Wintergirls

I love Wintergirls. Like a lot of the books we've read I read this in high school, but I can't believe I did. I remember that her friend died but I forgot that you knew from the very beginning. I remember her working out for hours, but I don't remember her knowing every single calorie. I remember little things, but not much. For me, this shows that for teens just reading the book they may not pick up on the negative views towards anorexia. I just remember the book was about anorexia. I don't know if this says a lot about teens, or just about me (that I was reading so many books in high school this was just another one). This book creates such a dark and ominous mood that I was constantly having to take moments of pause while reading and really think about what just happened. It is a book that forces to think and see this disease as what it is, a disease. It is easy to see people with mental disorders and say that they just need to have faith and get through it, but its easier said then done. Anderson shows this in a darkly beautiful way. She uses all literary elements you can name, but for me the one that stood out the most would be her writing style. With having the words that haunt her I a different font. With having words crossed out. With the calories next to the food. We as readers were I Lia's mind and it was spooky. It was so beautifully done that it made me cringe. I have done a lot of research on anorexia because I have always been so fascinated with it, and everything she describes is to a tee--most of the things I only learned when I was in college. How hair starts to grow all over the body to help heat the body. The drawing how you see yourself on a poster board but then the doctors tracing around you to show you how you really look. These are all things that are done and are so true and high school students need to know. They need to know that these are the signs and that it is a disease. I have a friend that has some of these symptoms but she doesn't realize that she has these tendencies. She has no idea and that scares me. This book showed me that I was right and that scared me even more.
This book isn't very culturally responsive in how its about two upper class white privileged girls--a bit stereotypical. But I love this book so much I don't really care. Is it weird I love this book so much? I just love how much detail and style is put in this book. It's so different than other books I read and I just think Anderson is brilliant.
I honestly think every girl wants to be skinnier then they are. Every single one. Just every girls differs in how they go about it. I know for me I work out and try to eat more veggies. For teens I am worried this could give them ideas because when I try to lose weight some of these things I would think of after I had read it in high school. I wasn't anywhere near Lia's problem--I love food far too much and have too good of a life that I feel out of control. I would just think of them. If I was anorexic this is what I would do. Nah I'm hungry I need a burger now. I didn't have the mental disorder that had me act on them. But the fact that as a teen I thought back on this book, that is worrisome even if I didn't act on it. I think this is because this book wasn't taught, as well as once I hit high school I can't remember talking about anorexia or bulimia. We talked about it in middle school and watched videos, but now as much in high school. So I do think it could be worrisome for teens if they are reading it just to know how to do certain things. I could see girls, who do not know much about the disorder, wanting to be skinnier and reading this book to get answers. I think teens read this book because they are fascinated by the topic. They are fascinated by how it works and how the mind rationalizes things. These girls are mostly just trying to find control in their lives and this is the only thing they can control and it just snowballs from there. I'm fascinated by it.
I would rate this book an A+.