Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Wintergirls.  New York:  Viking, 2009.  278.

Your best friend just died, she tried to get help so she called you thirty-three times, and you didn't pick up.  In the book Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, eighteen-year-old Lia Overbrook lives with her dad, her step-sister Emma, and her step-mom, a woman named Jennifer who Lia thinks is clueless.  Her dad is always away on business trips and Lia's mom is busy saving other people's lives.  Lia thinks she can just move on from Cassie’s death by going to her best friend’s funeral, but it is not that easy.  No knows quite why Cassie died alone in a motel, all the police know was that alcohol was involved.  Cassie had a serious eating disorder and so does Lia that they hid from everyone.  Their plan for their senior year was to be the skinniest girls in school, but that was before Cassie's death.   When Lia comes back from the funeral, weird things start to happen, and Cassie starts to visit her in the middle of the night.  Cassie’s haunting makes Lia feel consumed with guilt, and her eating disorder worsens.  

Wintergirls is one of my favorite books.  Laurie Halse Anderson is a wonderful author who puts great detail and an amazing, unique perspective into her writing.  I loved how this book described Lia´s thoughts and how she used engaging dialogue.  Wintergirls has astonishing and realistic imagery, it makes it seem like you are there inside Lia's head.  Lia never believes she is attractive enough, thin enough or good enough.  Her struggle with her self-image causes her to have an extreme eating disorder and to cut herself, and escalates to the point of life and death. If I were to rate this book, I would give it four and a half stars because it has a great plot line.  I would recommend this book to teenagers because there are scenes, topics, and language that are not appropriate for younger readers.