Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

      I am currently reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book is about a girl named Lia who is anorexic and her struggles through life. Her best friend Cassie has just died and she also had an eating disorder except she was bulimic. Lia is having a very hard time with Cassie's death. She is still anorexic and she is making goals of weights that she wants to be. This is a very sad, and truthful book, but at the same time it's also an amazing book. It keeps you at the edge of your seat all the time. This book is very meaningful. i think that there are many reasons to Lia being anorexic. I think one is her parents being divorced. That probably triggers a lot of emotional pain. I think another reason is her best friend Cassie. Cassie really influenced her in a bad way.

      Lia is eighteen years old. In the beginning of the book, she weighs 100 pounds and by the end her goal is 85, and she almost reaches it too. That is way too skinny and underweight for a girl her age. Lia has been through so much in her life it’s kind of insane. She is anorexic, her parents are divorced, her best friend dumped her, and then her best friend that dumped her died. That is a lot of emotional pain to take in right there especially if you are so young. I think that Lia is a very strong girl but she just got lost somewhere in her life. At the end of the book, the emotional pain takes over Lia and she becomes mentally insane. She even gets sent to a mental institute by her therapist.
      I just feel so bad for Lia. I mean she is going through the roughest time in her life and no one is there to support her or help her. She even almost died twice. Not once but twice. Lia also cuts herself sometimes and once she went too far and too much that she landed in the hospital. The other time is from starving herself, and not drinking water. That is a really scary thing to go through. Of course her parents are going to be upset and worried and mad but they also have to be there for her and that is something that they are not doing so well. I mean they can try just a little more then they are now. 
      I think that Lia’s parents are a big contributor to Lia’s illness. They aren’t even there for her, and when they are, they are just plain mean to her. They are divorced and Lia was living with her mom but then her and her mom were fighting too much she moved out. She went to stay with her dad and his wife and stepdaughter. Lia was happy there at first, but then when she started to get sick again, things kind of got out of hand. Her parents are always fighting and ignoring her. She doesn’t have a good relationship with her mom, so it was never easy. Lia’s mom wanted Lia to move back in with her but Lia didn’t want to. I think that must have been hard for Lia, turning down to live with your own mother? I feel like Lia feels like she has no place to belong. When she doesn’t feel welcomed anywhere, it probably brings up a lot of emotion and contributes to her anorexia. Lia has a very cute relationship with her stepsister, Emma. Lia never wants to hurt Emma but she does because she cuts herself and starves herself and that scares Emma. Of course Lia never wanted Emma to know about all of that but somehow she walked in on Lia cutting herself once and it scared Emma to death! Lia’s stepmom Jennifer loves Lia, but she turns on her when she hurts Emma. She is mad and yells at Lia because she scared Emma so badly. If I was Lia I would be so mad at the world. And Lia is mad at the world, her whole entire family is mad at her and that on top of everything else going on, must have been the thing that cracked Lia. And Lia blames it all on herself.
      The quote “I messed up, I messed up big time”, proves to me that Lia is blaming all of her family yelling at her, on her. Lia’s family needs to understand that it’s not all Lia’s fault. You have to blame it on the illness as well as Lia otherwise it isn't fair.
      I think another contributor to Lia’s anorexia is her friend Cassie who died. Cassie was her best friend forever. But just last year, Cassie dumped her for no good reason. Lia was all by herself, struggling to stay alive all by herself. She was starving herself all by herself. Cassie was bulimic which means you eat a lot of food then you throw it all up. Cassie actually died because she was vomiting too much and it tore her esophagus. That must have been just awful. I mean think about it, so painful. Lia and Cassie had a long relationship with a lot of history. They both had eating disorders so it was kind of like something they had in common. I think that Cassie really influenced Lia in a bad way. She was the one who made Lia anorexic (well sort of. They both did it together but Cassie was the one who kept pushing and influencing her to do it) Cassie was also the one who kept messing with Lia’s mind. Even after she died, Cassie was always there next to Lia whispering to her that she should starve herself, cut herself, be skinnier, be better. Everyone thought that Lia was making up that she saw Cassie as a ghost but she wasn’t. Lia is a wintergirl, it means that you aren’t dead but you aren’t alive. It’s like you are stuck in between the two worlds of living and death. Cassie really got to Lia’s head and told her to do some messed up stuff.
      I don’t think that anyone really liked Cassie, especially Lia’s step mom Jennifer. The quote “Jennifer nibbles at a cookie. ‘I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I’m glad you didn’t hang out with her anymore. Cassie was a mess. She could have taken you down with her too’”. That really shows Jennifer didn’t approve of Lia hanging out with Cassie. I wonder for how long Jennifer had felt like that? Always?
      Overall, Wintergirls is a really great book. I think that it really shows how much of a struggle it is so be someone who goes through so much. It really makes me think about my life, I mean I am lucky, I’m not anorexic and my best friend didn’t die. It makes me really feel a lot more for Lia and what she is going through.