Book Review: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title: Wintergirls
Series: N/A
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Marion Lloyd Books
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 278
Special Features: N/A
Goodreads Average Rating: 3.95

“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.

This book was heart wrenching, emotionally and most importantly inspiring.

This story truly is one of the most effective and emotional stories I have came across.
One which will always linger in the back of my mind, and the front of my thoughts.
I have heard allot about Laurie Halse Anderson's books, and due to an interest in eating disorders and there effects I thought I would start off on this book.
I didn't expect it to be as good as it was, and was pleasantly surprised.

Laurie, achieves a different and unique kind of writing style which i have never came across before. Words and phrases she uses makes the reader feel as if they are in fact Lia themselves, as if they are going through the struggle with her, the emotions, the feeling and even surrounded by the same kind of environment. She is a writer who doesn't just create a story, but a monumental piece a literature, art, as I would describe.

Many author's who write books on such difficult issues, such as eating disorder's and self-harm which are both big parts of this book, usually get criticized for un-believable aspects, but during the whole of the book I never even considered there be a bit that was 'un-realistic', not a single thought, emotion and action which Lia did.

As I've said this book is inspiring, for all them girls who want to be skinny, all them girls who want to keep losing weight. It touches not just the effects on the body, but also the people around, family and friends. It also shows how much you will realise you want to stop when faced with death and the danger zone, and hits the reader with the realization that you may be the one to die because you didn't eat a bit of that bagel and regretting it during the whole process.

This book does truly teach life-lessons and holds many important messages.
In the story we do witness the importance for a strong family unit, especially during the illness of someone, but also how much friends can effect someone.

The story begins after the death of Lia's bestfriend, Cassie, and part way through Lia's experience with anorexia. As a reader we are taken back, in the story to how the death occurs, as well as the eating disorder for both girls.

The family unit created in the book, in similar to may.
Lia lives with her father, David, a successful writer and professor who barely has any time for her.
Jennifer her stepmother, who is left to mother her, when neither of her parents do.
Emma, her stepsister, and one of the only people we witness Lia really love.
And her mother, Claire, who like David is too busy to deal with her daughter and is a successful heart doctor.
All the family unit, is realistic and is powerful within it's self.
But then there is Lia herself, I personally did not find myself able to relate to her, I had never had an eating-disorder, or had to grief over someone, and I do believe she is a character that not many people would be able to re-late to, but her character and personality is so strong, so real, you don't need to relate to feel her effect.

I give this book a well deserved: