eating disorder. Rather, in Lia's case, it takes a regular cast of characters to help her in her downward spiral, from her best friend for making weight loss a competition to her uncompromising, demanding mother to her ignorant father. The one true moment of sanity in her life is her half-sister, making the rest of the novel torturous for the reader as one watches Lia's descent helplessly. Combine that with her crossed-out pleas for help, and the reader's impotence becomes even more pronounced. The result is a breathtaking journey into a mind held captive by her eating disorder.

Thankfully, as heartbreaking as Wintergirls is, there exists hope within its pages. Lia wants to battle her demons; this, as previously mentioned, is made abundantly clear through her tone, through the crossed-out words, and through her struggles after Cassie's death. Yet, Lia's battles provide a cautionary hope that one can go to the brink of death and recover. This is an extremely important lesson for anyone struggling with his or her own battles with an eating disorder.

On audio, Wintergirls is pure poetry. Jeannie Stith is a perfect narrator, adding a sense of pathos, of pleading, of desperation to her voice that allows Lia to leap from the headphones and become very real. The crossed-out words on the page come across clearly via audio, through the use of asides, the quick use of a tone to denote the aside, a quickening of speech and a certain breathlessness that aids in effectiveness. As a short audio program, at just over seven hours, the overall impact of the narrator and Ms. Halse Anderson's words is a book that is effectively memorable in its exploration of eating disorders and one that leaves the reader in simple silence with tear-streaked face and broken heart.

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Speak was a vital book of my adolescence--it is a YA problem novel done exactly right--by which I mean the problems of the main character do not take the histrionic, exhibitionist center stage that is so often found in YA lit of this type. The focus of that story is trained on the protagonist and

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her essential strengths and talents and how she draws on them to survive and overcome. It is a fierce and hopeful book, a book that helped sustain me through several deeply miserable years--personal proof of how powerful and important YA lit can be for teenagers.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Wintergirls. Anderson is undoubtedly a gifted writer--though her style, in this book, is sometimes over-the-top, that's evocative enough of what I remember about teenage years to be permissible--but I feel she fails drastically in the vital arena of character building. Lia is so consumed by her disease that she never evinces any evidence of personality beyond calorie-counts and self-destruction. We are told that she loves to read, that she loves her half-sister--the vital emphasis being placed on told, for Anderson never convincingly demonstrates that these traits beyond mere statement. There is nothing in Lia that suggests to me an actual human being with hopes of survival--the only believable parts of her characterization are the ones that relate to her anorexia.

Perhaps this is the point and I am failing to appreciate it. I don't have the common set of experiences that made Speak so vital to me; I can't say for sure whether or not Anderson accurately depicts the anorexic mindset. I half-suspect she does, and that this might indeed be a disease that obliterates identity, reducing it to pounds and calories. In that case, maybe my complaint is that Anderson simply does her job too well: she gets so far inside the anorexic mind that she fails to depict the inevitable redemptive moments convincingly. Because I, for one, was thoroughly dubious of the sudden end. Unlike Speak's book-length struggle towards healing and its affirming climax, Lia's transformation is dubiously tacked on after hundreds of pages of dogged self-destruction, & this transformation is so sure of itself as permanent that it jars radically with the rest of the book. The sense I was left with was not that of bittersweet triumph and lingering hope. Rather, I was horrified and unconvinced. Lia is so totally ill and absolutely nothing else that it is impossible for me to accept health as a viable path for her.

Because of this, I have serious reservations about whether or not the book should be given to its presumed target audience of teenage girls, particularly teenage girls with eating disorders. It doesn't romanticize eating disorders in the least--it is far too brutal for that--but neither does it convincingly depict anorexia as a disease that can be returned from. Perhaps some might find solace in the book's existence as a voice that articulates perfectly their experience; maybe it resonates with people who have dealt with similar issues--I don't know. It's possible, I suppose, but on this controversy I have to side with the cautious and the skeptical and say that Wintergirls is a book with potential to do far more harm than good.

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The good stuff:This book (and by nature, the topic) carries a major emotonal whallop. The books is very hard to put down due to the voyueristic aspect of it - who doesn't want to know why girls starve themselves? Who isn't interested in what anorexic teens are thinking?The bad stuff:I think

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Anderson is a fantastic writer, but she strays into a new writing style in this book, and I'm not sure I like it. There's a lot of very emo/modern kind of phrasework, like using little dots and slashes - "..bad/good/happy/bad/good/sad.." and the use of striked out text was interesting at first but began feeling lazy by the end of the book. But I think both of those opinions are coming from my adult self, and a teen would most likely like these touches.I thought the super tidy ending was totally unrealistic, and I worry that so much emphasis was put on the cutting/self-mutilation in the bathroom as the catalyst for change that girls really struggling with "just" anorexia will not see themselves in this portrayal. Because of this I might even say it glamorizes anorexia to some extent. The calorie counting of everyday, healthy foods could also push some girls toward obsessive counting.

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Wintergirls is a powerful (read, not for the faint of heart) story about Lia, an 18-year-old girl who has been struggling for years with anorexia and cutting. The book opens with Lia finding out about the death of her former best friend, Cassie, a bulimic who had a bet with Lia about which one of

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them would become the skinniest girl at school. Cassie's body was found alone in a motel, and the cause of her death is a mystery (suicide? overdose? murder?). Lia is wracked with guilt because the last thing Cassie did was call Lia --- 33 times in fact --- and Lia refused to pick up her phone. Now Cassie's ghost is haunting her, taunting Lia to join her in death, and Lia spirals downward. The reader is right there along with Lia on her emotional journey, so this book is very successful at getting inside the mind of a girl suffering from an eating disorder. Anderson in many ways seems to be trying to repeat the formula that worked with her earlier YA problem novel, Speak, but this book is darker, lacking the humorous moments found in Speak to break up the barrage of Lia's destructive thoughts. The audio version has the added benefits of a very talented narrator breathing additional life and emotion into the story and an interview with the author. Overall, this is a very moving work but I would not recommend it if you are looking for something light-hearted! However, this is a quick, compelling read, and I can see it being helpful to a lot of teenaged girls who are suffering from eating disorders or know someone who is.

