Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Reviewed by Chris

Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Two or three mild swearwords.

Violence:  A girl cuts her own skin with a knife twice.  The second time it is more extensive, and she requires quite a few stitches.

Adult themes:  Psychological disorders including anorexia, bulimia, hallucinations, and cutting.  Divorce.  Teens steal prescription drugs from their parents, as well as Vodka.  Family dysfunction:  It is mentioned that Lia’s father has had lots of affairs and mother is too busy with career to express enough caring in the family.

Synopsis

Lia and Cassie were best friends from early childhood, spending their summers in the treehouse in Lia’s backyard.  Cassie’s Mom was the involved neighborhood Mom.  Lia’s mother was a heart surgeon who was always too busy.  When they were 12, Cassie learned all about purging and binging at camp.  They made a vow that year “to be the thinnest.”  Through the teen years they both struggled with increasing eating disorders.  At age 18, Cassie dies of her affliction.  Lia is left struggling with the death of her friend, on top of her long-standing problems of family dysfunction, self-hatred, psychiatric problems and anorexia.  She has never dared tell anyone about the ghosts she has been seeing, and now her dead friend Cassie keeps her up at night talking to her and asking Lia to join her in death.  Lia’s parents and step-mother care about her, but because of Lia’s deception, are unaware of how desperate her situation has become.  Even as she starts sinking deeper into starvation, Lia goes out of her way for her young step-sister Emma.  She makes special cookies for her, complete with a pink cast on the arm like Emma’s.  She plays games outside with her, and she protects her from knowing too much about Lia’s disease.  In the end, she is one person Lia cares about enough to live for.  But is her mind too deteriorated to say “HELP?”  Is her body too far gone to recover?

Lia’s story was much like the other books by Laurie Halse Anderson that I have read—insightful, painful. and almost impossible to put down.  It puts you inside the head of a girl you really start to care about, and you really want to help.  Wintergirls gave me some understanding of the self-hatred some teens with this disorder can feel, the lack of control over their own lives they perceive, and how physical and mental deterioration cause a downward spiral as the anorexia progresses.  It motivated me to do some other reading on eating disorders.  A stunning book like this really does the job of bringing greater understanding of eating disorders to the public.  Recommended to older teens and adults.  Care should be taken before recommending it to anyone vulnerable to these disorders, although for some people it might help them want avoid the disease, or to recover.