Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Winter Girls is the story of Lia and her struggle with anorexia. Lia’s best friend Cassie has just recently died from the effects of her anorexia; this incident throws Lia into a cycle of avoiding food, exercising compulsively, and lying to her parents. The narrative is through Lia’s journal where the reader is privy to her justifications and thoughts about Cassie’s death, as well as her communication with what she assumes is Cassie’s ghost.  As the novel progresses Lia continues to follow Cassie deeper into her disease, with disastrous results.

            Winter Girls is very well written, and I loved the journal format. The characters are well developed and the reader is able to understand where Lia is coming from. This book is very good, but it is incredibly depressing. If you are looking for something light, I suggest you look elsewhere. As you would assume, this book has some content--there are instances of self –harm, drug abuse, and other destructive behaviors. My thought on this is that it makes the book believable and also helps the reader to understand what someone who suffers with anorexia goes through; it is certainly justified.  There is also a fair amount of language in this book. Winter Girls would be great for high school students.