TW: Eating disorders; self-harm
Title: Wintergirls
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Number of Pages: 278 pages
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 19, 2009
Purchase: Thriftbooks//Amazon
My Rating: 1.5/5 stars
Synopsis from Goodreads:
“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.
My Thoughts:
I am in the minority that does not like this book. It has been getting tons of 4 or 5 star reviews and I’m sitting here thinking that the main character was awful and the writing style was annoying.
The author almost seems like she is letting Lia live in dreamland with some of the words she uses to describe the world around her. There is nothing wrong with that but with the subject matter at hand, I didn’t feel like it was appropriate to almost not make an appearance in reality. Lia also came off as very childish and not acting her age. She irritated me more and more as the story went on.
The ending was very abrupt and not satisfying in any way, shape, or form. This book was really rough because I love Speak and this was suppose to be just as good as Speak, it was far from that.
I would have rather read a story about Cassie and what she was going through. I also can see how triggering this book could be to anyone sensitive to these topics. With that, I would not really recommend this book.
I have been having a really hard time with the last couple of books that I have been reading. They’ve mostly been one or two stars, because of that I have been hitting a reading slump. I’m about to reread Harry Potter just to get back into a different mindset.
How do you get out of reading slumps? What are your favorite books that I should check out?
What books are you getting into this summer? Any recommendations?
Life in Books 
I hate it when I read several 1 or 2 star books in a row. It does create a slump and it gets me discouraged as well. I’ve found that reading a short story or two can sometimes cleanse my palate and get me back on track. I’ve also found that just taking a reading break for a day or two helps to clear my head. Good luck! Slumps stink so I hope your next book is definitely 5 stars!!!!
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I was working over 40 hours the last couple of weeks so I think that also played into it. I did move to a book with horror short stories and it really helped. Fortunately I have read a few better books since this one but I still have that no motivation feeling.
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Ouch book slumps really suck!! I tend to just do other things with my free time and only come back to books when I feel ready. I hope you get over your slump soon. 🙂
This book has been on my TBR for years but I’ve never felt the time was right to read it. And after your review I’m thinking maybe the time will never be right lol!
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Thank you, I hope I do too. I read some short stories and a graphic novel. 🙂
This book has been in my stack for a while as well and I had to force myself to finally read it. Lol, there really is no right time for this book!
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I really liked ‘Speak’ too but also thought this book was just… meh. The main character was incredibly unlikable and annoying and I found it really hard to sympathize with her. She was manipulative and seemed to treat everyone around her badly. I wasn’t a fan of the supernatural elements either, I just didn’t think they worked all that well. As far as a few young adult books I would recommend, I think you should check out ‘When My Heart Joins the Thousand’ by A.J. Steiger, ‘Highly Illogical Behavior’ by John Corey Whaley, ‘America’ by E.R. Frank, and ‘Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity’ by Kristin Elizabeth Clark. Also, ‘Hurricane Child’ (Kacen Callender,) ”Rogue’ (Lyn Miller-Lachman,) ‘The Girl in the Well is Me’ (Karen Rivers,) and ‘The Other Boy’ (M.G. Hennessy) are shelved as juvenile fiction, but I found them unusually compelling. Hope this helps! 🙂
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Thank you so much for all the recommendations! I will add them to my TBR. 🙂
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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