Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls. New York, Penguin Group, 2010. 278.

Lia never knew that her best friend would die because of their competition. Lia also didn’t know that she would come back to haunt her. In the realistic fiction, Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Lia and Cassie are best friends with eating disorders. Lia is anorexic, and Cassie is bulimic. They pick up on each other’s tendencies and use them for themselves. The story goes through Lia’s life and her struggles with her disorder. The book starts with Lia looking at her phone after she ignored multiple calls from Cassie because she felt like Cassie played her. In the messages, Cassie is saying that she really needs Lia’s help, and that she needs someone to talk to. Later, she finds out that Cassie’s body was found alone in a motel room. Soon after she hears about this information, she gets a call. It’s about Cassie, and it’s from a boy named Elijah. He says that he’s looking for a girl named Lia, and that he wants to talk. Lia goes to the location that he mentioned, and gives a false name. The two discuss a few things, and during the whole conversation Cassie’s funeral is in the back of Lia’s mind. She can’t go to funeral alone due to orders from her mom, so she challenges Elijah to a card game and makes a bet with it. If she wins, he has to go to the funeral with her. She ends up winning. The story continues with Lia finding out more and more things about Cassie and her death. In between events, you also see Lia’s struggles with her eating disorder and Cassie’s hauntings.

I enjoyed many things about this book, but one of my favorites is how true the story is to the issues. There’s no sugar coating when the author talks about the characters obstacles, which allows readers to relate. This makes it so much easier to mentally connect to the book, making people want to keep reading. I also liked how the story played out. Nothing felt rushed, and it  shows how rough the road to recovery is. I feel so strongly about this book- I am absolutely in love with it. I find it difficult to be interested in a book in the first place, so to have a story keep me reading was a pleasant surprise! I would recommend this book to people who are struggling with darker issues, even if they aren’t covered in Wintergirls. I found that even though I wasn’t battling with an eating disorder, it really helped me through some of my problems and made me think. So if you’re in need of a book that can make you more aware of this world, definitely give this book a try.