Many times in Wintergirls, the main character mentions feeling like a puppet whose strings are being pulled, which in turn is a fitting description for the feel of this book. Wintergirls is the story of Lia, who suffers from anorexia, depression, and a family who sees her as nothing but a burden. Her best friend Cassie suffered too, until she died alone in a hotel room. That’s where the book starts, and reading through Lia’s breakdown is like a series of progressively numbing slaps. Anderson weaves the strings of this story together into something fierce, beautiful and so terrible it hurts to read.
I highly recommend it, despite triggering potential, because this kind of spotlight being shed on problems is something we desperately need as a society. Furthermore, as libraries are all too often the only safe place children and teens in need have to
Contains: extreme anorexia, depression, language, cutting, drug usego to try to learn more about themselves, books like Wintergirls is an essential to public collections.