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I’m not ashamed to tell you that this book scared me. Even before I read it myself, I could tell by the reactions other reviewers were having that this book was something powerful. When I finally stopped watching the book out of the corner of my eye and picked it up to read, I found out I was

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right to be afraid. Still, I’m glad I read it.

Wintergirls is the chilling depiction of a mind in the grip of severe, advanced, anorexia. But in the end, it’s not really about eating disorders. It’s about Lia facing her guilt over her friend’s death and searching for her own reason to want to live. Lia is lost, adrift in her own self-loathing and ambivalence about her family and her future. You cannot help but be touched by this beautiful, talented girl, who nonetheless so hates her own existence that she’s trying to disappear.

Anderson does an excellent job using language to convey the combined seductiveness and repulsiveness of the mindset of anorexia. The writing style is a little unorthodox, with lots of strike-outs, incomplete sentances, and words run together. The mesmerizing, slightly confused style of the narration gives the reader a crystal-clear insight to the cloudiness of Lia’s mind.

So I will be joining the chorus of voices recommending this book. I thought originally this might be a book geared toward helping teens who suffer from an eating disorder, but I don’t think I would recommend it for that. I think I might be afraid it would end up having the opposite of the desired effect. Wintergirls would be a fantastic book club read, or for individuals who enjoy reading something a bit more thought provoking. As a parent, I think this would also be a great read for parents of teens who maybe need a little help remembering what that time of your life was like.

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I have been waiting forever to read this book after seeing so many positive things in the book blogging world. I was finally able to get a copy from the library and while it was a good book I was a little disappointed. The story did not really grab me the way other stories like Willow by Julia

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Hoban did. The topic itself of anorexia was extremely disturbing as you watch Lia’s thought process over what she will or will not eat and how she will get rid of or balance out the “excess” calories.

The style of writing was also different. It’s like reading Lia’s diary or being in her head as she self-edits by striking through thoughts that are not what people would want to hear. It was a little strange at first but once I got used to it I enjoyed it. My favorite part was the part Cassie’s “ghost” played in Lia’s decisions. I loved how the story finally wrapped up. Overall, I would recommend this book but be prepared for some disturbing situations.

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The first Laurie Halse Anderson novel I read was Speak and I instantly became a fan of her writing. Her writing style is engaging, yet unassuming. Both books that I read were about issues that interest me. Wintergirls is by far, the best novel that I've ever read that features a protagonist with an

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eating disorder.

Most eating disorder fiction novels read more like a procedural manual. They focus so much on the day-to-day behaviors of people with anorexia or bulimia that you get the impression that they're giving you tips rather than getting into the minds of these sufferers.

Laurie Halse Anderson got it right. She focused on the character's mental anguish and behaviors like calorie counting took the back seat. I wanted to know how anorexics feel, not how they hide their disorder. You'll know exactly how Lia feels while she struggles with her anorexia.

At one point Lia finally opens up to her therapist and her therapist's insight had some wonderful depth to it, especially in this conversation when Lia tells her therapist that she sees and speaks to Cassie's spirit:

"You think I made it up," I say. "You don't believe that I see ghosts."

"I believe that you've created a metaphorical universe in which you can express your darkest fears. In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves, and sometimes we do such a good job, we lose track of reality."


I highly recommend this novel to anyone who's curious about Laurie Halse Anderson's novels or anyone who's looking for a great eating disorder fiction novel.

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Like Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls is an "issue" novel, but in this case the issue is body image, and the eating disorders and self-mutilation that too frequently accompany it. Lia, our first-person narrator, is a (possibly) recovering anorexic whose former best friend, the bulimic

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Cassie, dies horribly alone. Although they hadn't been speaking for months prior, Cassie leaves Lia 33 messages on her cell phone during the course of her last night, and Lia is wracked by guilt--quite literally haunted by Cassie--because she didn't pick up. Whatever marginal progress she might have been making by moving into her father's house and learning to care for her younger half-sister is steadily eroded as Lia spirals farther and farther out of control, until she is forced to decide once and for all if she really wants to remain among the living.

While I didn't really like the typographical choices Anderson used to convey Lia's underlying thoughts (strikethrough text, smaller font sizes and right justification, and italics beginning and ending a flashback, blank pages [shades of New Moon]), there are few books that I have read with a near-permanent wince and frequent--especially toward the end--verbal exclamations of "oh, no!" This was largely due to the way Lia's barren interior landscape forcefully engendered my own depression and misery. The pressure Lia is operating under feels disturbingly real and life-threatening. The scenes between Lia and her parents were among the most powerful, while those where the reader is lost in the wilderness of Lia's mind occasionally felt swamped in metaphor.

Wintergirls also feels a little bit like what it is: an adult's attempt to capture the inner life of a teenager struggling through something it is difficult for many adults to fully understand. She admits in this interview, that the "issue" yielded the character, rather than the reverse. And that's OK, Anderson should absolutely respond to the needs and stories of her letter-writing fans, but the book loses something undefinable and organic as a result of its constructed nature. However, Anderson clearly did her research about anorexia and cutting, hitting every point she could, and candid discussion of these issues is certainly welcome. Overall, I think Speak is probably a stronger book, but Wintergirls could play a similar role, educating readers about eating disorders.

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