Wintergirls

Wintergirls

Laurie Halse Anderson

Goodreads

Summary: “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. (via Goodreads)

I ordered Wintergirls on a limb from the library, and let me tell you this book is sooooo amazing. I believe/know that the dystopian trend in books is over; in my opinion the next trend in books is going to be realistic fiction. However it is very hard to write a quality realistic fiction book and this book hit the nail on the head. The amount of feeling in it was incredible. In book if I see a line I like a lot I dog-ear the page so I can put it in my review/on my wall/in a picture/etc. On average in a book I’ll mark three quotes; in this book I think I marked over ten. The writing was incredible.

As for the actual story- in a lot of stories centered on an eating disorder it’s told from the friends POV or the parents POV rarely the person with the disorder. If it is told by their POV it is very centered it doesn’t go into details about why: why they don’t want help, why they started, why they continue, how they hide it. We saw Lia’s life in her mind and how she looks at other girls and how she thought of Cassie, what went through her head when she was convincing herself not to eat. The entire book was amazingly powerful.

Characters:

Lia: being thinnest, Emma, Cassie’s death Lia was a breathtaking character. The synopsis makes Cassie seem like a bigger part of the story then she really was. Yes Cassie’s death was a part of the story but the story wasn’t about her dealing with that it was about Lia dealing with her eating disorder. I loved how we saw into her past as she was remembering, how she started, her time in rehab, how she hid everything, the entire story was so raw.

Verdict:

5 stars!

This book is amazing. I defanitly suggest reading it.

Quotes:

“She offered herself to the big, bad wolf and didn't scream when he took the first bite.”

“Cassie thought heaven was a fairytale for stupid people. How can you find a place you don’t believe in? You can’t.”

“We’re all afraid to talk about what stares at us from the dark.”

“This girl shivers and crawls under the covers with all her clothes on and falls into an overdue library book, a faerie story with rats and marrow and burning curses. The sentences build a fence around her, a Times Roman 10-point barricade, to keep the thorny voices in her head from getting too close.”

“… that day I started to worry the people in charge couldn’t see either.”

“Because I am still a little girl who belives in Santa and the tooth fairy and you.”

“…go to school to jump through hoops, sit up and beg, and roll over on command. Listen to the whispers that curl into your head at night, calling you ugly and fat and stupid and bitch and whore and worst of all, "a disappointment." Puke and starve and cut and drink because you don't want to feel any of this. Puke and starve and drink and cut because you need the anesthetic and it works. For a while. But then the anesthetic turns into poison and by then it's too late because you are mainlining it now, straight into your soul. It is rotting you and you can't stop.

Look in a mirror and find a ghost. Hear every heartbeat scream that everysinglething is wrong with you.

"Why?" is the wrong question.

Ask "Why not?”

“I am spinning the silk threads of my story, weaving the fabric of my world. The tiny elf dancer became a wooden doll whose strings were jerked by people not paying attention. I spun out of control. Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.

I wanted to swallow the bitter seeds of forgetfulness. Cassie did, too. We leaned on each other, lost in the dark and wandering in endless circles. She got to tired and went to sleep. Somehow, I dragged myself out of the dark and asked for help.

I spin and weave and knit my words and visions until a life starts to take shape.

There is no magic cure, no making it all go away forever. There are only small steps upward; an easier day, an unexpected laugh, a mirror that doesn't matter anymore.

I am thawing.”

Note: Eating disorders are dangerous. If you have an eating disorder and want help please talk to an adult you trust. For more information on eating disorders Get Help! Click Here!