Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Reading Level: Young Adult

Hardcover: 288 Pages

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

ISBN-10: 067001110X
ASIN: B004R96SCO

My Rating: 4/5

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 stepmother 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.

'Wintergirls' by Laurie Halse Anderson is completely different from anything that I've read. I have never read anything else by Anderson so I'm not sure if this is normal for her. I can't really compare. For me, 'Wintergirls' was a struggle at times, but amazing at others. I loved her sporadic writing style for Lia. It felt like I really got a look at the destruction within Lia's mind. How torn and damaged she really is. But at times, I felt like Anderson took things a little far.

'Wintergirls' is told through Lia, an extremely troubled girl. Lia has so many problems but most of them stem from her anorexia. The fact that she has a best friend who suffers from bulimia doesn't help. From the very first paragraph in the book, we get an in depth look at how messed up Lia is when we find out about Cassie's death. Best friends for years, yet it doesn't faze her. The whole book is Lia struggling with cutting, anorexia, mental issues, downfalls with her family, and a ton of other problems.

At times while I was reading 'Wintergirls' I thought that Anderson was very vicious with some of the things she said. That she took things too far. But, when I think back now about it being Lia's thought process it makes sense. Being fat is unacceptable in today's society and Lia knows it. Her solution, don't eat. It's sad. 'Wintergirls' was an intense and emotional read for me. I really liked it. After I got used to Anderson's writing style for Lia, I loved it. I love how different it is and how much it allows you to really get in Lia's head. I definitely plan on reading more from Anderson soon!

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by The Story Siren.

This week I bought:
City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Demonglass by Rachel Hawkins

Stargazer by Claudia Gray

Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

I received:
The Darlings are Forever by Melissa Kantor

What did you receive in your mailbox?

RAK

For those of you who don't know, RAK is Random Acts of Kindness. An amazing thing that the Book Soulmates run. If you haven't signed up yet, you definitely should! :)

The RAK I received this month was:

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
From: Lisa @ A Life Bound By Books

Thank you so much Lisa! :) I can't wait to read Nightshade. I'm soooo excited haha.

Can't wait to see everyone else's RAK!

Friday Book Blogger Hop!

Friday's Books Blogger Hop is hosted by Crazy for Books.

This weeks question is:

“What keeps you reading beyond the first few pages of a book, and what makes you want to stop reading a book and put it back on the shelf?“

Usually what keeps me reading a book past the first few pages are the characters. Or the potential story line. The way the author writes too. Sometimes you can get a book and just tell within the first page or so that it isn't going to be good. I usually give the book a chance anyways and continue to read. If it improves, that's awesome and I'll finish it. If it gets worse, I probably won't. I've only read one book so far that was so...terrible I couldn't finish it.

Can't wait to see every one's answer to this weeks question! Thanks for Hopping by! :)