Review #3: WINTERGIRLS

Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Wintergirls.  New York:  Penguin Group, 2009.  Print.

Annotation:       " ...body found in a motel room, alone..."

     When eighteen-year-old Lia’s recently estranged best friend, Cassie, dies unexpectedly as the result of complications brought on by a long struggle with bulimia, Lia’s need to restore order to the chaos she feels on the inside and the outside is triggered and she relapses into anorexic behavior.  More and more, the voices inside her head become stronger and override her thoughts, replacing them with ideas that perpetuate her need to control her body in an effort to control her life.  She craves the end of the chaos and confusion of life more than life itself and the sustenance of  order more than the sustenance of food. 

Justification for Nomination:  As she did in Speak (1999), Laurie Halse Anderson once again presents the young adult reader with a fictional story that no doubt could represent a number of young people in today's society.  Her realistic portrayal of Lia and her struggle with an eating disorder that has resulted from a life of internalized hurts and disappointments is intensely disturbing, yet extremely informative.  By bringing her body under submission through starvation and cutting, Lia subconsciously feels she is proving her inner strength and regaining control of the chaos inside and around her.

    Like many of today's youth, Lia  is angry.  She is angry with her parents--her mother who is too busy with her patients to notice her, her father who is faithful to his books but not the women in his life, her stepmother who is easily fooled and oblivious to what is really happening--and with Cassie, her childhood best friend, who has just died.  Lia lies to herself and others, but she does not lie to the reader.  This insight into the inner struggle of a young adult to come to terms with her reality is invaluable.  The young adult reader learns about taking responsiblity for one's actions and  about the challenges involved in balancing priorities properly.  The reader  learns the value of open and honest communication and the destructive, sometimes fatal, consequences of ignoring or not telling the truth.  S/he learns about accepting change and making the best of what life offersm making the best of one's own reality. 

     Although the subject matter of this book did make me uncomfortable at times, I do nominate this book to be considered for a literary excellence award.  It is good to face the realities of life even when they seem bleak and scary.  Wintergirls is true to its genre, and its content divulges information from which young adults can learn.  I feel that Anderson has written this book as a light in the bleakness of a disorder that plagues many of our youth.  (For those who may struggle with the content in terms of  temptation to experiment with Lia's misguided attempts to restore order to her life, I would hope that these young people would learn from Lia's mistakes, glean hope from her experience, and seek proper help and support.)  The best books are those to which we connect and from which we learn about life.  On both accounts, Wintergirls qualifies.

Genre:  Realistic/"Edgy"/Problem