Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
This has to be one of my favourite teen authors, and once again I am in awe of her writing ability. She lets you become completely absorbed in the characters life. Wow!!
From the cover:
"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 porclain 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.
Haunting, vivid, powerful, terrifying and disturbing. I felt naive to the extreme mental state that an eating disorder (in this case anorexia) could consume a person. The fact that Lia has twice been in rehab for her disorder and feels that the people around her are the ones doing the brainwashing speaks of how her mental state has been undermined by her illness. Even more disturbing is that statistic that one in four women will struggle with eating disorders.
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