Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Taryn's Comments: Lia and Cassie were best friends for most of their lives, and they both suffer from eating disorders. However, at 18, they are no longer speaking to each other. When Lia’s receives news of Cassie’s death, she is overwhelmed with guilt because she had ignored 33 calls from Cassie on the night of her death. Throughout the book, we get inside Lia’s head as she struggles to come to terms with Cassie’s death while dealing with her own eating disorder, her self-destructive tendencies, and her dysfunctional family relationships. Lia is at war with her own thoughts as she tries to convince herself that she does not need to eat. The author emphasizes Lia’s destructive thought patterns by using crossed-out words, such as the following example from page 202:

“My traitor fingers want that fudge. No, they don’t. They want a seven layer bar and some weird muffins and those pretzels. No, they do not. They want to squish the marshmallows and stuff them into my mouth. They will not.”

This book shows how eating disorders affect not only the person with the disorder, but everyone else in their lives as well. The author has also written other books on difficult yet important topics. If you enjoyed Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, you would also enjoy Wintergirls. Check status at GPL