Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

I lift my arm out of the water. It's a log. Put it back under and it blows up even bigger. People see the log and call it a twig. They yell at me because I can't see what they see. Nobody can explain to me why my eyes work different than theirs. Nobody can make it stop.
The merry-go-round spins again. To get off this thing I think I have to scream. But I can't. My bone corset is laced so tight, I can barely breathe.

I have recently become a pretty big fan of Laurie Halse Anderson. As you may remember (if you've been following this blog of mine), I read her book, Speak, a few months ago and immediately added it to my list of favorite books. It's the most popular of her books and for good reason. It was amazing.

I picked up Wintergirls because she was the author and because it looked like it would be quite interesting. I saw that it was about a girl who was struggling with anorexia and, after watching our society's skinny obsession pick off my friends one by one over the last few years, I knew it would be something I wanted to read. And I was absolutely right.

Cassie had been Lia's best friends since the two of them were in kindergarten. They lived across the street from one another and were practically attached at the hip for most of their lives. In fact, it was with Cassie that Lia made the oath that they would be the thinnest girls in school. Only Cassie and Lia stopped being friends a few months ago, after Lia's second stay in New Seasons: a home for girls battling eating disorder, and her parents had her cut off all communication with Lia. And now Cassie is dead.

Alone and still battling demons of her own, Lia continues to shed weight, refusing to believe she is anything other than huge, refusing to admit that what she's doing to herself may cost her her own life-- and irreparably damage those around her.

I deeply enjoyed Wintergirls. Though it's one of those books that makes you want to cry through half of the story and keeps your stomach churning through the rest, it's the type of story our generation (and the generations coming after us) sorely needs.

Anderson handled the material extremely itself extremely well, but she also managed to create a novel whose poetic language draws the reader in more deeply than anything else ever could. Wintergirls is deeply beautiful book, even as the story itself plunges into a darkness that feels tangible at times. (Yet it is that tangibility of the emotions and the darkness surrounding Lia that makes this book so very good.)

I honestly didn't think Anderson could match the fabulous job she did with Speak, but it appears that I was wrong. This is just as good and just as relevant. It's definitely written better than the other novel. (Though I'm quite certain Speak will still continue to be my favorite of the two books, it's at least a close competition.) Also, Anderson herself is quickly climbing her way up the list of my favorite authors. She's just too amazing to not be one of my favorites!

I purchased the book immediately after having finished it and will most assuredly be singing its praises to everyone I come in contact with for months to come.

Rating: ~ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ~

We held hands when we walked down the gingerbread path into the forest, blood dripping from our fingers. We danced with witches and kissed monsters. We turned us into winter girls, and when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.