Wintergirls

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

The ideas of deception and perception are central to this story. How can a person deceive themselves so much that they are happily on the brink of death? This is a hypnotic read into the mind of 17 year old Lia, an anorexic. For years, she and her friend, Cassie, have struggled in a perverse race to see who could be the thinnest. However, after several hospitalizations for both girls, Cassie breaks up their friendship in an attempt to appear rehabilitated.

When the story opens, Lia has just been told that Cassie has died in a motel room. Lia, who had ignored Cassie's recent phone calls, slips even deeper into her own mind, which is as deceptive as a house of mirrors. With little to anchor herself to reality, she begins her fight against food with a renewed vigor. She begins to see the ghost of Cassie, which causes her to spiral downward even more. While everyone around her tries to save her, in the end only Cassie can make the decision.

The poetic prose and first person perspective invite the reader into the mind of Lia. The author uses strike-through words to mimic Lia's first thoughts, and then Lia's reformed and revised thoughts appear. For example, when Lia is offered food, her first reaction is that she is hungry. But these words have a strike through them, and after appear Lia's revised thoughts: often focusing on how the food will make her fat, ugly, gross. The author also illustrates Lia's repetitive and punishing habit of calling herself fat, ugly, and stupid. Lia repeats these words and sayings almost as though they were a path to enlightenment or a form of meditation. The poetic nature of the writing, and other various techniques that help mimic Lia's thoughts, allowed me to "become Lia," even though at every moment I knew how warped her perception was.

Grade: A+