Wintergirls

=//Wintergirls// heats things up = By Adrienne Bracken Copy Editor and Entertainment Editor

Eighteen-year-old Lia Overbrook loses the only person who had ever filled the slot labeled “best friend” in her life. Her biological mother goes into control freak mode too often; in addition, her father never listens, and her stepmother is blind. Add an extreme eating disorder and severe, self-inflicted pain to that list, and the result composes the life of main character Lia in Laurie Halse Anderson’s new book //Wintergirls//.

Acclaimed author Anderson begins the tale of //Wintergirls// with the brutal, abrupt death of Cassie, Lia’s former best friend. Cassie mysteriously dies alone in a barren motel late one evening after having been missing for several nights. Before passing on, Cassie calls Lia thirty-three times in a final effort to plead for help before her life ends. Lia fails to pick up, and her troubles appear in full force after this event.

Every corner she turns, every hall she walks down, and every attempt at sleep brings Lia to Cassie’s haunting ghost. Cassie whispers to her friend in the night, telling her she will soon join her in the space between life and death. Lia’s health rapidly begins deteriorating after she begins seeing Cassie. She hardly eats, sleeps much too long, and once again begins cutting herself.

Anderson spins the story flawlessly using rich, metaphorical diction and intense imagery. She appeals to the private tragedies that plague so many young adults in today’s world. The novel describes the love, loss, regret, and fears so many people battle. The connection Anderson establishes with the reader is both strong and genuine.

//Wintergirls// achieves a frightening depth few other novels reach. The suspense Anderson builds lasts until the final page of the novel and keeps the reader turning pages, hungry to eat the delicious words she feeds. The novel is worth every penny spent, every minute taken, and every fast-paced beat of the heart it induces. Readers can purchase //Wintergirls// in stores now.

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