Amelia+G

Amelia G's 9th Grade Book Review




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Anorexia is a challenge faced by many in this world. People are trying to prioritize between eating and dying. Lia, an 18 year old anorexic, tackles and surrenders to these challenges in Wintergirls, a novel by Laurie Halse Henderson. The only reason I even picked up this book was because of it's eye catching cover art. But when I opened it, i was submersed into an almost poetic entail of a most pathetic death.

The gruesome details of this story show how any addiction can ruin you. Greed for emptiness is all I can think to describe it. To be empty is to be pure, and to be pure is to be happy. This book is so well written that I have to remind myself that I'm not the one being followed around by the ghost of their bulimic best friend. I can smell the scent that appears whenever the spirit is around and I can taste the food that Lia forces down whenever she's around her family. This book contains tons of perspective from the main character. How she views strangers, her family, and friends. It's all a whole new world! It really makes you think. Most people think that an eating disorder is easily overcome, but the feelings expressed in this book show how difficult it really is. The feeling of being unwanted, by others as well as yourself, and the helplessness, and hopelessness. The feeling of being sucked into a vortex created by your actions. It's unsettling.

I really enjoyed this book, and the only faults I found in it was that the imagery was so vivid, that I felt sick to my stomach at times. I felt the ice swim down my spine and pool in my stomach with each swipe of the razor blade and forced smile. This book frustrates me with the main characters refusal to stop putting herself and others in danger, but it intrigues me with the imagery so well, that I can't help but to read on.

I would DEFINATELY recommend this book to anyone. But especially to anyone who is impatient with books, much like myself. If a book doesn't impress me or get my attention within the first 2 or 3 pages, I'm gone. But this book not only grabbed my attention, but shook it by its shoulders and held it in place! Anyone who wants to be stopped in their tracks by poetic literature and incredibly vivid imagery should definitely pick up Wintergirls because it puts everything into a new perspective. This book will take everything you //think// you know about eating disorders, and turn it on its head. It's heart wrenching, the struggles told in this book. It's infuriating to realize that there's nothing that you can do to change the events in this book. The feelings that Lia has towards herself, for family and friends, and food make me feel repulsive, almost every thought and fiber of energy coursing through her 97 pound frame is negative and against the world. This book isn't like a stereotypical teenage drama, with a perfect ending. The conclusion of this work of art is bittersweet, but I still relish the flavor.