Published in 2009 by Viking Juvenile3 Stars
“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 were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether.
In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.
Review: I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was really anticipating reading Wintergirls. I read Speak a while ago after watching the movie (which I actually liked! Who knew I'd like a K-Stew movie) and I loved the book. However, I'm sad to say that Wintergirls fell short for me.
I really enjoy reading books about mental illnesses including eating disorders. I find there are so many different ways an author can go when they're writing a story about mental illness. I felt like Anderson was close to hitting the mark, but didn't quite make it. I couldn't connect to her writing style which is surprising because I really enjoyed her writing in Speak. However in Wintergirls it was a little too poetic and "flowery" for my taste. I guess I was expecting a much more direct form of story telling, and Wintergirls kept me guessing as to what was really going on. I couldn't tell if it was a contemporary or paranormal book, and that ambiguity frustrated me and turned me off from large chunks of the story.
Another aspect of the book I didn't really like was the lack of character growth. I didn't get the impression that Lia really learned anything by the end of the story. I was hoping that I would get some sense that she was going to get better, that she would have some sort of epiphany about what she was doing to her body and her family. That never happened for me. At the end she still seemed selfish and defensive.
This review isn't to say Wintergirls is the worst book I've ever read. I did enjoy some parts, largely the horrific side effects of anorexia and bulimia, but for me parts of the book felt too hung up in a specific writing style or convention to tell the story clearly. Overall I would say Wintergirls is a good book, but nowhere near some of Anderson's other works.
“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 were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether.
In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.
Review: I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was really anticipating reading Wintergirls. I read Speak a while ago after watching the movie (which I actually liked! Who knew I'd like a K-Stew movie) and I loved the book. However, I'm sad to say that Wintergirls fell short for me.
I really enjoy reading books about mental illnesses including eating disorders. I find there are so many different ways an author can go when they're writing a story about mental illness. I felt like Anderson was close to hitting the mark, but didn't quite make it. I couldn't connect to her writing style which is surprising because I really enjoyed her writing in Speak. However in Wintergirls it was a little too poetic and "flowery" for my taste. I guess I was expecting a much more direct form of story telling, and Wintergirls kept me guessing as to what was really going on. I couldn't tell if it was a contemporary or paranormal book, and that ambiguity frustrated me and turned me off from large chunks of the story.
Another aspect of the book I didn't really like was the lack of character growth. I didn't get the impression that Lia really learned anything by the end of the story. I was hoping that I would get some sense that she was going to get better, that she would have some sort of epiphany about what she was doing to her body and her family. That never happened for me. At the end she still seemed selfish and defensive.
This review isn't to say Wintergirls is the worst book I've ever read. I did enjoy some parts, largely the horrific side effects of anorexia and bulimia, but for me parts of the book felt too hung up in a specific writing style or convention to tell the story clearly. Overall I would say Wintergirls is a good book, but nowhere near some of Anderson's other works.
No comments:
Post a Comment