Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Don't you love it when a book lives up to the hype? Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson does.

What's the book about?

Lia and her best friend Cassie make a vow to each other to be the skinniest and to keep each other strong when it's hard to be skinny. At Thanksgiving of their senior year, Cassie checks into a hotel room alone and dies. Before she dies, she calls Lia thirty-three times and Lia does not answer. (This is not a spoiler, btw, it's in the first few pages.) The rest of the book is Lia's reaction to Cassie's death and how it makes her feel about herself.

What did I think about it, the short answer?

I loved it. Anderson has a way of writing that feels like how I think. If you loved Speak, you'll love this one.

And the long answer?

Wintergirls is narrated by Lia and the reader sees just how obsessed she becomes with Cassie's death, and how little she thinks of herself. I've never really struggled with my weight so I can't vouch for this being how someone with an eating disorder thinks, but it sure seems real to me. Lia has such a warped view of her body and her need to be thin, thinner, thinnest is the driving factor in her life. She endlessly counts calories and pretends to eat and weighs herself down with quarters when she's put on a scale. Her life becomes an endless goal to be smaller. It's fascinating to me because at times you think she's quite delusional about it, but at other times she seems to understand that she's killing herself.

The book is really about Lia. It's not about her family or Cassie or anything else, even though those things happen. Yes, Lia has problems with her parents that probably led to this, but those aren't the issues that you see on every page. The book is about her struggle with accepting herself and with Cassie's death. It's about how Lia feels NOW. Lia has to decide if she wants to be like Cassie or if she wants help.

I'm sure you've seen a few quotes from the book, but I can't help by share one. From page 14, when Lia is thinking about Cassie's death:

There's no point in asking why, even though everybody will. I know why. The
harder question is "why not?" I can't believe she ran out of answers before I
did.
.
.
.
Was it easy?

There was another part I loved more, another paragraph that really hit me, but it's got a tiny spoiler so I decided not to post. The whole book hits hard emotionally, and I suspect that for anyone who has struggled with eating disorders it's going to really wallop them. It was a terrific book and will easily be on my favorites list for the year.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Viking Juvenile

2009

288 pages

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Secret Santa!

I got my Secret Santa gift yesterday! My Santa was Sharon of Sharon Loves Books and Cats. She sent me a nice hardback copy of Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson and a little pouch of cat toys. I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson earlier this year and loved it. I was interested in Chains, but not wildly so when I opened the package. Then I sat down the read blogs and not the third post I read was a glowing review of it (that I did not save, sorry), so now I'm all excited. PERFECT choice!

The cats loved the toys. I'd stopped buying cat toys when we got Scout since she also enjoys (eating) cat toys. So last night I threw the dog out and gave them toys out. It was like the old ladies were kittens again!

So thanks, Sharon, great job!

(I mailed my gift yesterday, I can't wait to see if I did as great a job with mine!)

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

I finished reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson a week or so ago, and since then it has sat beside my laptop waiting for a review. Speak was an excellent book and will definitely be at or near the top of my list for the year. Speak is the story of Melinda Sordino. Mel called the cops at a party last summer and is now a social outcast. Now she has to deal with the fallout of her actions as well as dealing with why she called the cops in the first place.

The plot line of this book is dark. Mel is tormented, her grades are slipping, her parents are unsupported and distant. The only class she enjoys is art where she spends the entire year trying to draw a tree. Her best friend abandons her for the popular crowd and the popular guy. Mel stops talking. Despite all this, there are moments of great humor as well. The high school environment is captured perfectly.

The writing is terrific. The book is written as a series of very short paragraphs, sometimes only a sentence long. Some of the turns of phrase are simply breathtaking. Here's a few examples:

"Maybe I'll be an artist if I grow up." (p. 78)

"Of course I want to be a model. I want to paint my eyelids gold. I saw that on a magazine cover and it looked amazing- turned the model into sexy alien that everyone would look at but nobody dared touch." (p.82)

It's hard to say much about this book without giving it away, but if you have an interest in YA fiction you should read this. If you know a teenager or were a teenager, read this. It's so very good.

Speak has also been reviewed by one of my co-bloggers on We'd Rather Read. Be warned though, her review does contain a major spoiler. I'd recommend not reading it until after you read the book.