Winter Girls

I was a little nervous about reading this book at first. When Dr Webb gave us the description of  Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then Cassie suffers the ultimate loss-her life and Lisa is left behind haunted by her friends memory and racked with guilt for not being able to help save her. In her most powerfully moving novel since speak award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lias struggle, her painful Plath to recovery and her desperate attempts to hold ont o the most important things of all: hope.  After reading this I of course found it interesting but I was concerned if I could handle the read. See I have a close friend who suffered from anorexia and I seen what she went throug, this isn't something that should be over looked its serious. So I looked some other summaries on it and found this one Much of the book could certainly trigger a vulnerable reader. It tells the story of Lia, who spirals into anorexia and cutting after the death of her best friend Cassie, who was bulimic. Like many anorexics, Lia knows how many calories are in everything she eats, and her descriptions of her meals ("I eat ten raisins (16) and five almonds (35) and a green-bellied pear (121) (= 172)") could certainly serve as instruction and motivation for disordered eating. So could her reports of her steadily dropping weight and ever-lower goal, the pro-ana websites she visits (though, thankfully, Anderson doesn't include actual web addresses), and the tricks she uses to make her family think she's eating. Most disturbing, though, is the way Lia thinks about her illness and her recovery. Anderson writes, To the non-sufferer, this thinking is distorted and scary, but to anyone with a tendency toward anorexia, it may sound all too reasonable. Lia's thoughts about herself may be far more triggering than her calorie-counting or meal-avoiding strategies — they may convince girls that their own disordered thoughts are normal or even correct. So I after reading this I thought if I read I can better my knowledge and soon help someone if need me!