Laurie Halse AndersonWintergirls

Is a good book.

Always a classic.

One of my favourite books. I’ve read it about three times and own it psychically and digitally.It’s one of those teen books, so don’t expect something jaw dropping. However I will say that I enjoy Lia’s portrayal and how the author doesn’t gloss over the horrors of her disorder.The ending does feel abrupt and rushed though. I wish the book would have gone into more detail about Lia’s recovery, and I would have loved to see more of her relationship with Emma as it’s clear she has a positive influence on Lia. I think that could have been extremely interesting to go more in depth with. I will say that I liked the step-mom’s character a lot. I think Lia as a narrator is quite harsh on most of the characters, but even so I can understand a lot of Jennifer’s choices (especially towards the end of the book).All in all, it’s a good book albeit a bit depressing.

I have read many memoirs about eating disorders and this is one that will stay with me for a long time.Def triggering in parts but also captures the mental breakdown perfectly.

I received the book yesterday evening, started reading and... finished it at 3 in the morning. I was just unable to stop reading! It's a very chilling book but caught my attention from the beginning till the end.

Goodreads Description- “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.There have been plenty of books that I have read that I have thought that were really good and have rated them 5 stars. But then occasionally, not that often, a book comes along and absolutely takes your breath away. It makes you sit up and take notice. It also makes you realize that maybe all of the other books that you rated 5 stars were nothing close to the real thing.Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls is exactly that kind of book. This was recommended to me several months ago as part of a book club but for some reason I just didn't get around to reading it. Well I finally started it 2 days ago and when I did I didn't stop reading it until I was done. The characters were so real, so ugly at times, and so raw. The protagonist Lia, is anorexic and has just lost her best friend who died alone in a motel room. Lia is haunted by the fact that she has 33 missed calls from her friend Cassie and feels a great deal of guilt over her death. For Cassie was just as sick as Lia...she died of bulimia. Cassies starts haunting Lia and wants Lia to join her on the other side. To avoid the ghost Lia stops sleeping and starts exercising excessively. She only eats 500 calories a day. her goal weight starts at 95 pounds but each time she meets a goal she makes a new goal of 5 pounds less. Lia grows lanugo, baby fine hair, to hold in her body heat for she is always freezing. Lia cannot read anymore because she cannot thing right to make out the words. Lia has become a Wintergirl, a person lost between both worlds, and Cassie is waiting for her on the other side.There were some ugly facts presented about anorexia. It wasn't pretty. I'm glad Anderson didn't make it pretty. Maybe some teenager will read this book and take a different path.About the supporting characters...there were times I wanted to reach through the books pages and grab the adults in Lia's life and scream "Look at her! Can you not see that she is sick! She needs your attention! Give it to her and get her to a hospital!" But as they say "Denial isn't just a river in Egypt". It was obvious Lia couldn't control her parents divorce, her father's remarriage, her mother's controlling indifference. So she sought control elsewhere. Well she got it. And she so wanted the attention of someone and no adult in her life saw it. The only one who saw it was her 9 year old stepsister who told her friends that Lia had cancer to cover up the truth. It was a sad situation.The climax was so wonderfully written that I could easily imagine it on the big screen. It was beautiful and powerful.This is one of those rare books that really caught my soul. I wish there could be a rating for these special books to differentiate them from all the rest. This is definitely a 5 star book but also so much more. You absolutely must read this book!