Review: Wintergirls

[Danielle Sonni]

wintergirls5b15d.jpg

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Summary: 18 year old Lia is anorexic and is stuck between life and death, a "wintergirl". Lia's ex-best friend, Cassie, dies in a hotel room alone, as a result of being a depressed bulimic. The story details Lia's daily struggle to stay thin and fool her family into thinking she is okay. Lia hates herself but it does not seem like she wants to change; she has been to an intensive rehab program twice but has not changed her ways. Cassie haunts Lia throughout the book, trying to get her to kill herself and join her as a ghost. Most of the story is pretty disturbing and depressing until the last 20 pages or so when Lia decides she wants to live and begins a long road to recovery.

YA Lit Criteria: This books fits the YA criteria in that the story is told from the POV of a young person, Lia. We know all of Lia's deepest secrets, thoughts that no one else in her life is privy to. I'm not sure how many people could relate to Lia (unfortunately, probably more than I would think), because she is a very troubled young girl. Lia's parents are a huge part of her life/the story, they are mentioned on most pages, but although they are physically in her life she is emotionally distant and does not allow them to help her. I know eating disorders is a prevalent issue in the lives of YAs, so this book covers that. There are also themes of friendship, belonging, and coming of age.

Personal Response:
I did not like this book at all! If I didn't have to finish it, I probably would have stopped reading it all together. It was really disturbing to read. Lia seriously hated herself and had terrible thoughts. The figurative language used was really great and effective, but not something I would ever consider using in the classroom. Not even for my class library. I would think this book could encourage girls with eating disorders in the same way that those pro-rexia websites give support for people to "be strong" and not eat. Yes, at the end Lia did decide that her life was worth living and she got help, but that's after 275 pages of depression. Lia cuts herself, almost succeeds in killing herself at one point, and exercises off any calories she consumes. She constantly talks about how fat she is and doesn't understand why she see something different in the mirror than other people. As a healthy person, it is easy to see how crazy Lia is, but maybe a young girl with similar problems would side with Lia and use her character as reasoning for self-destructive tendencies. This book is by the same author as Speak (which I liked and would use in the classroom), by the way.

Here's a link to the author's site for Wintergirls. Has a Q&A and teacher resources.


http://madwomanintheforest.com/youngadult-wintergirls/

This is a link for a site with information on teenagers with eating disorders. We may have some of these kids in our classrooms. When reading the book, you saw how Lia floated through school, sleeping during class (because she had no energy) and couldn't think (because her brain didn't have food)

http://aacap.org/page.ww?name=Teenagers+with+Eating+Disorders&s...