WINTERGIRLS

WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wow- this is a tough one to write about. I am all about discussing difficult topics with my kids at age appropriate times, but Wintergirls is really deep. So let's start this post off talking about the author, and then we'll step into the book itself.

This is the third book I've read by Laurie Halse Anderson. Her books deal with very difficult subjects facing today's youth. The first two I read deal with party rape and sexual abuse/suicide. The books are deep and moving and sometimes written from Anderson's personal experiences. I read them with my girls and we had great discussions about safety and situations they may encounter with others in life. But this one...this one is not Anderson's story, but it is born out of letters she has received from teens.

Wintergirls is the story of two friends, Lia and Cassie, who make a devastating oath to each other at a young age, to each be skinnier than the other. Lia is anorexic and Cassie is bulimic. When Cassie ends up dying, Lia sees her "ghost" everywhere. Whether this is due to the guilt, mental illness, hallucinations from the lack of nutrition that Lia is suffering from or she truly is seeing her friend is never completely answered. Both Lia and Cassie come from homes that from the outside look very successful. Parents are well respected and hold impressive jobs. However, behind the closed doors is a lot of brokenness that definitely plays into the pact that is made.

This book is heartbreaking. If you decide to use it, because unfortunately this is very real in our world, I would highly recommend reading it alongside your teen. The dialogue, internally and externally, is just devastating which is what makes this book so rough. You would definitely want to keep an open conversation going with your teen.

So what is a Wintergirl? A Wintergirl is a term that Anderson coined, and it is a girl who suffers from an eating disorder. She is not dead yet, but is frozen in her body suspended between life and death.

I graduated high school in 1994, and I went to school with a girl who was bulimic.

HEADS UP - There is a little bit of language with 1 F-bomb. The truth of what happened to Cassie when she died is a little rough.