Chilling

Chilling isn't just clever wordplay in this case, it describes this book perfectly. The book Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson was very chilling. It is the story of a girl named Lia who suffers from anorexia, and most recently, the death of her best friend Cassie. Cassie was anorexic too, and her method of losing weight was purging. On the day of her death, Cassie leaves many messages with Lia, but she doesn't answer one of them. Now Cassie's ghost is plaguing her. It tells Lia to lose more weight, to join Cassie on the other side. The skinny side. Every time Lia eats something, the calorie count goes through her mind. She puts quarters in her bathrobe for when her watchful stepmother watches her step on the scale every morning. But no one understands! Even at 95 pounds, Lia can see the sacks of fat hanging off of her body. And Cassie is calling for her to drop those next 10 pounds...
This book was sometimes horrifying. As someone who never understood anorexia, the thoughts of this girl, a girl my age, made me sick on occasion. But annorexia is a real problem. The fact that Lia thinks of her food in terms of the number of calories that are in it just astounded me. Lia's description of herself while she was in the help center for anorexia made me want to cry. Anoriexia is a horrifying problem and this book tells us all of the horrifying details no one wants to think about. Some of the storytelling methods started to get on my nerves. There was a lot of scoring through words words crossed out when Lia wanted to amend her thoughts, and it really interrupted the flow. Also, the motives behind the anorexia, I felt, were never properly explained. And finally, Lia's family was kind of vague at times, and I felt like that part of the story was never told.

Other than that, this book was actually really fantastic. It has made me really want to get my hands on the book Speak also by Laurie Halse Anderson. I have heard it is fantastic. Wintergirls was appropriately chilling and real, and I think every girl in high school should read this book, no matter what. They need to understand the horrible world of anorexia, and this book really shows it.

Rating: 3.5/5