Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

*Trigger warning for eating disorders and self harm*

Publication: March 19th 2009 by Viking Juvenile 

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.

Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

My thoughts:

Wintergirls is a haunting, raw, disturbing and emotional read. It's probably one of the most intense books I've read in a really long time. And because of that I highly recommend it. (Trigger warning for eating disorders and self harm though, so maybe don't pick it up if your not into reading that or you're not in a healthy mind set).

I loved the writing style, I found it to be really unique. Sometimes I found myself stopping to reread sentences because they were so pretty. And I loved how the author used repetition to portray Lia's spiralling thoughts and such. Like at times there were full pages of the same sentence retreated again and again.

If anyone is wondering about the accurate representation of eating disorders in the book I just wanted to say that from my experience and my knowledge (I can't speak for everyone, everyone's experiences are different) I do think the author wrote a very accurate depiction of what it's like to suffer from and ED. The story really showed how fatal they can be, and really captured the rawness of them through Lia's narration. To be honest I couldn't believe that Wintergirls was not an own voices novel.

I really liked Lia. Some readers may find being in the head of someone struggling with an ED disturbing at times which I can understand but I loved how real it was and how I could relate to her. She'd have a thought and I'd think, I've had that though too- that could have been me going through what she is. 

Wintergirls had such a big impact on me that when I was finished I was speechless. I think the message of the book is so intense because of how realistic the main character is and the portrayal of EDs.

My only problems with Wintergirls lies with the side characters. I felt like some of them were very underdeveloped; I get that this is Lia's story but I would have liked to get to know her family a bit more.

If you are looking for a cute easy contemporary to read this isn't the book for you. Wintergirls is extremely dark and emotional and hard to read at times but is a gem in the world of YA contemporary, I highly recommend it!

My rating: 4.5 stars

Thanks for reading,

A :)