Wintergirls
User reviews
2 reviews with 3 stars
17 reviews
Overall rating
4.1
Plot
4.4(17)
Characters
4.0(3)
Writing Style
4.0(3)
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
N/A(0)
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Ordering
Thoughtful, yet lacking in emtotion
Overall rating
3.0
Plot
N/A
Characters
N/A
Writing Style
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Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
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“We held hands when we walked down the gingerbread path into the forest, blood dripping from our fingers. We danced with witches and kissed monsters. We turned us into wintergirls, and when she tried to leave, I pulled her back into the snow because I was afraid to be alone.” — Wintergirls
Outwardly, Wintergirls had everything that would recommend itself to me: hard-hitting “issues” book, the promise of fantastic prose, an author who’s something of an institution in the realistic fiction world. What could go wrong? I thought.
One should never underestimate the great importance of a well-rounded, complex protagonist. Because, sadly, that’s the one thing Laurie Halse Anderson forgot to include in this book, and it made a huge difference.
Lia is eighteen and living with her dad and his second wife, struggling to get skinny again after a series of hospital stays. She finds out her former best friend Cassie is dead because of her bulimia, and it’s more or less Lia’s fault. Obviously, Lia’s anorexia becomes a whole other animal, and there’s a lot of angsting to be done. Also some delusions and hallucinations (which I assume are caused by Lia’s malnourished state).
In the end, Lia faces her demons, almost dies, and starts down the road to recovery in a somewhat cheesy, cliche manner. Like any genre, realistic fiction has its patterns and go-tos, and I didn’t mind this book’s plot much at all. No, it didn’t wow me, but I would have enjoyed it had there not been the two-dimentionality of Lia’s character.
I felt that Lia was just an symbol of an anorexic girl. She embodied an idea, but she wasn’t a person of her own merit. Whatever growth she experienced seemed forced, like Anderson knew Lia was going to have to change her outlook on life, even if Lia didn’t seem to want to. It lacked genuineness. Lia was not an authentic character for me.
However, Laure Halse Anderson’s prose was to die for. Wintergirls is almost worth reading just for the text. This author expresses herself wonderfully, fluidly. I’m a huge fan of authors who stray outside “proper grammar”and play with the language a bit. Breaking the rules is a-okay with me, just so long as the author knows what s/he’s doing.
Altogether, I must admit to being underwhelmed by Wintergirls. Laurie Halse Anderson is something of a celebrity in the YA world, and this book is, aside from Speak, her most well-liked. It wasn’t bad book by any means—I actually thought it was quite good and I enjoyed it a lot. But Wintergirls definitely didn’t live up to the hype that accompanies it.
Outwardly, Wintergirls had everything that would recommend itself to me: hard-hitting “issues” book, the promise of fantastic prose, an author who’s something of an institution in the realistic fiction world. What could go wrong? I thought.
One should never underestimate the great importance of a well-rounded, complex protagonist. Because, sadly, that’s the one thing Laurie Halse Anderson forgot to include in this book, and it made a huge difference.
Lia is eighteen and living with her dad and his second wife, struggling to get skinny again after a series of hospital stays. She finds out her former best friend Cassie is dead because of her bulimia, and it’s more or less Lia’s fault. Obviously, Lia’s anorexia becomes a whole other animal, and there’s a lot of angsting to be done. Also some delusions and hallucinations (which I assume are caused by Lia’s malnourished state).
In the end, Lia faces her demons, almost dies, and starts down the road to recovery in a somewhat cheesy, cliche manner. Like any genre, realistic fiction has its patterns and go-tos, and I didn’t mind this book’s plot much at all. No, it didn’t wow me, but I would have enjoyed it had there not been the two-dimentionality of Lia’s character.
I felt that Lia was just an symbol of an anorexic girl. She embodied an idea, but she wasn’t a person of her own merit. Whatever growth she experienced seemed forced, like Anderson knew Lia was going to have to change her outlook on life, even if Lia didn’t seem to want to. It lacked genuineness. Lia was not an authentic character for me.
However, Laure Halse Anderson’s prose was to die for. Wintergirls is almost worth reading just for the text. This author expresses herself wonderfully, fluidly. I’m a huge fan of authors who stray outside “proper grammar”and play with the language a bit. Breaking the rules is a-okay with me, just so long as the author knows what s/he’s doing.
Altogether, I must admit to being underwhelmed by Wintergirls. Laurie Halse Anderson is something of a celebrity in the YA world, and this book is, aside from Speak, her most well-liked. It wasn’t bad book by any means—I actually thought it was quite good and I enjoyed it a lot. But Wintergirls definitely didn’t live up to the hype that accompanies it.
anorexia
Overall rating
3.0
Plot
N/A
Characters
N/A
Writing Style
N/A
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
N/A
Reader reviewed by stephanie
I have to admit, the subject matter for Wintergirls truly disturbed me and it was very difficult and uncomfortable for me to read the book eating disorders and the like.
The writing style was hard to get into. At first, I didnt really like it because it was totally different than the writing style that I was used to. However, by the end of the book, I realized that despite the different writing style, it somehow fit the book.
The plot, like I said before, was about anorexia. Because Ive never experienced it nor have seen other people experience it, it was probably a lot harder for me to relate with Lia in a both emotion and physical way. I couldnt fully comprehend why she would want to do that and why she couldnt stop. So due to my lack of experience which could be a good or bad thing, it was really hard for me to relate to the book in general.
Lia, the main character, is anorexic. She has the need to starve herself despite all the times when she wants to eat. She would often look at something yummy and think about eating it but the things she thinks and the things she does are vastly different. Like I said before, I couldnt relate to her no matter how hard I tried. It was very hard for me to understand her and, like I said, this made it difficult for me to understand the book in general.
Overall, Wintergirls would probably have impacted people who actually have experienced anorexia or know someone who have. I believe that Wintergirls can be a really big impact to healing anorexic girls or those who are plagued by it and it can definitely be a discussion book. I personally didnt enjoy it as much as everyone else did but it was still a very emotional and gripping novel.
The writing style was hard to get into. At first, I didnt really like it because it was totally different than the writing style that I was used to. However, by the end of the book, I realized that despite the different writing style, it somehow fit the book.
The plot, like I said before, was about anorexia. Because Ive never experienced it nor have seen other people experience it, it was probably a lot harder for me to relate with Lia in a both emotion and physical way. I couldnt fully comprehend why she would want to do that and why she couldnt stop. So due to my lack of experience which could be a good or bad thing, it was really hard for me to relate to the book in general.
Lia, the main character, is anorexic. She has the need to starve herself despite all the times when she wants to eat. She would often look at something yummy and think about eating it but the things she thinks and the things she does are vastly different. Like I said before, I couldnt relate to her no matter how hard I tried. It was very hard for me to understand her and, like I said, this made it difficult for me to understand the book in general.
Overall, Wintergirls would probably have impacted people who actually have experienced anorexia or know someone who have. I believe that Wintergirls can be a really big impact to healing anorexic girls or those who are plagued by it and it can definitely be a discussion book. I personally didnt enjoy it as much as everyone else did but it was still a very emotional and gripping novel.
G
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2 results - showing 1 - 2
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