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Book review: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
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Laurie Halse Anderson can do no wrong. Her young adult novel Speak is one of the best books ever written (though it was made into a horrid movie). Fever 1793 made me actually enjoy historical fiction (a genre I actively avoid). Admittedly Prom was not her best work; however, she did capture the true teenage voice.
I’ve been looking forward to the release of her latest novel Wintergirls which will be in bookstores on March 19th. I was seriously stoked to get an advance copy of it so I didn’t have to wait another month. Already the book is getting comparisons to Speak. I was fortunate to finish it in time for National Eatting Disorder Awareness Week.
Wintergirls is the story of two best friends Cassie and Lia, both of whom who have eating disorders. At the start of the novel Cassie is found dead in a motel. Immediately, her ghost begins to haunt Lia and taunts her about her weight. Lia has just been released from her second hospitalization for anorexia and is already struggling to lead a normal life. Soon Lia begins relapsing into her old disordered eating behaviors though she is successful in hiding it from her family for awhile. As Cassie continues to haunt her, Lia gets worse and worse. In a matter of weeks she drops nearly twenty pounds, convinced her body is covered in layers of fat.
The novel is told in present tense though Lia gives the reader numerous flashbacks. It is pretty evident from the beginning of the book what will happen to Lia. Most of the characters Anderson creates are complex and interesting with the exception of Lia’s stepmother who seems more like a Stepford Wife and robotic plot device.
While I do think Wintergirls is brilliantly written, it is certainly no Speak. For starters, the novel is all about the progression of Lia’s anorexia, which seems drawn out compared to her “recovery.” The ending feels rushed, like Anderson only had ten pages to tie up loose ends, which she kind of fails to do. Characters are introduced and then lost in the plot. The reader is left wondering what happens to Cassie’s parents and Elijah.
My biggest concern with the book is how teens who already suffer from disordered eating or even anorexia might use this as an eating disorder “Bible” or how-to guide especially with the calorie counts of everything Lia eats her obsessive compulsive tendencies. This book is very much in the same vein as Mayra Hornbacher’s Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia and Natasha Friend’s Perfect. I would recommend this book to readers ages 16 and older.
Sound off: What is your favorite Laurie Halse Anderson book and why?
Want something else to read? Check out my book reviews forYou Must Be This Happy to Enter, Where is Simon, Sandy?, Savvy, and The Poet's Place.
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